Monday, Aug 20, 2012 at 15:00
Chris,
Lyn has succinctly echoed my thoughts, when you said you'd be leaving early Nov. I'd give anywhere west of
Longreach a miss at that time of the year.
I'm not going to tell you what to do, but would make a few alterations to your planned itinerary. Still head up the NE h'way, and at
Toowoomba, either head out on
Warrego h'way, to
Roma,
Charleville,
Longreach(and maybe you'd better come to
Winton!!!) then head up through
Hughenden to Charters Towers, The Lynd,
Ravenshoe,
Atherton, and
Mareeba. From there, came down to
Cairns,
Tully to
Townsville.
Then on way
home, come down either the Bruce h'way to Fraser Is. or come from
Townsville, back to Charters Towers, then down to
Emerald,
Springsure, Biloela, Gayndah,
Childers(loveliest town on the coast) and down to
Maryborough,
Hervey Bay and finally Fraser!!!!!!! Lot of road works on the Bruce H'way at present, and it makes for pretty ordinary travel, road rage, unsafe overtaking, etc etc.
From Toowomba, you can also travel north through Kingaroy, Murgon to Gayndah, rather than travel out to
Longreach.
Travelling to the
Atherton Tablelands(
Ravenshoe,
Mareeba etc) is a very mild climate, and you could
well spend a week or two up there. Even use it as a base, for travel to
Cairns,
Tully, Undarra Lava Tubes. Plenty to see up there too, with lakes, rainforest and other interesting stuff. Not far to
Kuranda either, where you can get on the Skyrail thingy, or do a train trip up to, or back from
Kuranda to
Cairns.
Now the weather.
Longreach long-term average is 36'C for Nov, and minimum, 20'C. Days can be hot, and depending whether there's any humidity, nights might be mild. Now
Mareeba has LTA of 31'C, and LTM of 19'c.
Ravenshoe is the highest town in Qld so it has a pleasant climate all year round. Any humidity is going to be governed by any storms, or rain events.
That should be enough to keep you going for a while, Chris. Re travelling with Amelie, our 3 girls all travelled long distances, from birth onwards, and as long as they get regular breaks, they can handle it. Did have problems with motion sickness(each girl had her own ice cream container!!!) but once I fitted new shockies, that was an almost overnight cure. Something else to think about.
Bob.
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