So after leaving Canarvon we headed back towards Mackay, our stop before the whitsundays. Paul and Jackie Stuart – of the Stuart family once more :) I hope to have a pic soon. We had a really lovely dinner with them in their *amazing* house, designed by themselves – it’s really open-plan…

Paul manages one of the sugar mills here, so he very kindly went back into work in the evening, and took Mhairi and I along to show us around. It was great, I felt like a real engineer again (however passive). They make 1400 Tonnes of sugar a day (up to 1800). We saw how the various stages work (from how they manage 1000km of railtrack, and 11,000 carriages) – which is how the raw materials (sugar cane) arrives. He showed how it is weighed (which determines how much the farmer gets paid (well, actually their %age ownership of the co-op), how the cane is stripped and pulped, juice extracted and the various washing and crystalisation methods used to get the sugar out.

I’m not going to go into too much detail just in case I get it all wrong. Oh, the furnaces were amazing.. they generate their own elec (and heat – lots of heat) from burning the bits of the cane which aren’t used. It was so impressive, really, the whole of the cane is used in some form or other.

Finally, two things…

1) the little differences between NZ (which is free of nasty things that want to kill you) and OZ, which has snakes and spiders and and and (not to mention Australians themselves… ehehehe joking joking!!)

and finally… I thought it was funny anyway…

Next day, up early and walked into the main gorge, and did every single side passage off the main one.

Mainly it is known as a centre for ancient rock-art. Partly due to the way the whites were very effective at breaking up aboriginal society, many of the meanings behind these paintings are lost..

and

I walked to the end, and left Mhairi in Wongoolba gorge – and she ran up to a lookout at the top. I left and walked back out again, and had been back about 40 mins (time to eat a well deserved sambo and have a shower) before she arrived. It was a 6km round trip to the lookout, and then a 10k run back to the van.

Savage. I’ll be dead by the end of this trip if I try to keep up.

fortunately I have better sense ;) I’m quite happy to have a sandwitch and read a book from time to time!! It works quite well really.

Now it was time to head inland, to a place which had been recommended to us by the Stuarts (I am so happy mum and dad got to know this massive and welcoming family!) called Canarvon Gorge.

It was about a 400km drive to get there, maybe 500. We stopped in Gladstone on the way and saw Charlie and the chocolate factory. A Tim Burton & Johnny Depp combination – my favourite! Really enjoyed it.

Anyway, then to Canarvon, and after 500 km or so we were hoping it was going to live up to it. Long straight roads that go on for ever (and hot to boot), but it gives one a small appreciation for the size of this country…

Anyway, got there at about 3pm, which was a little late to explore the main gorge. So we hiked up a quick 3km walk to Baloomba Bluff, which had a nice enough lookout – though would have been better at sunrise.

We took two other short walks in before finding a very nice secluded (from rager eyes) placed to park for the night – just outside the national park boundry.. probably legal anyway, but still.

For our last day on Fraser we were up at 7:30 ish, and ready to go by 9. Back to Lake Wabai for us, and had a nice walk in there, and then on up to a lookout (Which was a savage 1.2km walk EACH WAY!). It was fine, and good views out over the lake to the sea.

All too soon was time to get back in the van and drive back to the barge. Good times though. I was definitely glad we’d decided to take the trip. So thanks to (L->R) Ben, Katie, Christoph, Carine, Alero, Silvia, Yvonne (and Mhairi and me).

Back to the beach, checked mails, and drove northwards to Gympie.

The next morning it was off early towards Lake Mackenzie – a freshwater perched lake.

We passed by Cathedral Rock

And the wreck of the Maheno (a liner that ran aground on its way to be decommissioned)

We left Mhairi at the walk in to Lake Wabbi, and drove on to Lake Mackenzie without her. She’d been really irritating all day and no one wanted her in the van an… No, actually, she needed to stretch her legs, and so ran most of the 14km between the two lakes. You’ll have to check her weblog for the pics (I don’t like stealing all her good shots!)

The rest of us got to lake Mackenzie,

chilled out for a while, and then set about making lunch – at which time Mhairi arrived back to the group. Perfect timing.

4 of us decided to walk from Lake Mackenzie to our campsite for the evening at Central Station. It was amazing… I think it was my favourite part of the trip actually.

In this pic you can see L->R Ben, Alero, Carine and Mhairi. You will see they’re all holding sticks and looking menacing. This is ‘cos we were told that if a dingo is attacking you that it’s best to have a stick handy!

We passed by Basin Lake – another perched lake – but this time tannin sands, it was absolutely special though, really peaceful, and just the four of us there.

There were also some pretty funky trees that I do not know the name of I’m afraid. Sure were purty though.

That evening we cooked up the snapper (a fish) that the fisherman had given one of our sister groups – and Alex (a girl from the group) and another had gutted them. Mhairi cooked it, and we all tasted. It was – definitely fishy, and could have been de-scaled (if we knew how) but all in all good.