So you have made it over the big hill, found your fortune in gold, escaped the crowds, soaked in a hot tub and worked out what a mud trial is. But you still want more. Luckily we can oblige. Here are another 8 (great) reasons to travel the Great Inland Way. Come on, we know you want to….
- Feed the family fish – nothing beats the satisfaction of providing a meal for the family that you’ve caught that afternoon and on the Great Inland Way we have a mile of fishing spots – St George is even known as the inland fishing capital of QLD. You’ll be spoilt for choice catching Murray Cod in rivers like the Balonne or a feed of Red Claw in dams like Theresa Creek. You may even find a magnificent fighting Saratoga.
- Rock on – have you got a bit of a geological bent? Well, you’re in luck on the Great Inland Way. Make sure you catch the caves at Chillagoe (west of Mareeba) and the world-famous Undara Lava Tubes. You can even find dinosaur fossils at Lightning Ridge – and they’re opalised. Oh my!
- Meet a ghost – we’re not saying the Great Inland Way is haunted but Charters Towers does seem to have a closet of golden ghosts. Meet them on the Ghosts of Gold Heritage trail and tap into your pioneering and military spirit along the way at places like Clermont and Gilgandra.
- Channel your inner cowboy – OK, let’s fix that straight away – in Australia you want to channel you inner jackaroo or jillaroo and there’s no better place to do it than along the Great Inland Way. Visit the largest cattle selling complex in the country and meet real-life cattle men and women at Roma, attend a rodeo or bull bronc or slow down as drovers and large mobs of cattle share the road with you.
- It’s gorgeous – sorry, bad pun but seriously, have you seen Carnarvon Gorge? Wow, it is stunning – hidden waterfalls, ancient rock art, pristine waters, platypus, and endangered palms. And that’s only one of our National Parks. Elsewhere you’ll find water-lily covered lakes, towering sandstone escarpments, lookouts for crazy sunsets (or sunrises if you’re the crazy one) and even a Virgin Rock.
- Art our way – out here we tend to paint anything. You’ll find galahs in Gulargambone, aboriginal artwork on the Coonamble water tower and Jimmy Little on the Walgett one. The four painted silos at Thallon are incredible and there’s even an 18m tall emu called Stanley – but we’re not going to tell you where he is – come and find out for yourself.
- Meet a meerkat – or a giraffe or an elephant or whatever exotic creature takes your fancy at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. And you thought all you would see would be kangaroos on the road (and a mysterious 18m tall emu).
- Hit the tropics – if you thought the Great Inland Way was all open plains and farming country, gorgeous gorges and outback ochres – well, you’d be mostly right, but we also have green and blue: green in the lush Atherton Tablelands and Mareeba, blue where the rainforest meets the sea at Cooktown. We really do have it all.
So, what are you waiting for? Leave the coast to the crowds and wander our way. We can’t wait to say g’day.