If you get time before
or after
your Cape York trip, while you are in the area, it is worth
turning in to the road west of Mareeba.
After Mareeba
you
continue to
Mutchilba and Dimbulah
on what is called the Mareeba
- Dimbulah Road.
Between Mareeba and Chillagoe
it is also called the "Wheelbarrow
Way", the stretch along which the Great Wheelbarrow Race
is
held.
Cairns
to Kuranda If you
start in
Cairns,
you will first cross the Great Dividing Range (right here it is called
Kuranda Range), pass a lookout point, the Rainforestation nature park,
the beautiful rainforest village Kuranda,
and
continue to Mareeba, past Speewah
and Koah,
on Kennedy Highway.
Mareeba
Mareeba is a sizeable country town up on the northern end of Atherton
Tablelands, meaning cooler climate, fertile soils and consequently
farming country.
It used to have nothing much for travellers, but does
now have a great museum and a few other things to see and do.
The next
place west is Petford
- if you turn south here, there is a side trip to Emuford,
Irvinebank and Watsonville (all the way to Herberton
if you
like).
Lappa
Junction and Around
Back
on the Burke Developmental Road, the next place is Lappa Junction - and
again turning south takes you to side trips - here they are even more
exciting four wheel drive tracks to Brownville, Munderra and through to
Mt Garnet.
Almaden
and Around The next
township west is Almaden
- a small community with another historical railway station, and the
pub - Railway Hotel.
Again,
turning south takes you to Ootann,
Lyndbrook and Mount Surprise, much the same way as the Savannahlander
train.
Chillagoe West of
Almaden is Chillagoe - a small friendly town with some interesting
geology
and
history.
Around the
town are some
great limestone
caves, the old smelters, the courthouse museum,
lookout point, the old railway station and the old Mungana township
further west.
Mount
Garnet and Mount Surprise
South
of the Burke Developmental Road is Kennedy Highway, and the Gulf
Savannah Developmental Road, and there are different tracks through to
Mount Garnet and Mount Surprise - both small one pub towns, and you can
also get here by
the
historical Savannahlander
Train.
Undara
Lava Tubes
But the best thing near Mount Surprise is the Undara Lava Tubes -
an amazing geological formation - tunnels of rocks formed from a
cooling lava flow.
They are
best visited during the Dry Season, as during the Wet there can be too
much water in them to explore.
Einasleigh
and Forsayth
Further west you come to Einasleigh and Forsayth. Einasleigh
is a small one-pub town with a nice black basalt gorge.
Forsayth
is
a bit bigger, it even has a post office and a small shop. Both are on a
loop side-road, which takes you to the beautiful Gobbold Gorge.
Gobbold
Gorge
Unfortunately
on private land so you cannot visit without taking a tour (by the way
the same applies to Undara).
But it is a
beautiful gorge where you can take
a boat tour to watch the
sandstone rock
formations, turtles and freshwater crocodiles.
Cairns
Kuranda
Road
Cairns
Kuranda road is a beautiful road through rainforests.
The most
usual way Cairns visitors do Kuranda is one way with the scenic Kuranda
Train,
and the
other way the Skyrail.
In Cairns end of the Skyrail trip is the famous Tjapukai
Aboriginal Cultural Park.
In Kuranda there are the famous markets
and wildlife parks, and the trip makes a
great day
trip
from Cairns. But you
can also drive, which
is a great way to experience the
rainforest.
It starts
at
Smithfield
Shopping Centre north of Cairns.
It soon starts climbing up the hill and the road starts winding as
it crosses the Great
Dividing Range.
There are a few good views of the surrouding country, Cairns and the
coast.
In
Kuranda end
there is the Rainforestation
Nature Park with a wildlife
park section, an Aboriginal Experience and the Army Duck Rainforest
Tour.
In the other end, the road descends again, but not as much as in the
Cairns end. Right before Kuranda Village is the Black
Mountain Road
to Julatten.
Speewah
Speewah
is a small community just west of Kuranda.
It's
close enough to almost be a southern suburb of Kuranda. It has markets
and some accommodation,
...
.. a tavern
with a public bar, a beer garden and accommodation ...
.. and if you drive further in and continue for a while, ...
.. there is the camping
ground.
That's where you can walk some long
distance bushwalking tracks through some
beautiful tropical rainforest.
It's the Speewah-end access to Barron Gorge National Park (the other
two are in Cairns
and Kuranda).
Koah
Koah is a
tiny community of a few hundred people.
It is
about half way between
Kuranda and Mareeba, inland from Cairns. Along the
road between Kuranda
and Mareeba is Koah
Roadhouse.
At the roadhouse, a road
turns in
towards the small community.
It is on the border between Kuranda's tropical
rainforests and Mareeba's open
woodland.
There is nothing much in the few
streets, except horse carriages, ...
... but there are a few back
tracks
...
... and an old railway
bridge.
And if you spend a little time looking around, ..
... there are some four
wheel drive
tracks around the tiny township.
Some quite extreme
:-)
Mutchilba
Mutchilba
is a tiny one-shop town.
It is
west of
Mareeba and east of Dimbulah
in Cairns Outback. It
is in the middle of some large mango
farms,
but the only thing you see from the the Mareeba-Dimbulah road is the
township's only roadhouse
and shop.
It
sells groceries, drinks and
ice, and has a cafe that sells takeaway
food.
Fuel and
EFPTOS facilities are also available.
Dimbulah
Dimbulah
is a small town west of Mareeba in Cairns Outback.
It is in
the
eastern end of the Burke
Developmental Road, and in the western end of the so-called
Dimbulah-Mareeba Road. The main
thing for travellers
is the Heritage
Park, with the old railway station and the museum inside it.
At the front of the railway station is a wheelbarrow statue,
symbolising the
area's rich gold mining history.
And
across
the road is the turnoff to Hodgkinson
River Goldfields.
There
is a grocery store, a pub, a bar and a restaurant, a post office, a
butchery, a fuel station, and a fast food cafe.
Places to
stay are the
pub and a caravan park.
Petford
Petford
is a tiny community just south of Cape York.
It is in
Cairns outback, west
of
Dimbulah and east of Almaden
on Burke
Developmental Road
that goes to Karumba and Normanton.
It is a very small community of less than 100 people.
But all you can
see from the road unless you turn in, is the cute little historical railway station. It's a
beauty
and it's been here since the days when Chillagoe
was a big mining town, and the railway was built to link it to the
coast.
South of
Petford is
the road to Emuford, Irvinebank, Watsonville and Herberton on
Atherton Tablelands. Off that road are some very good four wheel drive
tracks.
Lappa
Junction
Lappa
Junction is an interesting place to discover.
It is
between
Petford and Almaden,
east of Chillagoe on
the Burke
Developmental Road
that goes from Mareeba to Karumba and Normanton in Gulf Savannah. It is a
tiny
place today, but it used to be a big railway junction in
the days when Chillagoe
was a gold mining
town.
Today, the
old railway station
and the pub
remain,
... although
you won't get any beer
here anymore.
The pub is a
museum now,
... and is a
great place
to have a look around :-)
Behind
the
pub is an old railway
station,
and the old truck
that
flew away in cyclone Larry
in 2006, but it's back now.
South of
Lappa Junction is a track to Munderra and Mount Garnet. Off that track
are some great side tracks to four wheel drive - try the one from Ord
to Emuford :-)
Almaden
Almaden
is a tiny township just south of Cape York peninsula.
It is
just
east of Chillagoe,
in the Cairns Outback
along the Burke
Developmental Road that goes to Karumba and Normanton. You can
also get to it via a
few shortcuts from Kennedy
Highway that
runs from Smithfield north of Cairns
to Undara Lava Tubes not far from Mount Garnet.
There is
a
historical Railway
Hotel in town (the town's only pub), ...
... and
the
railway
station where Savannahlander
train stops on its way from Cairns
to
Forsayth.
It is in
the middle of some beautiful
red-soil
country...
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around, where
to stay (general info), what
will it cost..
and a short insight to what is there to see and do in Cape York.
This complete 300 pages
travel guide is all you need before and during your trip. Besides the
background chapters on the peninsula's history and wildlife; and the comprehensive detail about all
the places (down to prices, opening hours and full contact
detail), it has invaluable information on at least 10 four wheel drive tracks,
at least 30 guaranteed FREE
camping spots on the Cape (and at least 150 on your way to
the Cape), at least 40 best
swimming holes, all mapped; as well as practical things -
from fuel, roads, wireless internet and mobile phone reception,
how to deal with the national
parks booking rules; and Aboriginal land entrance and camping permits
and alcohol restrictions - to vehicle preparation and accessories and necessary recovery
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This site uses British
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Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that all the information on this
website is correct, this site is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.