We arrived at the Gilbert River which is a huge spanse of water but unfortunately was bone dry and it was here that we met Susan and Maurice from Victoria who would spend the next 3 nights with us and we had a lovely evening with them by their fire and enjoyed a few glasses of wine.

The near by fruit property was drawing artesian water from the river and had a huge pump pulling water from the ground, the birdlife and outstanding purple flower made the stay pleasant.

The next morning we headed towards Georgetown and on the way saw the historic gold crushing plant Cumberland Site with its huge chimney standing out in the distance, this is a great overnight stop and on another trip would be a definate spot.

We continued on into Georgetown (another gold town) but famous for its semi precious stone for a quick stop to refuel, get some supplies and continue on to Mt Surprise.

When we get to Mt Surprise you need to put the car and whatever you are towing over the carwashing pit, we head over and the car and caravan get a much needed underbelly clean. We later find out that Maurice and Susan blew a tyre on the van going over the same pit OOPS, lucky for them a spare was available and repaired in town. As we are wanting to get settled for the night we head into Undura.

As we pull in Susan and Maurice have also just arrived, they should have beaten us but this is when we find out about the tyre blowout and their delay. So we both arrive together and set up for the night arranging to have drinks around the fire after dinner.

The next morning we head off on the tour of the Tubes and after taking a bus ride to the area it is an amazing geological site. The Volcanic flowing lava has created several archways and caves in the area with them only being open to the public since 1990, the lava caves are deemed to be over 190,000 years old.

Later that day Maurice offered to take us up to Kalani Volcanic Crater and so we did the walk around the top of the crater and 360 view was spectacular.

That night Mal and I enjoyed the old character of the restuarant and bar area which are old train carriages which were going to be destroyed but the owner bought and restored them making them the feature of the entertainment area, some of the carriage were used as accomodation also.

We finished the night off with a drink around the fire with Susan and Maurice before we bid them farewell as we would be heading into Innesfail and they were going to the tablelands.

from the great outdoors

Alida and Mal