August 17 - Innot Hot Springs. Soaking it up.

Imagine going inland in North Queensland, going over the Great Dividing range, driving past Queensland’s highest town onto a little resort set up in the middle of nowhere next to a creek that spews out hot mineral water at 90 degrees centigrade, and imagine that they had spent quite a bit of money to put in 6 thermal pools of varying temperatures, amongst a beautifully set out garden and then they let you park your caravan there for a night and you can go and use these thermal pools from 6am to 10pm with only a handful of other people, all for $75. If can get the picture in your head, you can see why we enjoyed this pleasant stopover.

With our drenching at Mission Beach, we could see that the coast was going to be hit with some very average weather so we turned our gaze inland. Innot Hot Springs is one of those places that you don’t know anything about, sounds good on the website, reviews are always mixed, but you give it a go. I am not a thermal springs type of guy, having been to Mornington Peninsula and being in overcrowded pools with freezing cold floors and the fear of what disease you might catch if you did have an open wound in these festering cess pits of warm water and other peoples diseases. But this was really quite nice. We had a dip on arrival, and another before tea, and one at 7am in the morning to get the day off to a slow and relaxed start. I actually enjoyed it and was happy to see they ran the filters hard all night.

Leaving in the morning, we only had an hour drive to our next stop, so we back track to Ravenshoe – Queensland’s highest town. Of course it is also home to Queensland’s highest pub, and we have timed it just as the Variety Bash cars had a get together. Around 80 cars hit the town in a blaze of horns, sirens and the muppet song “mahna mahna”. Drivers were dressed up and on a 10 day bash to raise funds for charity. Seems like a fun way to help some people out.

Innot Hot Springs Caravan Park Google review.

Some people say that you can go down to the creek next to the caravan park, dig yourself a hole and enjoy the hot water for free. I say you can go to this park, put your van there with all of your clothes, food and a bed and hop into 6 luxurious pools of varying temperature and have the added bonus of zero manual labour. Sites were spacious and we had a drive through one which meant we didn’t even have to unhook the van. Amenities block could benefit from a bit of an upgrade, but they are probably skint after spending so much on the hot pools. 5 stars.