The “Great Inland Way” home

We had such an exciting couple of weeks exploring the Cape York Peninsula, that when we got back to Fairview Station and our caravan, it was good to have a “down” day, where we didn’t venture anywhere, instead cleaning up and packing away all the camping gear, ensuring everything was ship shape in the caravan and just relaxing with our friends. 

Just before sunset, satisfied that everything was in order, we wandered over to the Fairview Station outdoor dining room for a last meal together, enjoying either Beef Stroganoff or Spaghetti Bolognaise with a nice glass of red. Returning to camp, we all shared the Tim Tam Slice we’d bought at the Hann River Roadhouse with an after dinner cuppa and retired to bed.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we hitched up the van, farewelled Jo-Anne and Ian and we were on our way. First stop was the Split Rock art site, where we climbed up the rocky path to view cave and rock paintings up to 30,000 years old. The variety of ochres used and the humans and other creatures represented in the art was quite spectacular.

We continued onto Lakeland then turned left onto the Mulligan Highway, bound for Cooktown. First stop was the IGA to restock our depleted pantry, then to the seafood shop where we bought five meals worth of Coral Trout, Salmon and prawns. It’s great buying fish caught locally! 

We turned west again and drove 25km to the turnoff to Shipton and the Lions Den Hotel, our next destination. There were already quite a few tents and caravans in the campground and we were glad to get there early enough to secure a flat, shady spot. We set ourselves up and sat back to devour our Cooktown prawns on local sourdough bread. 4WDs, caravans, motor homes and camper vans continued to pour in as the afternoon progressed - it’s a very popular location, near the start of the Bloomfield Track.

Later in the afternoon, we had a drink on the deck of the iconic old pub, admiring the memorabilia adorning the walls and ceilings, astounded by the flood markers high up near the roof showing where the river rose during Cyclone Jasper in 2023 - 19 people were trapped and had to be airlifted off two at a time by helicopter! We returned to the van for Coral Trout for dinner - absolutely delicious - retired to bed early and slept soundly.

After breakfast the next morning, we set off in the car, heading south. As we drove along the winding road through the thick rainforest, we passed the small communities of Rossville, Ayton and Wujal Wujal, following the banks of the Bloomfield river before we reached the Bloomfield Track. Martin reduced the air pressure in the tires at the start of the gravel road and we continued at a slower pace as the track became more challenging, with potholes, rocky creek crossings and steep inclines dropping away into deep valleys. Occasionally, there were lovely views of the Coral Sea, but there was nowhere to stop and admire it! The worst of the steep sections are concreted to improve grip on the road - a big improvement from when Sue last traversed the track 31 years ago - but many of the challenges remain and it is not an easy drive! We passed a few cars, a truck and a tour bus going north - there were even a couple of cars towing trailers or off-road caravans, even though the signs at the beginning of the road warn that this is dangerous. We reached Cape Tribulation, and the end of the track, pulled into the carpark at the beach and enjoyed a fortifying cup of tea. 
It was too early for our planned lunch, so, after a quick look around, we turned north and hit the Bloomfield track again. The journey back seemed much quicker and we arrived back at the Lions Den in time for lunch. As we were back much earlier than we expected, we decided to pack up and start our journey west. We passed Lakeland and continued south, stopping at the Palmer River Roadhouse, where a small caravan park at the top of the hill offers great views of the surrounding mountains and a museum in the roadhouse tells the history of the once vibrant gold fields nearby. We found a nice shady spot, left the car hitched to the van and relaxed. After home made quiche for dinner inside our cosy van, we retired to bed early.

A clear sky overnight caused the temperature to fall, as we scrabbled to find an extra blanket in the early hours of the morning. We were awake early and on the road by 8am. The journey along the Mulligan highway, through scrubby forest and over many steady rises, saw us arrive at Mareeba soon after 10am, where we fueled up and bought a few last minute supplies before turning onto the Burke Developmental Road, also known as the Wheelbarrow Way, and headed west. Apart from 3km, the road is sealed all the way to Chillagoe and we arrived just after midday. We visited The Hub, where we booked tickets for a cave tour the following morning, then checked into the local caravan park, found a spot just near Jo-Anne and Ian, and set ourselves up. They arrived back from their own cave tour soon after and we all ate Jo-Anne's home-made sausage rolls for lunch. Later we drove out to The Archways for our own cave tour, admiring aboriginal rock art on the way, then returned via the local swimming hole at the weir, where we all had a splash. Dinner that night was at the iconic Post Office Hotel in the middle of town, where seafood was the meal of choice for all of us.

On Saturday morning we had our cave tour and our friends were heading off, so we said our final farewells and went our separate ways. Donna cave, named for the figurative formation of the Madonna, located just inside the cave, was a treasure trove of astounding crystallised limestone forms, including stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, coral and waves. Our guide, Bob, who has worked here for over ten years, was a wealth of information and our hour long tour, up and down ladders and ramps, across several levels of the cave, was fabulous.

After the tour finished, we walked to admire the Balancing Rock, perched precariously on another large boulder, then visited another rock art site before returning to town via the old copper smelter site. The discovery of copper brought many people to the area but the copper was expensive to mine, smelt and send to market and eventually the whole project was disbanded and only the ruins remain. Later, after a fortifying cuppa, we visited the heritage centre in the old courthouse to read about the difficulties of upholding the law in such a remote town. There were some fascinating stories there! In the afternoon, while Martin watched the footy, Sue returned to The Hub to read all the information there, from a geological timeline, the history of copper, the surrounding farms and stations, aboriginal heritage and lots more. A delicious three course meal under the caravan awning completed a very nice day.

Sunday dawned with clear skies and we had breakfast outside before packing up the caravan. Ignoring the sat nav, trying to send us down unmade roads marked “not suitable for caravans”, we chose to retrace our journey east, as far as Mareeba, before starting to head south. We wound our way across the top of the tablelands, up and down mountains and through rainforest, reaching Ravenshoe, the highest town in Queensland. There we left the lush vegetation (and most of the traffic) behind, continuing along the Kennedy Highway, stopping for lunch at Mt Garnet, then onto the Kennedy Developmental Road heading south. We decided we liked the sound of Three Rivers Hotel, in Greenvale, so we stopped for fuel at The Lynd and continued on the Gregory Developmental Road for 50km, arriving just after 3:30pm. Our 487km drive was longer than we normally do but we felt comfortable with our decision to push on that far and find somewhere so nice. The Three Rivers Hotel, made famous in the Slim Dusty song of the same name, came about when Queensland Nickel built a train line from Townsville to Greenvale to carry ore from their local mine. The mine and the rail line have gone but the pub remains. Quite a few caravans were in the designated area behind the pub, assisted to park by Jack, a quirky local character who likes things done “his way”. After settling in we went to the pub for a pre-dinner drink (the price of staying there the night) then had pizzas for dinner in the caravan.

Monday dawned clear and sunny as we hit the road again after breakfast. Towns are few and far between out along the Gregory Highway; it was 200km to Charters Towers, 370km to Clermont and a further 54km to Capella, our destination. Martin put some extra fuel in a drum to ensure we could make the distance between towns and we were very glad we did when we saw the queue at Belyando Crossing, the only roadhouse between Charters Towers and Clermont. It would’ve been a long, slow wait for very expensive fuel if we hadn’t had that insurance! Wayside stops are also few and far between but fortunately, with the caravan behind us, we always have a comfortable place to sit and have lunch, which we did at a small clearing off the road. The road became bumpier as we drove further, perhaps due to water covering it during recent flood events, perhaps due to the number of large road trains that travel that way all the time - there are several large mines in the vicinity. We stopped briefly at Clermont for fuel then reached Capella soon after 3pm. Jodi, the caravan park owner, greeted us warmly, guided us to a drive through spot and invited us to their nightly “happy hour” in the barbecue shelter. It was nice to meet other travellers and long term residents of the caravan park, but the temperature dropped quickly as the sun set, so we didn’t hang around very long!

Our drive on Tuesday was not as long and, as we had left the car hooked up to the caravan, it didn’t take us long to be ready to go. First stop, Emerald, for fuel, the we continued south through Springsure, where we stopped to admire the impressive mountains of the Carnarvon Range, and onto Rolleston. An enterprising local lady has set up a very popular coffee cart in the park of the small town, and we took advantage of her services! We continue driving, past the turnoff to Carnarvon Gorge and over the Carnarvon Range, climbing steadily following a slow road train and several other caravans. We reached our destination, Injune, before lunch - something we prefer to do as it gives us time to explore. While the pub wasn’t very inviting, the local information centre and large general store both captured our attention, as did the art gallery, with a range of interesting local arts and crafts. We wandered around the local lagoon, keen to get a little bit of movement into our legs after a couple of long driving days. Another chilly night followed and we questioned our decision to come south so quickly as we dragged out another blanket to put on the bed.

On Wednesday our journey was even shorter. We stopped at Roma for fuel then continued on the Great Inland Way for a short distance before turning onto the Condamine “Highway”, a misnomer if the road conditions are anything to go by. A narrow strip of bitumen with rough edges and an expectation that cars, even those towing caravans, would pull over every time a road train approached made the trip quite disconcerting! We pulled over for some respite, and a cuppa, somewhere along the journey and were glad to reach our destination, Condamine, just before 11am. Condamine, once an important stopover for bullock trains or the Cobb and Co coaches heading west, was also made famous by the manufacture of the Condamine bell, worn by cattle so that farmers can find them easily. A large replica bell is in one of the parks and a flood marker on the banks of the Condamine River shows how water has inundated the local town several times, the last being in 2011 when every building, even the pub, was swamped. Whilst it has one of the oldest inland post offices and schools in Queensland, in 1878, after the train line heading to the west of Queensland was built through Miles instead of Condamine, the town never grew to its potential and it is now just a small wayside stop on the Leichhardt Highway heading north. We had a delicious lunch in the pub and walked to see the sights in town, but there is not much else to do so we decided that one night here, next to a busy highway, was enough.

On Thursday morning, instead of following the satellite navigation and continuing along the road less travelled, we turned north to Miles, where we joined the Warrego Highway through Chinchilla and Dalby. The road was wider and better marked, but the bumpy ride continued, plus there was a lot more traffic! We were happy to reach Jondaryan, where we turned onto a small by road that led to the Jondaryan Homestead, an old sheep station turned into an outdoor museum and heritage centre with camping grounds on the banks of the Oakey Creek. The buildings are old and rustic but the amenities are first rate and we were happy to find a nice flat site. As this was to be our final night of this trip, we spent the rest of the day packing, cleaning and getting ourselves ready for the trip home.

Our first minus degree morning for the whole trip on our very last day of travel convinced us to get up and organised early! Sue woke and put the diesel heater on before 5am, Martin completed most of the “outside” routine before breakfast and was very glad to come inside to a toasty warm van. With a tank full of fuel we had no reason to stop on our journey along the increasingly busy highways and tollways; we reached Ashmore Caravan Storage by 11am. After unhitching and some last minute tidying, we farewelled the van and headed home. It’s been a wonderful ten weeks, covering a lot of kilometres and seeing many fantastic places, but it’s always nice to come home and enjoy our lovely slice of paradise again.

TRIP NOTES - from 3/6/26 to 14/8/26

Nights away: 72 (60 in the caravan, 12 in the tent)

Destinations: 36 places stayed, hundreds of highlights!

Kilometres travelled: 10,711 plus numerous side trips