Mareeba and Chillagoe

After our stay at Cape Melville an overnight stop at Kalpower Crossing and another overnight stop at Mt Carbine Caravan Park, we were in urgent need of replenishing the food stores and to wash clothes. Mt in these cases as well as Mt Isa stand for Mining Town, not mountain as we normally think. Something we didn't know before staying this time with Neil and Deb!

Tawny Frogmouth at Mt Carbine. There was a family of three all sleeping together in the same tree.

After arriving within a communication area of Mareeba, we phoned Deb and Neil Lundstrum, who own a mango farm between Mt Malloy and Mt Carbine. We wanted to know if they would be home and could we stay on their farm.
So after re-stocking and clothes washing, we proceeded back up the road to their farm.

Neil and Deb are delightful. They live a very natural life, mostly outside and can turn their hand to anything.
Their daughter now lives on the property in this house.

This her bedroom.

Neil and Deb are now listed with Youcamp. They charge $2.50 per person, per night. They supply firewood and water. This is the camp kitchen and the loo with a view, or the blue loo!

That night Deb cooked a delicious Chinese meal for us all, Ginger Beef and Soy as well as Lemongrass Chicken with Cashews.

Next morning after preparing a picnic we set off in the car, fueled by old deepfryer oil from MacDonalds and fush and chip shops, to the dry side of the Mount Lewis National Park.

Here we found a lovely shady spot and brewed the billies for tea. We walked up and down the river as far as we could and returned for our picnic.

Deb and Neil wanted us to see Mary Falls. For this she had to seak special permission from the managers of the Brooklyn Australian Wildlfe Conservancy.

Along we bounced on a single strip track to find two beautiful falls in the middle af a very dry and parched area!

I cooked dinner that night on their outside fire pit. We had Dutch Roast Beef with baked potatoes and vegetables.

Peter and I reluctantly said farewell to Deb abd Neil the following morning. We knew that they had postponed their pruning of their mango trees in order to spend time with them and we didn't want to outstay our welcome.

So we drive to Chillagoe as we wanted to take the Alternative Savannah Highway to Normanton.

We stayed at the Chillagoe Ecolodge Caravan Park. An interesting place with a private observatory within the camp grounds. Great set up here with great ammenities and camp kitchen - almost deserted.

We went to the local hotel as well as roadhouse to try to fnd out somethng about the local road conditions to Normanton. Noone was able, or maybe reluctant to tell us anything! They simply told us that they didn't know!