Great Dividing Range – Travel Australia

442kms @ 16.5 litres/100kms and 782kms @ 15.5 litres/100kms

We drove from Buderim down Highway 1 (Bruce Highway) to the outskirts of Brisbane, and from the capital city proceeded south-west through the Cunningham Pass and then up the Great Dividing Range. We climbed to over 1400 metres and soon forgot the beautiful warm and sunny 29°C we enjoyed the previous day in Buderim. Although the sun was still up, it was only 8°C when we set up Dora for the night at South Beardy Creek Celtic Country Rest Area just off the New England Highway. The night got cold quickly and, as Dora’s central heating wasn’t working (due to the fact that we didn’t bring the generator that provides enough power for the heater when free-camping), we had an early night and snuggled under the quilt to keep warm.

The bitter cold woke me up early. Both Jan and Troy were covered in frost, and his windscreen wipers were stuck frozen, layers of ice covered nearby puddles, and Dora’s water pipes were frozen. I started Troy and noticed that the ambient temperature was well below freezing at -8.5°C. Ah, you gotta love the Australian high country in winter: cold during the day, bloody cold at night. We decided to set off early to clock up some ks, and also to get warm via Troy’s heater and heated seats. I also discovered that Toy had heated exterior mirrors, which was handy to remove the frost on them.

The day driving after this freezing start was a bit of a blur, with us passing through one country town after another and one highway merging with another. Our aim was to get off the freezing mountains and onto the warmer western plains. We drove through Glen Innes before crossing the border into New South Wales and drove through quaint Armidale (the highest city in Australia), Tamworth (country and Western capital of Australia and home of the golden guitar) and Dubbo (home of the interesting western plains zoo), before stopping for the night at a weir in Nyngan. We shared the driving today and covered nearly 800 kilometres, the most we’ve covered in one day for the whole trip. After the beautiful warm weather we’ve enjoyed for our journey thus far, we admitted that the freezing or near-freezing temperatures were having an impact. Our usual casual drives through the day, stopping off at towns and interesting sites to really savour the journey, gave way to staying inside warm Troy and mostly zipping across the countryside.

Travelled 229 kms @ 90 kph. Troy drank 16.9 litres/100kms.

We’ve driven many kilometres across Australia, North America, as well as over 40,000 kms across Europe, and have never experienced such a dramatic change in landscape as we did today with the drive from Undara to the Atherton Tablelands. In the space of an hour, we shifted from a straight road through the relatively flat, dry, grassy savannah countryside to a winding road through mountainous, wet, lush green farmland dispersed with tropical, dense rainforest. Amazing!

The Atherton Tablelands is the northern part of Australia’s Great Dividing Range and is a great area to visit. We passed through Atherton, a very pretty town, and set up Dora at the free camp at Rocky Creek War Memorial in Tolga, near Mareeba. The Memorial was actually the site of the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere during World War II, and the remains of the different buildings are clearly marked today. The local community has delivered a great homage to those who lost their lives in war, as well as the many who helped the war effort.

The next day we visited the local Peanut shop and met Geoff, who is passionate about anything to do with Australia or peanuts. He set up the store a few years ago and has created his own peanut recipes, including yummy chocolate peanut paste. He bemoaned the challenges facing small business today, including the difficulties in breaking into the shelves of the Coles-Woolworths duopoly. Despite this, he is slowly making inroads, and we were more than happy to help out by purchasing a range of his tasty peanut products. All were well priced and generally good for you, though not if you’re anaphylactic (… sorry, poor taste). We also went to the Mareeba markets and fell in love with ‘Bones’, a delightful wire sculptured barramundi fish that local artist Amanda created after a memorable meal in the Northern Territory. Once we heard from Amanda that the rodeo was in town, we grasped the opportunity to be part of a truly unique Aussie bush experience. Unbeknown to us, the Mareeba Rodeo is actually the second largest rodeo in Australia (not sure which town holds the first mantle?).

The Mareeba Rodeo: lots of cowboys and cowgirls, with their hats, boots, rhinestones and checked shirts. Great sights, food, entertainment and fun! Displaying strength, skill, flexibility and sheer guts, it was quite incredible to see those cowboys and cowgirls hold on to the bucking horses and bulls. How their bodies and backs were able to withstand the massive jolts of those fierce, bucking beasts defies logic!