Cobbold Gorge Village, Queensland, Australia
Day two was our longest drive - over five hours - from Mount Garnet to Cobbold Gorge Village via Forsayth.
After a pretty ordinary night's sleep on a pretty ordinary bed we wandered outside the donga to be greeted by a living aviary of a gazillion birds. Parrots and rosellas and cockatoos and honey eaters and apostle birds. So beautiful.
We stopped at Mount Surprise for a coffee and just out of town I saw some movement on the side of the road. I knew straight away what it was - emus! I haven't ever seen an emu outside of a wildlife park/zoo. Al got some shots as they squeezed through a fence and disappeared into the bush.
The Savannah Way aka the Gulf Development Rd aka route 1 is of variable quality. From wide lined roads, to under repair gravel, to our favourite, the single ribbon of damaged tar with wide gravel edges. Luckily traffic was light for the whole trip and we had to stop for only a couple of road trains.
We had a toilet stop at Forty Mile Scrub National Park. We could see a fire had not long ago burnt through the area and were very sad to find out when we were at Undara that it had been caused by an illegal campfire that had got out of control.
The two beautiful bottle trees have potentially boiled from the inside and the vegetation may never recover to the remnant forest it has been for thousands of years
We stopped in Georgetown for lunch. Al was thrilled to be able to order a plain sanga at the roadhouse that was served on a plate so no rubbish to be disposed of.
The drive from Georgetown to Forsayth and then to Cobbold Gorge Village was again a mix of tar and gravel. Forsayth is the end point of the Savannahlander train from Cairns. At one point we'd thought we could do this trip. We've now decided Forsayth isn't worth the ride. A hot, dusty little group of buildings that would be a tad underwhelming to arrive at after sitting on that train for a very long time.
From Forsyath it was another 45km and pretty much all gravel of decent quality. Outside temp was 40. We were very glad to be in the air conditioned magic carpet and very relieved to finally arrive at https://www.cobboldgorge.com.au/ and even happier when we opened the door of our cabin. Very nice!
The cabin had an amazing outlook across the savannah (180 panorama below).
Time for cider.
Cobbald Gorge is found on a working station, one of three adjacent properties run by the sons of only the second family to farm cattle on the land. Over the last 30 years it has gone from some rough tracks into the gorge to an amazing oasis perched on a ridge above the savannah. Lagoon, an infinity pool, a large restaurant/bar area, camping area with powered and unpowered sites, cabins and rooms.
Just about our favourite birds are black cockatoos and there were dozens still hanging around the lagoon.
We'd bought a package at Cobbold Gorge - accommodation, all meals, the gorge cruise and a helicopter flight for $774. When we first booked it was because it was easy but it was actually great value. It included two dinners, two breakfasts and a lunch. For dinner it was three courses off the full menu, including the $38 steak. Lunch anything off the menu. Breakfast from a buffet of cereal, fruit and cooked, plus coffee from a proper machine.
After soaking in the beautiful pool with canned beer in hand it was time for dinner.
This damper was hard, dry work (and huge) but the steak and whatever Al had were excellent.
2025-05-23