After leaving Cumberland Dam free camp we travelled into Georgetown for fuel and breakfast. Then it was off to Undara Experience and the Lava Tubes in the Undara National Park.

We’ve hard a very enjoyable time here, the Collins family that run the Undara Experience have certainly covered everyone’s wants. The dining and bar in a huge amphitheater surrounded by refurbished old rail carriages is great, plus the food was magic too. There is a campfire each night with a film on a particularly topic on show, plus many other activities.

Of course the highlight is the Lava Tube tour which we did today. Basically a Lava Tube is formed by flowing magma from erupting Volcanos many millions of of years ago. The Undara Lava Tube at 160 k’s long is the longest lave flow from any single volcano in the world. There are 3 tubes or caves from the Undara Tube that we visited on our tour today, with the Stephenson Cave also being the largest in the world.

Everywhere we travel we find different things that are unique and not as well known (well to us that is) as Uluru for instance and Undara is one of those places.

Tomorrow we head off up north towards Cooktown. Still a way to go, so we’ll be free camping along the ridges of the Great Dividing Range for the next 2 nights before arriving in Cooktown on Friday. So the cool nights we have experienced these last few days will be over. From Cooktown we’ll be following the coast almost all the way down the eastern seaboard, so beaches and water views here we come.

Today we left Karumba and headed east towards the coast. Travelling back down to Normanton and then along the Normanton-Croydon Development Road onto Croydon for a bit of lunch before continuing on, stopping about 20 k’s short of Georgetown for an overnight free camp.

Croydon was an interesting old town and it was a treat to stop at the historic pub. The old butcher shop was also interesting, hard to believe it operated right up to 1983. Susan’s father was a jackaroo in the Croydon area after WW2 as a young man and I’m sure he would have spent sometime in the pub during his time up here.

Our free camp was at Cumberland Dam and Chimney camping area. It’s a very old gold mining area dating back to the late 1880’s. The chimney is basically all the still stands from the mining days although the dam that was set up for the mine is also still going and a haven for local wildlife, particularly the birds. We had a few other locals visit us to (see the photo below). We endured one of the coldest nights we’ve had on this trip so far. When you are inland the days get quite warm and conversely the nights get very cold as well. Missed having a heater for sure.

Well our time in Karumba has come to an end, we leave tomorrow morning, heading east. Whilst the fishing for Susan and Andrew was not as expected, we’ve really enjoyed our time here. Maybe its the remoteness from the rest of the country which is part of its appeal, anyway it’s a very special place, that’s for sure.

From Prawns to Pelicans, “Golf in the Gulf” to Barramundi and of course the Sunset Tavern, we’ve managed to fit a lot in our 5 days here. Maybe we’ll get back here sometime but if we don’t, we’ll have fond memories of our time in the “Outback by the Sea”.

Today Andrew and I played the Karumba Golf Course and there are many comments I could use to describe the course, like: unique, an experience, character building, challenge and so on. But I really think the acronym for this report (CRAPP) is by far the best way to describe this course. The first course I’ve ever played were you needed free relief from your free relief!

Here are the ratings:

Design – 2 out of 20 (very hard to work out the course structure)

Condition – 2 out of 20 (1 pt for being a course & 1 pt for the flags)

Cost- 10 out of 20 ($8 for 9 holes was good but !!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Visual Appeal – 2 out of 20 (flat with very little grass)

Facilities – 2 out of 10 (1 pt for the clubhouse and for the toilets)

Ambience/Appeal – 1 out of 10 (received a point for being a course)

So a total of 19. Might be very uncharitable but it is what it is. Obviously sometime in the past it had patronage but in its current condition I suggest there are very few that play or volunteer at the club. What we played today was not golf but hit and giggle. More worried about damaging our clubs on the surface than hitting a good shot. Sand scrape greens are not a favourite of mine and these left a lot to be desired. What I can say is it filled in 3 hours of our day (including 30 minutes sitting outside the clubhouse having a drink by ourselves with BYO drinks was probably the highlight).

After a quick departure this morning from Burke & Wills Roadhouse, we travelled up to Normanton for a quick look before heading off to Karumba. The 200 k’s was rather bumpy, in fact the roughest stretch we have encountered so far on the Be Brave tour.

In Normanton, we managed to have a drink in the famous Purple Pub, visit the Information centre located in one of Normanton’s historic buildings and take a few shots of Krys (see photo below).

From Normanton it was off to Karumba where we set up the vans at the Caravan park, then had dinner and a drink (or two) at the Sunset Tavern watching the sunset over Karumba Point.

We are in Karumba for the next 4 days, Susan and Andrew hope to do some fishing. Both are keen to catch a Barramundi or two (really any fish will do). Hopefully another game of golf is on the cards, so more of Ray’s CRAPP is heading your way!

We left Mt Isa today, starting our travels with Andrew & Sue Christie. We have done many trips with Andrew & Sue over the years and despite numerous times thinking this adventure would not eventuate, it has and we have the next few months travelling together thru Queensland and New South Wales.

Sunday we went out to Lake Moondarra, about 17 k’s north of Mt Isa. I can remember Lake Moondarra from my school trip back in 1974, it was the first place I had swam at that was not a swimming pool. A lot has changed since then and its a good picnic area for the populace of Mt Isa and the peacocks too.

Today we travelled to Burke & Wills Roadhouse, via Cloncurry. It’s a stop about half between Cloncurry and Normanton, which is about 200 k’s from both towns. A little bit of a glitch with the Cruiser having a blocked fuel filter. It seems I’d picked up a bad load of fuel at Mt Isa, fortunately I had a spare filter but I hadn’t changed one over before, leaving it to the experts. Toyota service talked me thru the process and fortunately I managed to change it without any problems and we got back on the road again and headed off to our overnight stop.

Well punters I know you have been waiting on the edge of your seats to see more of Ray’s CRAPP (Course Rating & Personal Preference)!

Today Andrew and I ventured out to play in the Saturday competition at the Mt Isa Golf Club. Whilst there was green grass, there wasn’t much of it, other than the greens and immediate surrounds. It’s an outback course but at least it had grass greens over sand scrapes. With an annual rainfall of “bugger all” its a bit had to expect a lush green course but CRAPP criteria is set, so I have to rate it as I see and play it.

Design 10 out 20 (Very flat, no Bunkers with many 5 par holes)

Condition 8 out of 20 (Unfortunately there was minimal grass)

Cost 20 out of 20 (Great value at $15 for the comp, best yet)

Visual Appeal 10 out of 20 (Not appealing when you drive in)

Facilities 6 out of 10 (Clubhouse was reasonable, just a pass)

Ambience / Appeal 5 out of 10 (hard to rate higher)

So after all that Mt Isa scores 58, not a high score but very much helped by the cost factor. Very hard to have a top notch course in a climate and location such as Mt Isa but the sun the breaks.

Now we’re in QLD, there will be more opportunities to play golf. So I’m sure you will be pleased to see more of my CRAPP in the coming months.

Quick trip from Camooweal to Mt Isa, where we caught up with Sue and Andrew Christie. This has been in the planning for nearly 12 months and many times we both thought it would not happen. Despite some close calls we were both able to get across the borders into QLD to meet here. Looks like we’ll be in QLD for a couple of months at least, as we head north to Karumba, then east to Cooktown, before following the coast south the NSW border. What happens after that will be based on the COVID situation at the time. Unfortunately the Melbourne crew won’t be joking us in Cairns, so it will be the Christie/Walton trip from now on.

Mt Isa is a mining town, there is not much here from a tourists perspective. This weekend was the big Mt Isa Mines Rodeo but now its a virtual Rodeo (whatever that is) because of COVID. So one of the big events in Mt Isa calendar is basically cancelled and we have missed out again, very disappointing as I was keen to see my first Rodeo.

We had a quick drive around town, visited the tourism centre and the lookout in town and that’s about it. Probably go out to Lake Moondarra on Sunday for a picnic and that’s about it for Mt Isa. It was a rest period before we head off to Karumba, as we’ve had a number of single stops in the last week. Burke & Wills roadhouse is next stop before we get into Karumba on Tuesday.

Well we’re now into our 5th State on “Be Brave On Tour”, after crossing into Queensland today. Getting thru the border was more simple than we thought it would be. We had all our documents showing where we’ve been the last 6 months but we only had to show our licenses and we already had the travel permits, so welcome to Queensland!

Camooweal is about 10 k’s inside the border and we are free camping at Camooweal Billabong just out of town. We’d been here about an hour when the local Police Sergeant turned up and checked on us. He was very friendly and polite and welcomed us to QLD. He did state it might be an idea to put a sign on our van and vehicle explaining we’ve been travelling and out of Victoria for 6 months. It seems the only people more disliked in QLD than Victorian’s at the moment is the 3 local girls that came back from Melbourne recently with COVID and didn’t self isolate.

So a whole new adventure begins in Queensland. Really looking forward to meeting up with Sue and Andrew tomorrow to continue our travels together.

From Banka Banka we travelled down to Tenant Creek, mainly to say we’ve been there. To be honest, that’s about all the positives I can give, all be it ours was a very brief visit and I may be a bit uncharitable. Most of the buildings in the main street were either closed, bordered up with security or burnt down like the new IGA. Unfortunately that will be the last memory we have of a town in the NT, as we move into Queensland tomorrow. We’ve enjoyed our time in the NT, particularly re-visiting Darwin and hopefully we’ll get to come back again some day.

From Tenant creek we covered about 200 k’s to Barkly Homestead on the Barkly Highway. Barkly Homestead is about halfway between Tenant Creek and the Queensland border and is one of the most remote Homesteads in Australia. Their power is derived from Solar and diesel generators that burn up to 700 lites a day and they filtrate their own bore water for drinking so its a pretty self sufficient place.

Whilst we were basking in 30 degree sunshine, the Regnan mob back in our old place in Kallista had snow and 3 degrees. It’s winter time all over Australia but there is snow and rain in the south, heat and fires in the north, these are the extremes in our great land.

Further to my post back in April when I was developing a COVID vaccine. Unfortunately I haven’t developed a vaccine but I have come up with a medicinal application that wards off COVID. A minimum of one shot of Vitamin B per day will assist in the prevention of contracting the virus. I have followed the practice religiously on this trip and I’m COVID free! So everyone out there, drink Vitamin B (otherwise known as “Bundy”) and you’ll be right! I have developed a saying: Don’t do the “3”, drink Vitamin B. One shot a day keeps “COVID” at bay!

Until next time, from Queensland, you be careful out there!