After heading west and north for the first five days of our Outback Queensland road trip, we started heading back towards the coast on Day 6. We set off early, grabbing breakfast from the Merino Bakery in Longreach on our way out of town.
Morning Tea in Alpha
Our drive on the Capricorn Highway was an interesting one on Day 6. We certainly felt that we were leaving the Outback. Instead of driving along wide, open plains, we found ourselves driving through more scrubby territory. After our kangaroo-spotting drive at the end of Day 5, it was a bit unnerving to be driving at high speed through areas where it was harder to spot wildlife coming from the sides of the road!
Between the small towns of Jericho and Alpha there is another reason to keep an eye on the sides of the road, and that’s because travellers have dressed up lots of the ant mounds along the highway to resemble people and animals. They are quite entertaining and break up what is, otherwise, a bit of a monotonous drive.
We made plans to stop in the town of Alpha for morning tea. The town has a tiny bakery and when we arrived, there was a limit of six people allowed in the store at any one time due to COVID restrictions. Needless to say, with the high demand in Outback tourism at the time, there was quite a queue when we arrived. It was also a CASH ONLY store, which wouldn’t have been a big problem, except that the town’s only automatic teller machine was cordoned off with tape because it was out of order. We scrounged around in our purses, wallets and cars and managed to find enough coins to buy a few items to share – enough to keep the grumbling at bay, anyway. The options at the bakery were limited (perhaps because the demand was quite high due to the boom in travel throughout Outback Queensland), so we ended up with some interesting items, including pineapple muffins. Some of our kids are quite fussy, so again I have to say (and I find myself repeating this advice in every blog post lately!), stock up when you find food the kids enjoy, and that way you can avoid whingeing when the only store in town is only selling pineapple-flavoured baked goods!
The Strudel Hut, Rubyvale
The drive from Alpha to Rubyvale took us up to higher elevations than we’d been used to, and there were some beautiful, sweeping mountain views. The roads were quite winding, however, and we did have some threatening carsickness on this stretch - the first of our trip. I found it worst of all, in the front passenger seat, and did a quick internet search for ideas to help me manage it. Something I found quite helpful was to imagine myself driving the vehicle, with my hands on the glove compartment as if it was the steering wheel. By bracing myself in this way and focusing on the road, just as I would if I was driving, my eyes and my body seemed to get the same messages and I felt a lot less sick. Mind you, I was still very glad to reach Rubyvale!
Our plan was to go to the Miner’s Heritage Museum in Rubyvale just after lunch. We had done our research and knew that there were some eateries in Rubyvale, so we agreed to stop somewhere that looked like it had room for our party of 10 whenever we arrived. As we were driving into town, we began to see temporary, flag-style signs along the sides of the road advertising the ‘Strudel Hut’. Now, strudel doesn’t really seem like a filling lunch option, especially after a morning tea of pineapple muffins, but it did sound unique. After a bit of debate, the kids seemed very keen on the strudel idea, so we searched out Muggachinno's Strudel Hut. I’m so glad we did, because we ended up having a very memorable lunch there!
For me, strudel conjures up ideas of Germany and Austria – lederhosen, folk music and cuckoo clocks. Instead, the décor at the Strudel Hut seemed to be rainforest-inspired. There were tropical plants, live native birds and a water feature, along with nature sounds playing in the background. Lovely, relaxing and cool – but not what we had been expecting! This was probably our first hint that the Rubyvale Strudel Hut was not in any way a stereotypical strudel café! We ordered our strudels, scones, milkshakes, coffees and ice-cream spiders (floats), and settled in at two tables in the outdoor space. Everything arrived in good time and tasted delicious. Smiles all around. Then we received a board of shots of port, ‘compliments of the chef’. Considering that two of our party of four adults were teetotallers, this left the other two to do something with those four shots so we wouldn’t offend the chef! It was the quirkiest experience, sitting in a rainforest, eating strudel and debating who was going to drink the port before heading into an underground mine!
Miner’s Heritage Museum Rubyvale
If you’ve been following the daily trip reports from our Outback Queensland road trip, you’ll know by now that our itinerary was planned around activities that we wanted to enjoy in a variety of destinations. Having finished the Dinosaur Trail, we had a few items on our bucket list in the Central Highlands and Capricorn regions and fossicking for gems was one of them. Miner’s Heritage at Rubyvale offers fossicking, and it also offers an amazing tour - Australia's largest underground sapphire mine tour!
Our underground mine tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, and her commentary brought the tour to life for the children. We heard about how the mine tunnels were constructed, the types of rocks and gems found in the mine, the escape tunnels built into the mine for emergencies and what a day in the life of a miner would have looked like. We also heard about (and got to see) the colony of microbats that live in the underground mine. It was fascinating.
Just a note for anyone who suffers from migraines: Some of the lighting in the underground mine is fluorescent – basically two tubes placed vertically on the wall at several locations throughout the tunnels. The ceilings are low, so the lights are at around normal adult body height and not much higher. To take advantage of the light, the tour guide often stopped and stood right beside a light when speaking to the group. This meant that we had to stare straight at a fluorescent light in a dark environment throughout the tour. I tried to block the light using my hat, but found that people moving in front of the light would create a ‘flickering’ sensation even if I wasn’t staring directly at the light. Unfortunately, this meant I had to leave the tour around ten minutes ahead of everyone else, because I could feel a migraine coming on. You may recall that, above, I mentioned feeling some carsickness on the drive to Rubyvale. I think it was probably a combination of already feeling a bit ‘off’, along with one of my personal migraine triggers – fluorescent light – which made me feel unwell in the mine. Everyone else in our group had no problems at all. And NO, I did not drink the port at the Strudel Hut! Haha!
After our underground mine tour, each family bought a bag of fossicking rocks (basically, a calico sack filled with a mix of rocks and dirt which should also contain some valuable gems) and we took them over to the area of the park dedicated to sorting. This area is not shaded, so make sure you have a hat, sunscreen and water. It is definitely worth waiting for a staff member to provide INSTRUCTIONS on how to sort through the rocks – the washing, spreading and separating process. The staff will also explain how to spot sapphires and other valuable stones in among the rocks. At the end of this process, which took us around half an hour, each family collected up the gems they had found. These were then taken into the main storefront, where a staff member checked them under magnification and put any verified gems into a small glass vial to take home as a souvenir. Both families in our group were very excited to have found some sapphires in our bags!
Both the mine tour and the fossicking were activities we would highly recommend for families making a tour of Outback Queensland – although, by this stage, we were heading back from the Outback!
Emerald Accommodation
We stayed at Abode37 Motel in Emerald, which was the newest accommodation option in the city and it offered family rooms. We really liked this motel. It was fresh and clean. Parking was covered and close to the rooms. The family suite included a bedroom containing two single beds, and then there was a queen bed and a sofa bed in the main room. We are fans of the sofa bed and the way it can turn a four-person room into a six-person room with ease (I even wrote an ode to it!)! It was also great to have the bedroom space where the kids could pull out their activities and have some down-time without taking over the main living space. The suite had a small kitchenette as well, which is a great, practical facility for larger families.
Emerald Botanic Gardens
We had planned to give the kids a chance to run around at the Emerald Botanic Gardens, which looked amazing. Unfortunately, we made a couple of laps in an effort to find parking (GPS was not our friend!) and ended up only having time to take a short walk around a small part of the Gardens before dinner. They looked amazing, and we would have loved to have more time to explore!
Dinner at The Maraboon Tavern
Our travelling companions have friends in Emerald, so they got the low-down on the best place to eat for families. Their friend booked us in at The Maraboon Tavern, which was very lucky, because we saw dozens of people get turned away at the door at dinner time because the place was booked out. We had the perfect table for a group of 12 (the ten of us travellers plus our friends’ friends from Emerald) – seated outside, under beautiful, twinkling fairy lights, right beside a grassed area at the back of the tavern which included a children’s playground. The kids also received activity packs to keep them busy. The food was excellent and varied. Overall, this place is one we would HIGHLY recommend for family travellers passing through Emerald.
Day 6 Outback Queensland Family Road Trip Summary
Start:
Longreach
End:
Emerald
Driving:
4 hrs 30 mins (417 km)
Accommodation:
Abode37 Motel, Emerald
Notable Stops:
The Strudel Hut, Rubyvale
The Miner’s Heritage Underground Mine and Fossicking Park, Rubyvale
Emerald Botanic Gardens, Emerald
The Maraboon Tavern, Emerald
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