​Twenty kilometres of sealed but very narrow and winding road up the mountain to Paluma Village…is it worth the effort?

​The drive to and from Bowen is mostly via the Bruce Highway, and you can expect extensive roadworks both sides of town – but don’t let that put you off because the birds and other rewards are many.

Eungella (pronounced 'young galah') and Broken River are about an hour inland from MacKay...we highly recommend a visit...

We were very keen to go to Carnarvon Gorge and much of it was great - other bits, not so much...

From Roma we took the road less travelled and had an amazing drive through the aptly-named Arcadia Valley, with a lunch stop at Lake Nuga Nuga...it was well worth the diversion, and a few kilometres of dirt road!

And so to Queensland - and it's still pretty chilly, but no rain for the last few days. Our journey to Roma has included excellent botanic gardens, new lifer birds for us - including red-shouldered parrots - and just loving those wide open spaces!

It was a long but enjoyable drive from Leeton through Forbes, Parkes, Dubbo and then on to Coonabarabran...the Newell Highway is not in the best shape, to be honest, with many worn parts, only exacerbated by heavy truck use.  But all was forgiven when we got to Coonabarabran  and found the Warrumbungles...

After a few days of heavy rain, the sun came out for us during our first visit to Fivebough Wetlands near Leeton in NSW. 

Our big drive for 2022 is from Melbourne to the Iron Range in Cape York in far north Queensland - and today is pretty much our first day. We left a wet and cold Melbourne yesterday and made Cobram our first stop. This is a new town, for us, but we knew that visiting the Murray was a sure winner. We always love being around the Murray!