Cockatoos and kangaroos (Mar. 27/09 - Greenvale, Australia, mileage 399km)

Sunshine and a cool breeze blew through the van when we got up this morning, and wild cockatoos squawked in the trees overhead while we had breakfast. (They're those big white parrot-like birds with a big tuft of yellow feathers on their heads.) We spent an hour walking around Lake Eacham, listening to the jungle sounds and keeping our eyes out for wildlife. We did spot a tree dragon, which is a leggy iguana-like lizard that runs on its hind legs and spends most of its time in trees. Refreshed and loosened up, we continued our drive south through the rolling green farmland around Malanda. From there, we took a scenic route to Ravenshoe, which turned out to be a narrow, winding road that passed over pretty streams, through forests, and past endless fields of dairy cattle, which still seems strange since this is the tropics and palm trees and banana palms are everywhere. The cows seemed to have the right of way, as twice we had to drive half in the ditch to get around them. Just before we hooked back up with the highway, we passed a ridge that was dotted with about 20 wind turbines - those huge futuristic-looking white windmills that generate power just by spinning in the wind. This was the first place outside the US that either of us had seen them before. It does seem a bit ironic that Australia is making an effort to generate renewable energy when they don't even recycle!


Back on the faster-moving highway, we fuelled up in Ravenshoe, Queensland's highest elevation town at the top of the Great Dividing Range, and then suddenly started to notice a change in the landscape. Green farmland was replaced with dry, sparse forests, and road signs changed from warning of cattle and sharp corners to kangaroos and road trains! Within just a few miles, we were already getting into what they call "Australia's accessible outback". Since we don't have nearly enough time to get into the far interior of the outback (and our van isn't allowed to drive on dirt roads!), we figured that this would be a good diversion from the touristy coastal route to give us a taste of the arid interior. We drove over 300km through this landscape today, and the scenery was very consistent along the way: flat, dry, and inhabited only by charred trees and grazing cows. Gravel roads took off every now and then into the boonies, and signs posted at the start of each one listed the distances to each homestead, ranch, or mining claim. Some of them were over 300km away! For the most part, the road was really good - wide and paved. But some random sections, for unknown reasons, would suddenly become a single lane of pavement with a lane of gravel on either side. Signs hinted right away at their purpose: road trains. These monster beasts are some of the world's longest trucks, comprised of a massive cab with trailer after trailer after trailer behind, some measuring upwards of 180ft long. They haul mineral concentrate from the many mines in Australia's interior to coastal points for processing or transport. They make for hazardous driving in the outback though, as they don't slow down or move out of the way for anything, so you'd better pull onto the gravel shoulder or risk getting flattened. We saw probably a dozen of them roaring towards us throughout the day, but we quickly got the hang of diving for the shoulder as soon as we saw one coming.


A sign a few hours from Ravenshoe pointed to the Undara Lava Tubes, which we thought might be worth a detour. Lava tubes are basically huge underground cave-like tunnels left behind by flowing lava, and this spot happened to be one of the most extensive networks of them ever found. You had to take a tour to see them, though, and the next one doesn't go until tomorrow morning. Despite the nice campground and inviting pool, we thought it was too early in the day to stop and too pricey to see them anyway, so we carried on. Soonafter, we were flying down the road, gazing out the window, when we both jumped up and yelled "kangaroo!!!" at the same time. Out of the corners of our eyes, we had both caught a split-second glimpse of an adorable kangaroo standing in the grass on the shoulder, looking as though he were about to cross the road. Our first kangaroo! We actually ended up seeing five more before the end of the day, but all of them were flattened to various degrees on the pavement. Evidently, they pose quite a hazard on country roads, especially since they often travel in groups. We watched the roadsides carefully for the rest of the day, but only saw the fly-covered remains of various rodents, snakes, and dogs. At a wide spot in the road called Oasis Roadhouse, we got gas at a station where a tame cockatoo perched on the fence at the entrance. Our destination for the day would be the little town of Greenvale, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The town was once a mining hub during the gold rush in the late 1800's, but now it's just a quiet little outback town. The campground was just a patch of grass with a neighbouring ranch, where guys herded cattle into stock trucks and horses cantered around the field. We had been seeing big flocks of lorikeets, which are birds that look and sound like parrots, white with a grey tail and a pink belly - and a huge flock of them was hanging out in the trees by our campsite. We cooked up some burgers and paid the farm dog and horses some attention before calling it a night, hoping to get an early start tomorrow so we can make it to Townsville (on the coast) by the end of the day.