Thursday 4 June 2009

The Gulf Savannah

After reading the Explore Australia book from cover to cover during our days becalmed, I was mad keen to head to the Gulf Savannah – it sounded so wild and untouched and the name has such an exotic ring to it. Was our little Hyundai Getz going to be up to the task?

We took the route from Cairns to Gordonvale, Yungaburra, Malanda, Millaa Millaa, Ravenshoe, Mount Garnet then on the Gulf Developmental Road to Undara, then back to Atherton, Mareeba, Kuranda and the Barron Gorge collecting local produce along the way. The countryside was so varied, we traveled through rainforest, wooded mountains, lush dairy farming tablelands to dry red dirt grasslands.


We took an unexpected dip into the chilly water left over from the floods last year to explore the Undara lava tubes. The geology of the area was amazing.


We took two hikes in the region, one to a bluff that overlooked the savannah and the other around the rim of the Kalkarni volcano. The views were amazing, the wildlife, the sights and smells were so Australian. After such a big day, the sight of our swag tent and stretcher beds was no deterrent to sleep. We awake in the morning to a symphony of birds, who also cheekily tried to steal our breakfast. We saw Brolga’s, Bustards, Currwaongs, crows, honeyeaters and black cockatoos. We also saw a number of different kangaroo species, Mareebas (spelling??) - small Rock Wallabys, lizards and possums.



The grand finale of our trip was the Barron Gorge. Luckily it had been raining so some water was still running. We had a fantastic adventure but we had better get back to the boat and see how the cats are.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Wow. That looks fantastic!
I had a look on Google Maps to see where you went. It looks pretty cool on the satellite view.

Anonymous said...

what a fantastic adventure. Australia has such amazing extremes of landscapes.....and seascapes.