Tewantin, Jules and Dave, and on to Tweed Heads

My Recipezaar Friends Jules (back left) Susie (front left) and Sarah (front right)


We ended up having to stay on an extra couple of days at Tewantin-not by choice, Russ hurt his right arm really badly and we weren't able to move on as planned. He did it pumping yabbies for bait in the Noosa River and really couldn't do much with it for quite a few days. First it affected him lifting weighty things then later on cleaning his teeth and fiddly things became the problem. Anyhow, the thought of packing up, driving to Brisbane and unpacking in a day, then doing it all again two days later was more than he could bear.

It's a lot better but still giving him a bit of grief occasionally.

The park wore very thin with us. we had a woman behind us who enjoyed frequent sex very loudly, a very keen dope smoker nearby, the police turned up to help another permenant with his packing, and just a lot of people who could have been working but werent. All in all a bit sad and seedy.

On Thursday 22nd, we moved from the park to our friend Jules and Dave's front driveay and home. Jules and I are hosts together on Recipezaar and hadn't seen each other for about 3 years. We are in touch regularly over the internet, but it was great to catch up in person again. Amazing to see how daughters Amber and Ruby have grown in 3 years.

Russ, Ruby and Amber Head off Fishing


As Jules and Dave live on a canal in Burleigh Lakes, so we took the boat off and have had quite a lot of fun with it over the last 6 days. The girls loved going out for a fish with Russ on day one (once Russ was IN the boat)and Russ and I took another long cruise another day to check out all the houses that border the canal.

Jules and Birthday Boy Dave


Our first night, Jules cooked a yummy pork roast, the next night we went to Double Eight Chinese restaurant in Broadbeach (I highly recommend the place, the food was mostly excellent)and Saturday we had a terrific BBQ for Dave's birthday. Jules invited two other couples Susie and Chris and Sarah and Cam. The two women both belong to Recipezaar too (no it's not a cult!!!) and I was so happy to meet them Susie used to be a co host with Jules and I so I knew her quite well by internet. Nice to finally meet.

Ruby Setting the Table for Dave's Birthday BBQ


Sunday we went to the Broadbeach Beachside markets, then Russ and I took ourselves off to a couple of supermarkets and Asian stores to stock up on the sorts of things you can't get in outback Australia.

Monday with Amber at School and Dave working, Jules, Ruby, Russ and I went and did a bit of shopping and looking at more wonderful food shops, and finally tracked down a couple of ducks I wanted to cook for Jules birthday dinner on Tuesday night. It was certainly worth hunting for them because they were great and well priced from a little Asian butcher. I marinated them in Asian flavours and cooked them slowly in Jules oven (it was so nice to cook in an oven) then served them with a carrot and hokkien noodle salad. Yum. It's been great fun to be there to share Jules and Dave's birthdays.

This morning we headed on a whole 25ks to Tweed Heads here we've booked an en suite site in a park right on the Tweed River. It's so close, we can go home to Jules and Dave's for Amber's birthday curry party on Sunday! This park is nice. Lots of permenants, but they are retired rather than unemployed and everyone is so friendly. we can only spot to other tourists like ourselves, but I feel like it's going to be a good stay.

Noosa and a NEW MOTOR

Noosa is really pleasant. The weather has been a pretty constant 26c which makes a really nice change from central QLD where we were starting to hit around 40. We've been out to Eumundie's very large and very touristy market and to Cooroy's little one in the local hall. our fridge and pantry and fruit bowl are all stacked with pestos and pastes, dips avos, tomatoes and roasted macadamia nuts. IGA cooroy was having an international tasting the day we were there, so we also have raw chorizo, marscapone (too cheap to pass up) and smoked semi-dried tomatoes. Talk about a couple of kids being let loose in the candy store!

We have been visiting every boat shop we could find for the last 4 weeks and finally yesterday, Russ found new Suzuki 15hp outboard at a price we couldn't pass up. We've only had a 6hp motor so we should be able to get places a lot faster now and I will feel safer because of it.

Today we are off cruising up and down the Noosa River as the man who sold us the motor suggested we do the 5 hours running in before we leave the area (in case of problems I guess). I can't believe a new boat motor could make me so happy, but the boat really does give us hours and hours of entertainment.

Maryborough and Riki

We moved back into Maryborough from Poona and stayed two nights with Riki-another Recipezaar member. We had met her briefly on the Wednesday when she invited us for lunch but otherwise didn't know her.

On day one, we sat around and talked and then sat around and ate and drank a couple of glasses of wine and talked some more. Riki cooked us a yummy dinner of Lancashire hotpot.

Day two, Riki took her mum to see her dad at the hospital, then we all (including a friend Mary-anne) all met at aa local club for lunch. Riki's mum goes most Sundays for a little lunch and to play the pokies. I never play the pokies so was pretty happy to win $150.

After lunch, we took a tour of the town then visited Mary-anne for a great afternoon tea-prawns and a bottle of wine, then home where Russ cooked us all dinner.

It was a lovely time and just amazing how well we got on. I think we'll be going back.

Yesterday we left Riki's and moved on to Tewantin which is just outside Noosa. It's been 4 years since we were here last and it felt to be back. It feels like a holiday within a holiday. The park is small with tiny sites and quite expensive, but a unit would be much dearer and we are quite close to the river and shops.

We went fishing today on the Noosa River and caught a few fish, but only brought one bream home.

Perfect Poona

We ended up really enjoying Poona and have added it to our ever expanding list of places to be revisited. The town has a community hall and whilst we were there they had a Melbourne Cup Day, line dancing, tai chi, a meal and drinks on Friday night, a market this morning and Tombolla on Sunday.

We went over for the meal last night-it's all done by volunteers and we had the choice of fish and chips, pork chops chips and salad, a hamburger or steak sandwich (our choice) for between $4.50 and $7. Good bottled wine was $2 a glass for white and $3 for the red. It was a great night and the locals were so friendly it was unbelievable. I think the Great Sandy Straight might be over fished, but Poona would be still OK with a bit more local knowledge. We managed to catch ourselves 6 fair sized whiting and a garfish yesterday, so were pretty happy with that.

Now we are in Maryborough with Riki (from Recipezaar) for a couple of nights. She lives in a lovely old Queenslander with high ceilings and a great outlook from the upstairs front porch. Just the place to sit and compute and drink coffee!

Poona

Rain, rain, rain is all it’s seemed to do sine we arrived in Poona 4 days ago. It’s about 40ks outside Maryborough and quite a nice little place but we haven’t seen much of it with the rain. The good thing is the lack of sand flies due to the cooler weather-that really is great. We’ve been pretty bothered by them and have a huge selection of sprays, roll-ons and home made remedies in the hope that something works. When we went to Maryborough tourist information centre looking for directions, we were asked why we would want to come here and then told to be careful of the sand flies-after all the places we’ve been fighting them off, this seems no worse than anywhere else!

I bought a very expensive tube of Bushman’s repellant only to find I stuck to the seat I use in the boat (and it felt like waxing my leg to get it off) and all the plastic parts on our fishing rods we’ve touched have gone tacky. It can’t be nice stuff!

The park is here is small and mostly empty which is nice. We’ve actually had one whole side of the place to ourselves and have really spread out under the big shady trees. I hated the first couple of days though as the lawns were in desperate need of a mow and the shrubs needed attacking with a machete to get through to the toilets and laundry. I was happy to come back from a drive to Maryborough yesterday and find the owner had done it!

We did manage to get out to fish yesterday morning (up at 6 am to do it though) and were very happy when Russ caught us a metre long gummy shark and a large flounder. The shark has given us quite a few feeds of one of my favourite fish. It was great fun bringing it into the boat with our very light gear. Poona is on the Great Sandy Straight so is only 4ks across the water from Fraser Island. We’d been hoping we could take the boat over but the weather really has been against us, so we might have to do it next time round.

After we’d been fishing, we showered then headed into Maryborough for lunch and a visit with one of the women Riki that I’ve met through the recipe club Recipezaar. We’d never met in person before but had a great time. On Saturday we are leaving here and taking the van to her place for two nights before we move on to Trewantin near Noosa for another week. It’ll be lovely to spend some time with Riki.

This morning we took a drive to Tin Can Bay. It’s another pretty spot, but it was too wet still to get out and look round much. I was surprised at the extent of the pine forests around here-we passed through about 40ks of them on the way here.

Miara CP

Our 6 nights at Baffle Creek was really good. We only managed to catch two mud crabs we could keep but at least we know we can sort of deal with them now. On the last morning, we decided to go fish at the mouth of the river. I almost backed out as I was getting really sick of sitting out in the sun catching nothing. At the last moment I decided to go as I wanted to take a look around the area and ended up catching our only fish-a 49cm grunter. The QLD grunter are a bream-like fish that is not related to WA’s nasty little bait stealers and are considered excellent eating (which it was!). We seasoned it, wrapped it in foil and cooked it on a hot plate over the camp fire pit along with some flat chips.

We are now at Miara Caravan Park an hour away from Baffle Creek and on the Kolan River mouth about 45ks from Bundaberg. The park is on the river and surrounded by cane farms. The nearest farm has a few cattle and two horses who wander the roads and paddocks of cane stubble whenever they like. They all seem to love the cane hay/straw and look as fat as mud. The park has a huge semi permanent section and most owners have erected elaborate protection over their vans and the whole site-they really are amazing. One very simple one with an old van somewhere underneath is for sale at $36,000.

After a one hour drive here on Monday and then setting up and getting the boat and trailer ready, we headed into Bundaberg for some lunch and shopping. We had an ok lunch t the local RSL club, drove round town checking out boat shops for motors and depth sounders, and did our grocery shopping at the largest Woolworths I’ve ever been in. Bundaberg (famous for sugar cane, macadamias, avocados, rum, ginger beer and other yummy things) is a really large and quite pretty city on the Burnette River. We’ll head back into town at least once more to visit a couple of things that were recommended to us.

Yesterday we headed out to do a bit of fishing-it seems the fishing is pretty light on so we were lucky to catch a fair sized bream and flat head which we’ll eat for dinner tonight. Russ is out pumping for yabbies right now so we can use them as bait later this morning.

The sea breeze comes in here and cools things down in the afternoon and it also keeps the sand flies away so I’m happy about that. My poor arms and legs are at least not getting any more bites. I got some non-drowsy anti histamines for the bites in Bundaberg and took them last night-I was non-drowsy until about 3 am!!!!!

We’ll be heading to Maryborough/Hervey Bay from here where we’ll spend about a week, then on to Noosa for another week we reckon

Baffle Creek

Today is day 4 of 6 we’ll be spending at Baffle Creek which is roughly half way between 1770 and Bundaberg. It’s a lovely spot and there have never been more than 11 people here at any time, so I’ve had my wish for a bit of peace and quiet.

The area has been subdivided into mostly 40 acre blocks and we think this place is on two of those. There is 2 camping areas, one powered, one not and we are at the powered one. It has a few van sites, some camping sites, a couple of permanent tents and a couple of funny little cabins. The camp kitchen and toilet block are in the centre of all this. It is really good-I especially love the fire pit just beside it. Last night we cooked a chicken and vegetables in a cast iron Dutch oven over the coals. It was lovely to sit and watch it cook and tasted excellent too.

We were able to launch our boat in a small creek on the park, and then travel down it to Oyster Creek which then flows in to Baffle Creek. So far we have only fished and crabbed in Oyster, but today we have the boat out and plan to take it to Baffle for a look around it. It will be cheaper and faster for us to trailer it there. Our fishing and crabbing hasn’t been too spectacular. We are just using our drop nets to crab rather than the big expensive traps used around here. Russ says we have no more room for another net or trap and these ones are big. We’ve caught two crabs we’ve kept (I picked the meat and made sandwiches out of it both days) and yesterday although we caught 8, they all had to be returned. Two were enormous but female and have to go back here in QLD. We’ve caught quite a variety of fish-black bream, yellow finned bream, grunter, catfish, but all had to go back as they were too small.

The park owners left on Thursday for a few days away. A nice couple from Yeppoon is looking after the place and Cec has been great with trying to help us catch a mangrove jack which is the whole reason for this camps existence I think! He also taught us to throw our cast net so we can catch the live bait needed to catch them too. The net (which we bought in Darwin) came with instructions but neither of us could work out how to throw it. It’s amazing what one lesson with an expert can teach you!

Each afternoon, the owners feed the birds so there is an amazing variety of birds around here. There are shell ducks, bush turkeys, magpies, butcher birds, guinea fowl, doves etc, etc. Cec was a bit late feeding them yesterday, so every time we moved, they thought we must be about to feed them and all flocked around us!

The only down side to this place is the sand flies. Once again we are being attacked morning and night. I don’t seem to get as attacked as Russ, but he is better at not scratching the bites-I just can’t leave them alone

Awoonga Dam and on to 1770

I haven't blogged for a few days-the internet reception was very por at Awoonga dam where we just spent the last 4 nights.

We were about to leave Kinka Beach and head to Biloela via Mt Morgan when we were advised not to take the road but to go over the "razorbak" with the van instead. Neither option sounded particularly pleasant so we decided to head to Agnes Water and The Town of 1770 instead. As we were driving though, we passed a sign to Awoonga dam (just 8ks off the Bruce Highway) so headed in there for a look. It was really beautiful and we decided to stay for 3 nights (extended that to 4) and have a crack at Barra fishing. Well, I've had my crack at Barra fishing and refuse ever to go again unless I go with an expert for about $350 for 6 hours.

Our neighbour did that and brought home some amazing photos of the big fish (over 1 metre and 26kgs) that he caught and released. We didn't even have a barra take a sniff at our lures and we tried a few sorts. It's all very scientific and I have decided I'm not a sport fisherperson-more your hunter and gatherer who is happy to come home with a feed. The fish in Awoonga are released most often as they taste too weedy-what's the use of catching a fish you can't eat?!

The dam and surrounds were very pretty and once again we got the million dollar view in the park with our awning facing the lake. The sun set off to one side and behind a large hill, so afternoons were especially nice.

Today we drove to Agnes Water, but decided the only park was a bit far out of town. We drove on to The Town of 1770 instead and chose the camping ground at the end of the road-that puts it on the corner of the estuary and the surf beach. Our site is at the back of the park, but is a lot larger than many of them and we have one of about 4 concrete slabs at our door which is nicer than straight sand. The park is apparently always full and this was the only site we could have for any length of time (5 days). We'd been advised to ask for a site away from the water and sand too as we'll have less trouble with our friends the sand flies!

Kinka Beach

We've had 5 of our 7 nights at Kinka Beach so far-it's been great. We tried fishing out in the bay and only caught ourselves a handful of small fish. The handful of fish was enough to bait our crab pots and go mud crabbing on nearby Coorooman creek. All we got for our troubles was a big female (who has to be returned in QLD) and another nasty lot of sandfly bites. I was a bit luckier than Russ as I took the advice of our neighbours and wore long sleeved shirt, jeans, socks and shoes-not so many bites, but not very comfortable. I still have bites on my face, hands and exposed neck. Russ has bites all over. I hate sandflies!

We've been enjoying lower priced fruit and veg-local pines 50c (and not a bad size) avocados 70c, limes 20c each, sweet potato $1 per kg, beautiful hot red chillies 7.99kg.

Our neighbours here have been very nice-we are staying with Mick and Sue in Newcastle on our way through in a couple of months and will catch up with Marg and Trevor while they are in Portland over the Christmas holidays. Tonight the eight of us are having dinner together. Mick and Sue making the entree, Marg and Brian, Russell and I the mains and Marg and Trevor dessert.

The night before last, we went to a nice little Thai restaurant in Emu Park-they were very quiet, with only us, another couple and one lot of take away for the night. The owner (a NZer) and his Thai wife (the chef) ended up sitting eating their dinner chatting to us which was very interesting.

Yesterday we drove into Rocky to look at new boat motors. We've decided we need a larger one as ours just doesn't push the boat along fast enough so it takes forever to get anywhere (not a nice feeling if the weather blows up). Mariner looks the best so far for price and weight-some are up to 12 kilos heavier than the one we have now which would be unacceptable!

I'm allowed to tell everyone now that I am going to be a grandmother-Daniel and his girlfriend Verity are expecting a baby in April. I just saw the scan photos which makes it all seem more real! We'll be in Perth when the baby is born which is great.

On Sunday we are heading inland again to Biloela via Mt Morgan for a couple of nights. Then we'll head out to the coast and 1770. It depends on the fishing and the sandflies just how long we stay there, then it's on to Maryborough.

Kinka Beach

We moved on to Kinka Beach yesterday. Kinka Beach is near Yeppoon (which is near Rockhampton). I have to admit I was very happy to see the ocean (South Pacific)after what seems like ages. Our caravan park is called Island View and our view across to Great Keppel which is very pretty. It's cooler but more humid here than Emerald but a sea breeze comes in every afternoon which is lovely. We have booked for 4 nights with an option to extend that to 7-I just hope the two VERY noisy couples behind us settle down a bit tonight as that'll be the decider for me!

Kinka Beach and the nearby town of Emu Park are lovely. Emu Park paticularly, feels like a cross between Yamba and Port McQuarie (both on NSW north coast) before those lovely seaside towns were developed out of recognition. The house blocks are big and the houses are old and comfy looking Queenslanders with wide verandahs and shutters over the windows. The town is quite hilly with lots of beautiful views over Keppel and other islands. It all seems so lush and tropical too after coming through the drought stricken outback. We are on the Tropic of Capricorn here (same as Coral Bay WA) so I guess it should feel tropical!

Our last morning at Lake Fairbairn was our best yabbying morning of all. We got 50 but brought home 40 really good sized ones which gave us enough meat to freeze for two good feeds. I would have like to stay on, but our site had been pre booked by others. I didn't miss leaving the very tight group of neighbours who hardly ever spoke to us. God I hate groups of people who have been going to the same place forever and don't bother with newcomers.

Storm on Fairbairn Dam

Sunrise on Fairbairn Dam

We’d had 9 fairly uneventful days here at Fairbairn Dam until yesterday. We’ve basically spent the days getting up around 5.30 am to go and check the nets, back for breakfast then housework, a swim and a trip into town or a drive occasionally. Russ has gone out and checked the nets in the afternoon a few times too.

Our catch had slowed down so yesterday morning we decided not to bait up then, but to come back in the afternoon, re-bait then move the nets. I decided I’d come for a change. It was warm and calm when we left and headed the 6 ½ ks across the lake to the dead trees where we have our nets set. There were clouds about, but the wind was blowing the other way and all seemed fine until we lifted the third of our 8 nets-all of a sudden (and I do mean sudden) the wind changed.

Our Nets are Through There


Fortunately we were amongst the drowned trees and were able to tie ourselves to one. The wind howled past us for about 10 minutes then we saw a sheet of rain crossing the lake towards us. It hit and the wind and rain and waves continued to pound and pummel us as we hung on the end of the rope. I’ve been out riding horses and motorbikes in bad weather but I’ve never been out in anything like it before and I’m so glad we weren’t out in the open water. Luckily we had a couple of plastic ponchos, a few biscuits and plenty of water. We also had our life jackets and flares but I’d forgotten my phone.

As we huddled there, we suddenly remembered our awning and the fridge, hotplate, chairs and towels were out. I said I didn’t really care about them so long as we were OK-they’re just stuff.

After about 45 minutes, the wind died down enough and we were able to make our way slowly back over the still choppy lake. We got back here to find the lovely young NZ couple next door had caught the awning just before it went over the van (the anti flap bars had already fallen out) and enlisted a few other neighbours to help. They’d realised our door wasn’t locked and packed all the other stuff inside. Our formerly quite standoffish neighbors (the NZers aren’t standoffish) all huddled around us and suddenly wanted to talk! Our van with our beautiful view of the lake was the one that copped the brunt of the storm, but trees here in the park have had leaves ripped off them and people had outdoor furniture thrown around.

Another couple also got caught out there and had to put into the bank for the whole time. They reckoned the wind was probably well over 75ks and gusting around at 100 occasionally-I felt like I was in a hurricane. Our neighbour (who has been coming here for 10 years) told us 5 people have died out on the lake in similar conditions. I was just happy I was out there with Russell because I know I’d have been beside myself with worry if I’d been home here along. Out there I felt uncomfortable but relatively safe tied to our tree.

Lake Faibairn

Redclaw Yabby (beside Russ's foot!)
Yesterday we drove out to Springsure through farmland which was nice-it all seems so civilised now after the country we drove through to get here. Springsure is in the central highlands and after a look around town we drove out to a few lookouts which gave great views of the area. On the way into town, I saw a big rock that looked like the Virgin Mary in an alcove. I hadn't read the local info, but that's what they promote it as-I was pretty pleased with myself for spotting the likeness!

We drove on through a couple of stations and visited Wills grave and the site of a massacre (19 men women and children were killed by aboriginals) then back to the park. Russ did a bit of fishing and checked our yabby pots, I relaxed in the airconditioning as it was round 36c.

Yesterday we got 30 good sized yabbies, today we got about 25 but a few were very little. Last night we had a really nice redclaw pasta and I plan to try a curry with the next lot. We have booked a few extra nights so we'll freeze the next catches for later on. It's been lots of fun finding out what they like to eat-avocado is the hands down (claws down?) favourite so far with mandarine the next then pumpkin.

Barcaldine and on to Lake Fairbairn

Lake Fairbain at 6.15 am


Monday and Tuesday we stayed in the small town of Barcaldine (we call it Barcy as we are practically local ;-) ). It’s quite a nice little town with lots of beautiful old buildings including the Masonic Lodge and Radio Theatre and 6 wonderful old pubs for a population of 1600. In its heyday, there were 16 pubs for a population of about 3000!

We stayed in a little park that was quite empty so were told to go find our site and feel free to spread out. We got ourselves settled under a lovely shady tree for the two nights. The park was cheap and amenities nice (and lots of them) but it had no pool which was a bit tough as it was hot. The park owners put on billy tea and damper every night and I have to say it was great-hot black tea and still hot damper spread with lashings of butter and golden syrup was to die for!

We spent a bit of a lazy day catching up on laundry and cleaning the van (changing sheets, washing the floor, cleaning the fridge) and a look at the very good little local museum. I really loved the story of the local goats used for meat, milk, racing, in carts to take kids to school and in larger teams to go wood collecting. Goats were common until the 1950s and yard gates had to be closed so they couldn’t get into gardens and washing on the line. One year the school had gone to much trouble to make a paper mache map of the world-it took months- and it was destroyed in a matter of minutes when someone forgot to close the school house door! They had bridles, saddles and cart harnesses on display. We also loved the tandem bicycle that belonged to the local fire brigade.

Now we are at Fairbairn dam 18ks out of Emerald. We’ve been here three of seven nights. The dam is used for local irrigation of crops (wheat, rice, sorghum), citrus orchards and table grapes and is also used for water sports, fishing and redclaw yabbying. The dam is only 18% full now and it would be a brave person who went out water skiing on it with its trees, fences and stock yards so visible (and obviously invisible) in the water.

Emerald is a lovely town. I was good to see Woolworths and Coles supermarkets again so we did a good shop to come out here to the dam. It’s also nice out here and we got a really good site-we are on the end of the row with quite a big lawn in front of us that looks over a nice view of trees and the lake. It makes it quite private, but we are still close to the BBQs, ablutions, pool and restaurant.

Day one we took a drive out to Ruby-vale and Sapphire in the centre of the gem fields. We really didn’t expect the fields to be as extensive as they are, or to see the number of dwellings in each town. Ruby-vale just wanders on and on and on through old and new diggings and every second house is a gem polisher or jeweler or is offering buckets of wash for you to fossick through. Buckets of screened wash start around $6 and it’s about $10 for “virgin wash”. I took one look at the town and decided I would like to live there. I figure we could fossick for the 5 cooler months of the year and travel the other 7. I loved the totally relaxed feel of the town-no need to mow or garden, no need to cart away your dead cars, need a new room? Buy the oldest caravan you can find or build it yourself from whatever material you have on hand. Cows and horses wander the main street and people mine in their front yards.

After our very enjoyable drive, we came back and put our yabby nets out. These yabbies are vegetarian, so you bait up the pot with a selection of goodies tempt them-lightly cooked potato and pumpkin, avocado and mandarin are favourites, but it’s worth trying anything. When Russ got back we got told we’d put them in the wrong place and wouldn’t catch anything which was a bummer!

There is a strange, unspoken rule that says checking of yabby pots must take place first thing in the morning however no one knows why when you ask them the reason. The whole park is awake around 5.30 as people get ready to go out and there is no point in trying to sleep further so up we got up too and went to look at ours-as predicted, not one yabby. We moved our pots to another spot and went home very sad. The lake certainly is beautiful as the sun comes up and the bird life wakes up-it was worth the early morning start just to see that.

Russ drove into town and had a crack in the windscreen repaired before it spread further, then came home and after lunch we hit the pool. The very noisiest and most active kids seem to have moved on, so the pool was a nice place to be at last. I can’t whinge too much though as it is school holidays and it’s nice to see them all having fun.

This morning we headed out just after 6am once again to check our traps. It was so exciting to find we had caught 12 good sized redclaw which we will cook for dinner tonight. I think we’ll marinate the tails lightly in sweet chilli, a little fish sauce, lime, coriander, ginger and garlic then BBQ them. I can hardly wait. Redclaw and WA’s marron are very closely related and are both considered pretty good eating. A platter of redclaw dishes for two in the restaurant here in the park is $70 so I’m happy to have our twelve.

Our traps are reset in the same places as the theory is the redclaws take a while to find the food so if you catch some, more will be on the way to the pots. One thing I found a bit awful is how much poaching of other peoples traps goes on-I can’t believe people could be so low, but apparently they are. We set our pots well in the trees and had to cross very shallow water (avoiding logs and old fences) so hopefully they’ll be OK.

Dinosaur Track Ways

Pretty, but not as Pretty as the Cawnpore Hills


Yesterday we drove out 110ks from Winton to see the dinosaur track ways at Lark Qarry. I didn't know what to expect, so was suprised by the HUGE building we came across.

Apparently 95 million years ago when the area was a lush, tropical lake, many small dinosaurs (chook and emu sized) came down to drink. A huge dinosaur came down to eat them and caused a stampede. The footprints were covered over the years by layers of silt and discovered in 1960. Study began in 1970 and the beautiful big building was put over them in 2002. There are 3200 sets of prints uncovered so far and evidence there are more to be discovered but they are leaving them as is in case the exposed ones deteriorate in coming generations! All pretty interesting.
Dinosaur Trackways


The drive out was good too and on the way back we took a detour to Nareen Jump Up (a local word for an escarpment) and the long waterhole which will be the scene of a yabby derby over the festival. It was amazing to drive all the say out to Lark Quarry and then realise we were actually up top on tableland-it was quite a long way down the jump up.

Last night we went over to have a "roast" dinner that the park puts on every night from May to September. Russ was a bit put out that we didn't get any pumpkin and not even the potatoes were roasted! They had a bush poet performing (she won the last festival's bush poet competition) and we wished we'd made a get away before she started. If she won, I'd hate to hear the others.

Today we drove to Longreach, did a little shopping, ate some lunch and headed on to Barcaldine (a further 105ks). We'd decided not to visit the QANTAS museum or Stockmen's Hall of Fame so thought we could give Longreach a miss. I had wanted to do a wing walk on the jumbo at QANTAS, but the cost of $80 put me off!

We are in a nice little park with not many staying, and were told to pick our site and feel free to spread ourselves out. They put on billy tea and damper every night and (joy oh joy) they have found a BUSH POET to perform. I'm sure if we don't go, they'll hunt us up to do so, so I think we're trapped again!

Driving along the road today we couldn't get over how many stupid kangaroos, wallabies, emus, sheep and birds of prey there must be because we've seen so much road kill it's unbelievable. And just as the stench starts to clear, you pass the next one. It's been a very smelly drive.

I was excited to pass the road to The Outer Barcoo (it's a poem by Banjo Patterson) today.

Winton

The ONLY Photo that Would Download

We travelled the rest of the way from Boulia to Winton yesterday. The narrow strip of bitumen continued on its way through some of the flattest and driest land I have ever seen. At one time we didn't see another vehicle for 120ks and only saw about a dozen the whole trip of 360ks.

Not to far from Boulia, I finally got my wish to see a herd of camels when we came across a large herd of very good looking camels just crossing the road ahead of us. We saw bolgas and the first emus we have seen since Exmouth and a few more cattle than the previous day.

I was starting to think we must have offended the people we met who had told us about this drive. They had said it was very beautiful, but I was starting to doubt them. About 130ks into the drive low mesa topped hills started to rise off the plain out of the heat haze. When we finally got to them, they were amazing-all the colours you can imagine-white, cream, yellow, orange, red, purple, maroon, black contasting with the red soil and the grey green of the trees.

We drove through about 160ks of these stopping to look and take photos. We had a near death experience doing so when we decided to go to the top of a lookout with the van on. I was driving and asked Russ which side I should head up on the circular track. he suggested the right and when the car stalled 2/3 of the way up, we were in all sorts of bother. We couldn't go up and couldn't roll back around the corner to the bottom and the break was just holding as it was. It looked like we might be stuck there forever (remember our phone doesn't work out there and not many cars passing). And if we weren't there forever because the breaks had failed, we would roll over the edge and the van would crumple like an aluminium can! So we engaged low ratio 4WD and clawed our way to the top. I was so happy with Russell and the car for saving us until he told me we still had to get down! I took photos of the amazing view of the mesa topped hills, but I think my hand was shaking too badly for them to work! I walked to the bottom of the hill and Russell managed to get us down (I walked in case he went over the edge and I'd have to get help). Anyhow we made it with only a good lesson learned-walk to the top of the lookout next time.

About half way from Boulia to Winton we arrived at Middleton Pub. That and a decrepit community hall are all there is to town (population 3 but two were away for the day). You can stand at one town sign and see the other about 200 metres away. We bought diesel, went to the toilet and had lunch there and not a car or truck went by in the whole hour. We were their only customers and had delicious steak sandwiches and chips and enjoyed a good chat with the publican's daughter who was visiting from Ayr.

The beautiful hills finally petered out and we were back in the flat again for the last 60ks into Winton. Winton is a lovely little town of about 1200 people-but obviously supplying a large area as well. I can't get over just how many shops and services there are compared to poor old Hall's Creek in WA with the same (mostly aboriginal) population! The town has very few new homes, so is full of beautiful old corrugated iron and weatherboard homes-many of them Queenslanders on the stilts with shutters on the verandas-really lovely.

The caravan park is nice-our site is shaded and not too far from the pool. The park puts on a roast meal every night so we might go along for one tonight. Tomorrow we are off out to Lark Hill conservation park to check out the dinosaur foot prints!

I took heaps of photos of our trip yesterday, but when I went to download them, the camera had had a malfunction and I couldn't do it. That's the third time in 5 years it's done it and it nearly made me cry to think of a whole beautiful (and at times scary) day lost!

Mt Isa to Boulia

Morning on Lake Moondarra

3 nights in Mt Isa was good-but more than enough. We took the boat out to Moondarra Lake and had a really good look around. There was lots of bird life and we saw catfish and turtles, but the only barra we saw were huge dead ones washed up on the shore. It was really sad to see.

We also visited the underground hospital and the fossil centre. The underground hospital was built in the second world war after Darwin was bombed-they thought with the mine, they would be the next target so built an emergency hospital underground. It only ever got used for air-raid drills and later on for nurses coming off night shirft to get some sleep in the heat of the day (before air-conditioning). It got closed up and forgotten for 40 years until they were rebuilding the present hospital and is really interesting as it was virtually intact including beds, linen, medicines etc.

At the fossil centre, we went into the lab with a paeliantologist to see how they deal with the heaps of fossils they find out at Lawn Hill and that was good too.

Kennedy Developmental Road


Today we drove to Boulia down Kennedy Developmental Road (part of Min Min Way). It was a single lane sealed road 300ks long with very limited passing opportunities through the Boulia Sire which is about 1/4 the size of Victoria with a total population of about 700. We passed through quite a few stations but only saw one homestead, one aborigiginal settlement and arrived in Boulia which has a population of abot 200. We got overtaken from behind by 1 car, passed by a few more than that and arrived in this tiny town that has a 4 1/2 million dollar aquatic centre!This is probably one of the most remote drives you can do in a regular vehicle, and though it was beautiful for the first half, it is dry and drought affected for the second. We saw more road kill than actual live cattle on the whole trip.

The caravan park here is tiny, but I recognised some dogs travelling with their owners from Bitter Springs in NT. I went over to say hello and it turned out the husband and wife (Julie and Garry) had worked with my sister many years ago at 3UL in Warragul.

This afternoon we went to the local museum and had an amazing tour of the whole thing with the man who has collected most of the stuff including some incredible fossils from nearby. It (the museum) is housed in the only stone (and original) house in town and is just fantastic. It made the whole trip here worthwile just to see it. After we left the museum, we saw 4 brolgas stolling up the main street!
Brolga in the Main Street


Oh, and the MinMin (that the road is also named after) is a unexplained light in the sky that has been seen from time to time.

Queensland

We left 3Ways Roadhouse where we overnighted and drove across the Barkly Tablelands to Camooweal which is 13ks inside the Queensland border yesterday. I can always find something to enjoy as we drive, but the Barkly is just about as flat and boring as it gets-if you've driven over the Nullarbor, it's exciting by comparison!

The roadhouse at Camooweal was cheap and so it should be-we had a terrible time with the power going off due to very slight overloading, the amenities were in need of a good clean and we were woken by a helicoptor landing in the truck parking bay at 6am this morning!

This morning, we drove to Mt Isa and were really pleased to see the nasty narrow road of 6 years ago has been replaced with a two lane smooth wonderful one. We've booked into a nice little park in the shadiest spot for 3 nights and found the Woolworths prices were cheaper than we remember in Perth!

Our site is really lovey, the van is parked between 2 huge Morton Bay Figs and has a dry creeekbed and rocky hill behind it. We should be shaded almost all through the day which will be good as it was 35c here today.

After we did our shopping and stacked it away, we drove out to Lake Moondara to see if we would like to put the boat in out there-it's beautiful with 90ks of shoreline, lots of pretty islands, a couple of swimming beaches and BBQs. We've got the boat off and will take a look around on it tomorrow then come back in for a swim and lunch.

Garry

Garry didn’t end up getting home until late on Friday night, so we saw him Saturday morning before we checked out (late).

What a nice man he’s grown into and how much fun did we have talking about everyone we knew in common in Warragul and Nilma. I’d forgotten he actually went to Nilma Primary School but was a few years ahead of me.

If you’d told me almost 40 years ago he’d invite me to stay at his house and kiss me goodbye, I’d have laughed in your face!

Oh and the man he was talking to in the park originally was Ian McKenzie who was apparently an Essendon football player.

More on Bitter Springs

Tonight will be our 4th night at Bitter Springs-it’s been really relaxing, so we decided to stay on and enjoy it. We get up, relax until lunch time then go to the springs for a few hours in the afternoon. It’s great.

We had some Melbourne people beside us for a couple of nights. He got talking to the caretaker and it turned out the caretaker knew someone he knew in Warragul, but it turns out I have known the caretaker since we were both kids in Nilma. I was good friends with his sister Diane Shanahan and he (Garry) was her older brother who scared me a bit! I seem to remember he treated us kids with the contempt an older kid did ;-) He’d left for Darwin to buy a new 4WD when I went over to introduce myself but I had a cuppa and lovely chat with his partner Sharon and a talk to him when he called her to say he’d arrived. He’ll be home tonight and we’ll catch up then (another reason we stayed another night).

The springs have been fantastic and you can’t believe how social it is. Everyone from this park eventually makes their way down there and it’s lovely just lazing around in the water talking.

This morning we went to the little local museum which was fairly interesting, then into the supermarket and on out to the original site of the Elsey Homestead and the cemetery. It was a nice drive out of town. It was good in the supermarket to see how kindly and politely the two girls working treated an old aboriginal man (he was obviously a bit worse for wear) who was buying grog with not quite enough money. I wish everyone was as tolerant as they were.

Bitter Springs (Near Mataranka)

Bitter Springs


After leaving Litchfield, we headed back to the Low Level CP in Katherine for a couple of nights. We id a bit of shopping, our laundry, saw Johnny the TV man (AGAIN) swam and headed 101ks on to Mataranka.

Six years ago, we stopped at Mataranka hot springs for an hour for a swim, this time we booked in to Bitter Springs 3 ks out of town for two nights. We met a man at Litchfield and he suggested we go to Bitter rather than Mataranka as it’s more natural and less visited. Arriving in town we saw there is a caravan park out beside it and when we saw the lovely little place decided on two nights.

We are about 500 metres from the springs and they really are beautiful-a bit smelly (with sulphur) but so nice. The water is 33c and so clear it’s unbelievable. Tomorrow we are going to take our masks and snorkels and drift down the spring looking for tortoises and fish. It’s a 200 metre drift and as the current is quite strong, you have to swim one way. There are steps or a ladder to get out along the way.

After that, we went out to the Roper River in Elsey NP and took a swim at a couple of places there. One was a series of small waterfalls over smooth rocks. The pools that the little falls formed were wonderful to lie in-just like natural spas. We finished the day with a last swim at Mataranka hot springs and a visit to author Jeannie Gunn’s Mataranka homestead-a replica of the original homestead that was built for the movie We Of The Never Never in 1981.

Tomorrow we plan to go yabbying and swimming and who knows-we might have to stay another night. We have two nice little dogs either side of us-Jodie (who is hurt if you call her “fat” (she’s nuggety apparently) and Junior, (a lovely little miniature Jack Russell) who has spent a lot of time with us tonight.

Editing to add-we have decided to stay another rnight after a lovely day at the springs yesterday. We took our snorkels and masks and floated down the spring to the bridge a couple of times. Other than that, we just lazed around in the main pool chatting to people-mostly guests in our park.