Undara

Sunday, 17 June 2018

Steers on the move

Breakfast on the patio

Volcanic rocks

Getting there ...

Staying in touch

Local flora

Contemplating Iron Pot Creek

View from the Lookout

Made it!

Dining Room

Our final morning in Charters Towers was spent checking out the medical facilities at the local hospital.  Himself wasn’t himself after getting out of bed and when his condition had improved after a couple of hours, it was off to the hospital for an expert opinion.  It would appear that kidney stones were the problem, all was well by lunchtime and we returned home with a referral to the imaging service in Cairns for a CT scan on our arrival.  Easy to make an appointment?  No!  The young lady refused to make an appointment because the referring doctor wasn’t on their list of doctors and she also refused to accept a referral from another hospital.  After twenty minutes of robust discussion, Himself now has an appointment to see a GP in Cairns to obtain another referral!!  The afternoon was spent with one resting comfortably in the shade and the other “doing” the shops and supermarket in preparation for our two nights at Undara.  The days finished enjoying dinner with Denise and Barry.

Saturday morning was time to say goodbye to our friends, as well as Charters Towers, and head north once again.  The road was excellent for the first 90 kms and after passing Fletcher Creek, the traffic virtually disappeared.  We only had two sections of one bitumen lane (less than 20 kms in total) during the 385 km journey and apart from a few sections of older bitumen, it was very easy driving, although once again it was a long uphill climb – 750 metres, in fact.  Not much wildlife, apart from a very ugly black pig which didn’t seem at all keen on moving from the side of the road, an eagle which I frightened as I rounded a corner and plenty of very happy looking cattle.  We had a stop for lunch on the side of the road with some very camera shy steers keeping a close eye on us and arrived at the Undara Caravan Park shortly before 2.00 pm.  This is a lovely bush caravan park attached to the resort – we have full use of the facilities – and it is very quiet and very dark.  Once again, no television.

Sunday morning was quite overcast and chilly, with a fresh southerly breeze (something to do with all the freezing weather affecting the southern states perhaps).  We decided to delay our walk until after lunch, when the temperature may have increased.  We treated ourselves to lunch at the resort dining room, which is surrounded by the signature train carriages, and both enjoyed some very nice barramundi with a macadamia nut topping, accompanied by some very comforting chips!  With the sun now shining, we set out for Atkinson’s Lookout, supposedly a one hour return walk (one hour twenty five minutes was actually pretty good!) which climbed a couple of small ridges behind the resort, crossed a waterless creek and ended up on a large rock slab looking out over the countryside to the south (or somewhere in that direction).  Himself insisted that I take the lead on the single file track – I’m sure it had nothing to do with snakes!!!  Surprisingly, despite the large amount of rocks, we didn’t see one.