EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

About 90km west of Mount Surprise, GEORGETOWN is a similarly-scaled, tidy town, home to the Midaway Caravan Park (tel 07/4062 1219), and the rather plusher Latara Resort Motel (tel 07/4062 1190; $70-90), along with a couple of shops and hotels ( Wenaru has the best meals) and Teresa's Museum and Coffee Shop , which houses a mass of local trinkets. The area around Georgetown has a reputation as somewhere to fossick for gold nuggets , and you can get information on likely places to try from the Shire Offices (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 07/4062 1233).

Forty kilometres south off the highway down a decent gravel road is FORSAYTH , terminus for the Savannahlander train and home to the Goldfields Hotel (tel 07/4062 5374; $50-70 including dinner); it's also the last place to stock up before heading bush to two unusual locations. Two hours south in a 4WD through the scrub, the basic camp at Agate Creek (Easter-Oct; tel 07/4062 5335) caters to agate hunters who scour the creek banks after each wet season and rate this the best site in the world for these semiprecious stones. This may be a matter of opinion but the colours, ranging from honey through to delicate blue, justify the time spent grubbing around with a pick looking for them. Cobbold Gorge , at Robinhood Station (access to area permitted April-Oct only), 50km south of Forsayth on a passable dirt road, is a recently discovered and starkly attractive oasis inhabited by freshwater crocs and crayfish and surrounded by baking hot sandstone country. You can camp here at Cobbold Camping Village (tel 07/4062 5470; to arrange a pick up from Georgetown or Forsayth call tel 07/4062 5386), who also organize tours , including a 4WD trip around the station and a scout up the kilometre-long gorge in a motorized punt - an excellent way to experience a very remote corner of the Outback.