Maytown

So I had set myself the goal of finishing all the posts about our ‘Fealy Family Adventure 2015’ by the end of January.  I’m hoping that finishing this last post off by the end of February kinda gets me over the line? Sort of, maybe?  No, not really, I know.  Anyway, we are right in the throes of planning ‘Fealy Family Adventure 2016’ now, so definitely looking forward to some new posts later in the year!

Ok, right – where were we? After a wonderful few days at Elim Beach, we dragged ourselves away with the promise from Matt that we would find a beautiful spot on the Palmer River near Maytown to set up for the next few nights.  Just for the record – I had voted to stay a few more nights at Elim, but Matt loves freshwater far better than the beach so he was keen to head off and find a little spot of paradise all to ourselves!

Packed up and ready to go – pretty hard to drag ourselves away from this spot!

We had only been on the road a short time when we made a stop just outside Hope Vale at Isabella Falls.  They are beautiful with a nice (and safe – croc free) swimming hole and you can’t miss them as Battlecamp Road crosses right over them.

Isabella Falls

Matt & kids at Isabella Falls

We then spent the next hour and half or so, travelling along Battlecamp Road which skirts the edge of Lakefield National Park.  It is a really pretty drive, the road is gravel and dirty and dusty, with some corrugations in parts, but mostly pretty good.  There were a couple of creek crossings too, but these were dry when we travelled this way in July.  We did a drive in to Lake Emma in Lakefield National Park and can absolutely see it is croc country – not really our idea of fun – so a definite ‘no’ to camping here this time for us!

Lake Emma – Lakefield National Park

At the end of Battlecamp Road, just before Laura – is the ‘Old Laura Homestead’ which is worth a stop.  It is a grand old historical homestead depicting station life in days gone by.  There is a neat little display set up under the homestead and you are free to wander the grounds and explore the old sheds etc.  The kids really enjoyed having a run around and stretching their legs here.

Off to explore the ‘Old Laura Homestead’

Fealy Family – Old Laura Homestead July 2015

After that we had a quick stop in Laura itself for lunch in the park.  Laura is a very tiny little town, just a corner shop, motel and a pub.  There is a terrific Aboriginal Cultural centre here, as well as some very well known Aboriginal Rock art sites, just outside Laura, but we didn’t stop to check them out this time.  We plan to go back for the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival when Kipp is a little older and do a bit of exploring then.

Lunch in the park across the road from the little shop and motel in Laura.

After lunch we pushed on through Lakeland with a quick stop at the Palmer River Roadhouse to check the conditions of the road, and then on in to find a campsite at the Palmer River.  We were too chicken to tackle ‘the old coach track‘ in to Maytown – opting instead for the well maintained road in off the Peninsula Development Road.  It was a pretty drive, but a looooooooong one – the track just kept on going and going and we thought we were never going to get there!  In the end – we opted for a campsite a few kilometres short of the Palmer River as it was getting too late in the day and we didn’t want to set up in the dark.

We found a nice spot on a little lake, behind the ruins of a prospector’s old hut.  The little pump struggled a bit here to push the water up to the HotTap shower, and had we decided to stay here for longer Matt would have set the shower up closer to the water, but either way it still worked (LOVE the hot shower at the end of every day!) The kids loved wandering around, checking everything out!  It felt a little creepy to me – but Matt told me to stop being a sook!

Our set up just short of the Palmer River

Kids exploring the ruins

Even an old toilet!

The next morning we were up early due to another pretty sleepless night with Kipp (the joys of camping with a baby!) and headed off to find the actual Palmer River and Maytown – thinking that we would probably move camp to a nice spot on the Palmer.  However – the Palmer River proved to be very dry and much to Matt’s disappointment – not very inviting for camping.  We spent the morning having a little bit of fun 4wding around the Maytown ruins.  Maytown was once a very busy gold mining town and the main settlement of the Palmer River Goldfields.  It is now heritage listed as a ‘Ghost Town’.  There is heaps and heaps to explore out here and definitely some fun to be had if you are interested in doing a bit of fossicking etc.

The very dry Palmer River in July

Maytown

The little visitor’s shack at Maytown where you can read a little history and sign the visitor book – not too many signatures in there!

The pavers still exist from the main street of Maytown – you can just imagine a bustling little gold town!

Maytown was quite a busy little place in it’s day with heaps of shops, pubs, bakeries etc – there are plaques to show you where the shops all stood.

Lots of old mine sites and machinery still around

It was an interesting place – but a long way to travel – if you have plenty of time I’d recommend it but you’d want to be self sufficient for a couple of nights at least.  We ended up deciding to pack up around lunch time and head off to find somewhere a little more relaxing and easier with the kids to stay.  We did the long drive back out again and treated ourselves to a late lunch at the Palmer River Roadhouse while we had a think about where to head next.  The food was yummy and the little museum they have there was really interesting!

The usual kids position while we are packing down the camper!

Yummy lunch at the Palmer River Roadhouse

Kids tossing some money in the wishing well for good luck!

The Palmer River Roadhouse has some quite nice campsites up high over looking the Palmer River and I was thinking we should stay there for the night, but Matt was keen to push on and check out Weatherby Station which is where we were hoping to spend the next week camping and relaxing.  We arrived at Weatherby Station (just outside Mt Molloy) bang on dusk and it was a beautiful sight – a gorgeous renovated homestead set amongst green, rolling hills and cow paddocks.  We were all very excited!  However, the campsite ended up just not being suitable for us – it was set in amongst the rainforest which was lovely and private, but a little cold for us with Kipp in July and not what we were after for our relaxing week (we wanted something like Gregory River).

So a little grumpily – we opted to drive the forty minutes back home and try to come up with a plan for the last week of our holidays!  We felt a bit disappointed that we weren’t camping, but in the end we decided to go easy on ourselves and found the most awesome unit at Mission Beach, was still available for the second week of the school holidays.  A huge thank you to the lady at Mission Beach Holidays who was amazing at working with us to find something just perfect!

So the next morning, we got up early – threw the bags back in the car and headed to Mission Beach.  We had the most beautiful and relaxing week – it was just what we needed!  I’m a planner so it was a bit of a struggle for me to relax and let go of the fact that we weren’t camping like we’d originally planned, but it was certainly much easier with Kipp in the unit!  We had some sunny days and some lovely rainy days which were perfect for snuggling up with boardgames, books and movies with the kids.

Our little unit was right on the beachfront – gorgeous!

Our ‘Beaches No ‘ Unit – Ground Floor

So, that brought our Fealy Family Adventure for 2015 to and end.  Not exactly as we had planned but we still had a great time together, made some more family memories and that’s the whole point right!

Some blog posts about my ‘Bell Girls Trip’ to Bali which also happened last year, to come next!

If anybody else out there has been to Maytown – let us know what you thought about it in the comments – it’s a really different sort of place!

Love The Fealy Family xoxoxo