Cairns Road Trip Day 13: Mossman Gorge

 
 
 
 

Cairns Road Trip woo hoooo day 1 ;-)

It was an easy drive up the Newell, bringing back many pleasant memories of previous trips in younger days. I arrived at the Warrumbungles late afternoon, with the afternoon sun lighting the volcanic cores with a warm orange glow. Cheers to magic hour.


Driving into the park towards the campground, I saw a snake on the road catching the last of the sun's warmth.


There were lots of small kangaroos in the park, and they were quite tame too. I saw lots of young joeys, which were very cute as they looked back at me quite inquisitively. I set up my camp quickly, and it was a most nice place to camp. There was a good large toilet and shower block, as well as a covered BBQ area. After the tent was up in about 15 minutes I cooked myself some simple Satay Me Goreng which is very delicious and finished dinner off with a sandwich. Then it was off for an early sleep, in preparation for my walk tomorrow.

Crooked River Cup Weekend 4WD and Camping Trip

There was no rush in the morning so we took our time and cooked up a hearty breakfast of Bacon, and Eggs in toast. There was heaps of firewood left over from Henric's efforts with the chainsaw (does he ever sit down and relax?) so we decided to load it all up on the roof, not being sure of how much would be available at our next planned campsite. Mindful of how long it had taken us to travel the previous day, and wishing to get to our planned base camp on the Crooked River at a reasonable time without driving all day, I decided to abandon the plans to drive up Mt Margaret and the visit to the Chromite Mine. It was a hard decision to make, but I felt it in the best interest of all involved. Anyway, it left something for the next time we were down this way.

We were soon enough all packed up, despite pleas to just camp here for the rest of the weekend, and had crossed the Barkly River and were climbing out of the valley. The views across to the red rocky outcrops, so typical of this area were stunning but avoided any decent capturing in my photographs.

We continued down Glencairn Road into Licola, passing a very crowded campsite on the Barkly, and a herd of cattle who enjoyed the fantastic views at Primrose Gap.

A leisurely fuel, toilet stop and icecream break in Licola and we were on our way up Tamboritha Road.

We passed a Tiger Snake on Moroka Road, who quickly made his way into the scrub at the roadside as we sat in the car watching him, and we then made a short stop while Henric readjusted the load of logs we collected from the first campsite. The logs were proving to be a little troublesome.

From McFarlanes Saddle we turned off Moroka Road onto Mt Wellington Track. The road meandered down through newly regenerated forest from previous years logging and crossed a small crystal clear creek before winding up the base of Mt Wellington.

The time was passing quickly, and the reality of an early arrival at the campsite was at best most unlikely. The trip across Mt Wellington was however worth every second. Again, that pink hued rock was everywhere; both on the tracks where we drove as we climbed to Wellington's Peak, as well as in the weathered rocks at the sides of the track.

The views from the summit were endless, with azure blue sky with brilliant white clouds fading into distant hills of multiple shades of blue. We spent quite some time enjoying the summit; Henric even trying out a little rock climbing!

We decided to continue on to the Sentinels, given that we were pretty well mostly there and it was unlikely we would be making the trip across Mt Wellington for a long time to come. The journey to the end of the track near Gables End took us past Miller's Hut with a few fewer logs on the top of Henric's car, and one too many on the car bonnet. We eventually arrived at the start of the walking track to the Sentinels, where we set up for a late lunch.

Liam managed to catch himself a giant grasshopper, and the boys and Michelle stayed at the carpark to try out some watercolour painting while Cory, Henric and myself set off on the short walk to the Sentinels.

The walk was reasonably easy, with a little scrambling over rocks after we had dropped down into the saddle. The last part heading out onto the Sentinels was quite heart-thumping, with rock crevasses with sheer drops and magnificent views down to Lake Tali Karng; very much worth the walk!

With a long way still to go to the campsite, and the afternoon quickly escaping us, depsite the overnight introduction of Daylight Savings, we retraced our steps across Mt Wellington. We did afford the luxury of visiting Miller's Hut before continuing across the summit back to Moroka Road.

We raced along Moroka Road through some very beautiful treed alpine countryside, bypassing the Pinnacles which we had seen on our previous trip, due to time limitations. We were soon at the top of Billy Goat Bluff Track, one of the famous must do tracks of this region. The track appeared graded since our last visit a couple years ago, but was still a thoroughly enthralling drive with some really steep sections and endless and unforgettable views down into the Wonnangatta Valley. The track descends from the great heights of the Moroka Plateau into the Wonnangatta Valley in a relatively short distance and was just as enjoyable travelling down as it was a few years ago driving up.

After much downward travelling, we arrived at the Wonnangatta River, which we followed downstream to Kingwill Bridge. The road to Talbotville closely hugged the impossible space between the cliffside and the Wonnangatta River then rolled across the gentle hills near the old Crooked River School site, and then following the course of the Wongungurra River where we had the first of many river crossings to reach our camp.

We crossed the Wongungurra River at least four times before branchng off and following the Crooked River further up the valley. There were 2 more river crossings over the Crooked River before we arrived at Talbotville, which we dubbed Tent City.

The place was crowded so we continued up the Crooked River in search of a quiet private campsite with river access.

We were starting to get quite desperate as darkness was falling and each small campsite along the river was already taken. Henric guarded the most promising of the poor pickings as we continued further upstream ever hopefull. There was a great crossing of the Crooked River where the exit track had actually become a small rivulet, but our mission beckoned.

Finally, with only moments to spare and little river still ahead of us we found a very nice empty campsite just past Bulltown. We called Henric over the radio to abandon the site he was "holding" and we set-up camp and sat down to Spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner.

 

Track Summary & Travel Times

Track Name	Surface	Travel Time	Total Distance	Avg Speed	Min Alt	Max Alt
Rumpff Flat to Licola	2WD Gravel	1 hour 2 minutes	28.8km	28km/hr	208 metres	641 metres
Licola to Arbuckle Junction (Tamboritha Rd)	Highway/2WD Gravel	45 minutes	46.7km	62km/hr	213 metres	1485 metres
Arbuckle Junction to Wellington Tk exit(Moroka Rd)	2WD Gravel	22 minutes	17.4km	48km/hr	1281 metres	1499 metres
Wellington Tk (to summit)	4WD	35 minutes	7.6km	13km/hr	1195 metres	1652 metres
Mt Wellington summit to The Sentinels (Wellington Tk)	4WD	45 minutes	9km	12km/hr	1385 metres	1652 metres
Wellington Tk exit to Billy Goat Bluff exit (Moroka Rd)	2WD Gravel	25 minutes	22.7km	55km/hr	1054 metres	1275 metres
Billy Goat Bluff Tk	4WD, some steep descents	35 minutes	8.3km	14km/hr	1416 metres	328 metres
Kingswell Bridge to Talbotville (Crooked River Tk)	4WD, numerous river crossings	41 minutes	14.9km	22km/hr	249 metres	311 metres
Talbotville to Bulltown (Crooked River Tk)	4WD, numerous river crossings	36minutes	7.4km	12km/hr	295 metres	384 metres

The Mekong Delta

We had a great breakfast at our hotel. The Liberty 4. It was a fantastic spread. It was then a short walk from the hotel to the departure point for our Mekong Delta Day trip. There was quite a long wait for the bus, and some last minute traveler's were accommodated, which meant an even longer wait whilst a larger bus was arranged. We were eventually all 15 of us off and travelling through the hectic Saigon streets, teeming with motorbikes. We drove through the Chinese Quarter of Saigon (Colon) and out into the suburbs. About an hour and a half later we arrived at My Tho.

We boarded a boat and chugged down the Mekong to an island where we then all boarded separate smaller boats and traveled African Queen Style down narrow canals lined with water coconuts.

We disembarked at a fruit plantation and got to see the making of coconut candy, of course buying a couple of packets. We sat down and had honey and lime tea and Vietnamese shooters, which were rice wine and honey. Both were superb.

They had a bee hive, where the honey was sourced from, and every body got to stick their fingers into a comb full of bees to taste the fresh honey. Nobody got stung, though a few were quite apprehensive. Then the tour guide got a large python from its cage and let us all hold it.

We then boarded small row boats and went down a narrow channel, with mud skippers and crabs basking on the muddy banks. Returning back through the fruit plantation, we tasted rose apples straight from the trees.

Back onto a larger boat we made our way to an island for lunch. The restaurant was surrounded by the most lovely gardens, with topiaries, ponds and flowers. To the side near the entrance there were various animals in cages: gibbons, huge pythons and even rabbits! We had a lovely lunch as usual and Cuong ordered us extra chicken as well which was very nice and fresh (no worries about chicken flu).

Near the restaurant there were some examples of irrigation used to fill the rice paddies, including a bucket on ropes which we had seen farmers using along the roadside, as well as a people powered paddle wheel, which required more balance then I could muster to keep it going

On the walk back to the boat we saw many products being made. Wooden knickknacks from coconut trees, rattan mats, rice paper, different rice wines and we also tasted the water coconuts fruit, which was very small and tasted like normal coconut but a little salty.

We continued in the smaller boats back to our larger boat that then took us back up the Mekong to the mainland dock. We had a short wait while the bus was retrieved, and watched the old men playing various board games on the waterside.

The bus took us on a short trip to a Buddhist Temple. Cuong was telling us about the temple and as we walked around a Buddhist monk came up to Cuong and spoke to him in Vietnamese. Cuong told us the monk could tell about people by looking into their eyes.

The monk said that I had just had a change of jobs which meant I was working much harder for the business, but not for myself. I had just in the two weeks before leaving for this holiday started working in a new department at work! He then looked at Michelle and said that she could feel peoples' sorrow and had much compassion. He looked at Liam and said he was a very intelligent child.

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We all climbed back onto the bus for Saigon. It rained on the way home, and there were at least 4 accidents on the way back; one of which looked fatal between a bus and a bike. These roads are murderous. Back in Saigon, we finally found a nice restaurant which served Italian as well as local foods. Liam's pizza was amazing.

Hue and the Purple Citadel

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Today Cuong picked us up at 9 after we finished a buffet breakfast at the hotel. We visited the Imperial Citadel, a city built for the emperors of Vietnam. As we looked at the sacred canons, a young girl and boy approached us to participate in a survey, which was looking at understanding tourists and what could be done to improve tourism to Hue. We were happy to participate, and we took turns photographing each other.

We climbed the steps above the entrance gate to the Watchtower, which gave us views across the lotus flower filled moats to the Flag Tower. The Vietnamese Flag has flown here since 1975, but many people died in the previous years to have their flag flown from this vantage point. As we walked through the halls above the gates, past the typical bell and drum of the pagodas, some old Vietnamese woman were entranced by Liam, and insisted on having their photo taken with him. The dresses they wore were splendid and very regal looking.

From the top of the Ngo Mon Gate, sitting on top of the huge thick stone walls of the Citadel we could see the Palace inside. A lot of the Citadel was destroyed by the various wars, with a lot of damage still visible from the Tet Offensive where 15,000 soldiers were killed. Much of the Citadel has also been renovated - and it is quite beautiful. There was lots of mosaic work done with broken pottery adourning the gates.

The Right House had a lovely bonsai garden and ponds filled with fish out front. A man played melodiously on a flute as we entered. The house was filled with models of ships and royal robes and various other displays of the past.

Liam fed the fish in the various ponds throughout the citadel; the fish were huge. We continued walking through the citadel, passing into the Forbidden Purple City. Unfortunately most of the buildings here were destroyed by fire in 1947.

We passed a huge snake as it slid across the road in front of us as we walked from one old building and palace to another. The Queen's residence was sadly very run down, but restoration work on the various palaces and pagodas was continuing. A number of the walls held clear reminders of the violent past, with holes in walls where mortars had passed straight through, as well as walls pock-marked with bullet holes.

The restored portions of the citadel were magnificent, with bright blue mosaics of birds bordering gates, and lushly planted gardens.

We spent a good 3 hours walking around and exploring the citadel, finally arriving at the Nine Dynastic Urns, which are intricately decorated with flowers and birds, as well as stray bullet marks.

We walked from the citadel into town and had a fantastic lunch at Lac Thien. The owner was a deaf mute who has 7 children - the first 6 were girls and the last one a boy. He was very happy to get that boy! The food was magnificent and on the walls was the "Get Away" crew's message. Liam wrote on the wall as well, and was given a special bottle opener.

After lunch, we picked up a few antique Vietnamese and Chinese coins from Mr Coin, and headed into town, walking past many shops looking for a pair of sunglasses for Liam and a belt for myself. Liam was offered a baby to hold! We were worried he was going to drop him, as he was a pretty solid looking baby! We then walked through the market and we bought some custard apples and some mangoes. Liam was dragged off by some women at the market, who fed him some sort of sweet sugary powder, probably sugar cane. We had some free time in the afternoon, so Liam and Michelle went swimming in the hotel pool.

We went to Omar Khayyams for dinner, a really nice Indian Restaurant, but Liam was starting to feel quite sick, either from the mysterious treat given to him at the market, or from some of the pool water that he swallowed, or maybe the same bug that had affected Michelle the day before. We quickly finished our dinner, which really was very nice and rescued Liam from the toilet, walking back to the hotel were Liam spent most of the night throwing up, poor soul.