Innot Hot Springs

Wed 30^th  - 31^st July 

A few years ago we called into Innot Hot Springs and were quite unimpressed by the whole set up. We walked through to look at the hot artesian pool and there were lots of tiny little concrete edged pools painted blue and white. We decided not to stay, but bought fish and chips and continued on our way. The fish and chips was so awful we threw it in a bin.  So this time, with some trepidation, we decided to go in again. Obviously there has been a lot of money spent on upgrading and combining some of the smaller pools. Now there are 6 outdoor pools and three indoor pools and they are all different temperatures. The hottest one is very hot. Most of the pools have spa jets in them. We spent two afternoons enjoying them and came out very wrinkly, but rejuvenated. In the mornings there was steam rising from the creek that ran at the bottom of the camping area, and from which the hot springs originated. A lot of people go down onto the sandy edge and dig themselves in so that the warm water covers them. It’s a bit hot for me at +60⁰ - reminds me of the hot water beach in New Zealand where we had to keep throwing buckets of cold sea water over us to save us from being scalded.

 

 

 

Because we needed to get some phone service we went for a drive into Ravenshoe.  As we were smartly told “Ravens hoe, not Raven shoe,” is the highest town in Queensland and it has 3 metres of rainfall a year. In the information centre is an excellent Aboriginal Interpretive display and a really good nocturnal animal display. There are also lots of interesting artifacts and information. The town is small, but seems to have everything. There is a reasonable sized street of shops and we bought excellent pies for lunch from the bakery – these were recommended by the info centre. We then drove out to Tully Gorge through rainforest. It was so different to the desert and coastal country we have encountered for the bulk of our journey. It was cool and wet and the creeks had water in them.