Entry 11 – 2023 – June – Georgetown to Einasliegh loop drive, Central North Queensland.
From our position at Cobbold Gorge we had noticed there was a large turnover of campers each day. Many staying for one night. When it was our turn to leave, we aimed for a departure time of around 9.30 am. This was an attempt to avoid all the early departures whom seemed to be in a bit of a rush and then there were the last-minute mass exodus at the latest permissible departure dead line.
The initial drive out of Cobbold Gorge was about 45-kilometres of dirt road. This consisted of some sections with a reasonable surface condition, some badly corrugated, some pot holed sections, at times cows taking ownership of the road, many deep gullied water courses requiring you to come to an almost stop to negotiate a suitable safe passage and a need to be vigilant for approaching vehicles. There were several heavy-vehicle call point signs where a heavy vehicle is required to announce its presence on that section of road over the two-way radio.
We thought we would travel along this section of road a bit faster than we normally would in an attempt to lessen embarrassment to us and others. As it transpired there were a couple of caravans travelling the same direction as us whom were announcing their position along the road at each call point. We kept our speed steady, maintaining a distance behind these caravans at about 3-minutes to their rear. This allowed for the vehicle generated dust clouds to settle, hence looking after our vehicles required clean air intake and providing us with good visibility. We were comfortable with the speed, providing enough time to quickly reduce our speed when we came across those vehicle destroying hazards and there were many.
We had decided to travel along the full length of the loop road we had initially accessed Cobbold Gorge from. We hadn’t previously travelled this road with a couple of out the way towns along the way.
Our first stop at the township of Forsayth, where we had seen promotional material for a night walk around town with a bloke providing a talk along the way with scary stories. Well, there were a few run-down residents, a small caravan park with caravans packed in like a tin of sardines and that was it. The only place we were able to park with our caravan was on the outskirts of town. Perhaps we could have walked back through town for a closer look. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have any appeal to us or we may not have been in the right frame of mind?
We continued on at a slow pace enjoying the scenery. It’s always good to spot a rare eagle in the wild. An eagle sighting putting us in good spirits.
We had travelled around 70-kilometres for the day when we spotted a sign indicating a camp ground. We followed a dirt track for a bit over half a kilometre and it was getting a bit tight with the bush closing in on us. We found an open area surrounded by a beautiful bush setting and decided to park up.
It was time for a cuppa where we could ponder over our next move. Unfortunately, the cuppa didn’t eventuate. We were unable to light our gas hot plate for heating our water. After spending a reasonable amount of time looking with more looking, Steve assessed it was most likely the gas valve nearby the gas bottle. After removing the gas line on the cook top side, he found no gas was making it past the valve.
It was decided, “all was good.” We were thinking we would go gas-less with our new caravan (coming next year) and it was just happening a bit earlier than planned.
The caravan was disconnected from the tow tug and we drove onwards to the camp ground. It was called Wundeu camping area with only two spaces allocated for camping. As it transpired it was a further 6-kilometre drive down the track, posing a reasonable level of difficulty with a caravan in tow.
There was a short walk to a nice lookout. It seemed we may have been on the other side of the big valley we had admired from Casey’s Lookout 4 nights prior.
We stayed put with the caravan for the rest of the day enjoying a beautiful setting all to ourselves.
As per normal we slept with our curtains in the open position, waking to a different setting. We were shrouded by fog.
The things your eyes focus on first thing in the morning can be interesting. This morning we noticed we were starting to collect some of that Northern Australia red dust. Even the tow tugs wheels were filling with red dust. It gets every-where and into every-thing.
About 30 kilometres down the road was the township of Einasliegh. This was another location we had seen lots of publicity promoting a gorge, a selection of two caravan parks and a pub. One of the caravan parks looked like an extension of someone’s back yard, looking well past its expiry date. The second caravan park not looking a whole lot better. There might have been another half a dozen houses and that was the town? For us and probably many others the caravan parks provided an appeal of zero. One caravan park with a single occupant and the other with two.
Copperfield Gorge did provide a rugged looking setting. The gorge was located on the Jardine River, within walking distance of the town. There was a reasonable amount of scrambling across the river’s boulder-ed surface to view the water course area of Copperfield Gorge.
When we walked up out of the gorge there were a lot of people about, walking down towards the gorge. Back in our vehicle we drove down the road a bit, spotting the towns pub. It was very busy, crowded with even more people.
We kept driving, thinking this is way too crowded for our liking. Then we spotted the reason for all the people about - on the other side of the pub.
We had seen some literature promoting the Savannah-Lander train ride. It is an outback train experience, unique to this region of Queensland. We stopped nearby the train, managing a closer inspection than if we had been in a busy city location. We do love the bush environment and bush hospitality.
We had seen the train and vehicle bridge across the Jardine River in the distance. Another photographic opportunity. Steve was delegated to do the scrambling across the rocky river bed and Mary the exhausting driving duties. Steve was thankful the water flow was diminished at this dry time of the year. It would be a grand sight during the wet season.
We saw people were returning to the train. It was late lunch time and we parked up near the pub. There were another half a dozen caravans parked opposite. We were feeling very chuffed with our timing of arrival and much appreciated the spectacle of the Savannah-Lander train out and about. We sat under the pub’s veranda enjoying a beer, watching the train head across the Jardine River bridge at a slow pace, allowing its occupants time to enjoy the setting before it accelerated away.
About 20-kilometres down the road was our camp for the night. Jardine Station provided a nice setting with a bush camp ground alongside of a lagoon. There was a hot shower available which we appreciated. We were missing the availability of hot water with our caravan gas valve kaput.
There were the cows around us, some birds on the lagoon and then there were the crocodiles. They were very cute. In the morning there was plenty of bird activity around us.
Five days prior we had exited off the Savannah Way Road at the township of Georgetown. We had travelled along a loop road through the townships of Forsayth and Einasliegh before re-joining the Savannah Way. We enjoyed the flora, fauna and scenery of the loop road. This had included travel along a bit over a 100-kilometres of dirt roads. The dirt roads providing some different scenery and hazards. We suspect during the wet season most of these roads would be a different proposition, with numerous sections impassable due to flood waters.
With the deviation off this loop road to the spectacular Cobbold Gorge providing the big wow factor, we came away feeling positive for the experience. Would we go out of our way to explore this loop drive again, probably not. Another one of those locations we have √ visiting in Australia.
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