Charters Towers to Roma

15 Nov – Shopped, LPG and fuel before leaving Charters Towers and driving south down the Gregory Developmental Road where we stopped for lunch at a bridge (no good for o/n stop) and continued on to the only civilization at the Belyando Crossing roadhouse. The camping area was closed as a mining company has taken over all the sites. We were allowed to park overnight in the shade. Beer with the locals. Interesting lot!!

16 Nov – An early start to avoid the heat. The road steadily deteriorated the further south we drove. We stopped for lunch at the nice little town of Clermont and then continued on for another 60kms to a smaller town, Capella. The camp had a beaut pool which we made the most of!! 39C today. Happy hour with the locals again. The camp manager was away and several of the locals were looking after the camp.

17 Nov – We decided to stay another day here and set off for a walk around the town before it got too hot. There was a great statue commemorating the “Light Horse Brigade”. Back in the pool and shade for the afternoon. The temp topped 40C.

18 Nov – Just a short drive to Emerald. This town is on the Capricornia Highway which we used to go west 2 years ago. Another huge circle completed on our map. After a quick shop and some phone calls we went off the main road to Lake Maraboon. This is a man-made lake but is nearly empty due to the drought. The camp overlooks the lake was with yet another great pool. It seems that we are going from pool to pool but with the temps in the high thirties who can blame us!! The camp is almost empty but must be very popular over the winter. The sport seem to be catching Red Claws, a type of fresh water crayfish.

19 Nov – We went for a walk to the lake before it got too hot. The lake is only 13% full and reminded us of Lake Mead in California/Nevada. Back to the camp and the pool for the rest of the day. At around 4:00pm the place starts to come alive and we were joined in the pool by a few. It seems they are either out on the lake or asleep in their air-con during the heat of the day.

20 Nov – On the road south by 7:30am and had a nice cool run of 230kms to Carnarvon Gorge National Park. Another great drive thru beautiful country, a mixture of bush, cattle ranch land and farming. We left the main road and drove 40kms into the National Park. The N.P. camp is closed for the season, so we booked into the Takarakka Bush Resort. One of the reasons we picked this route south was to come to this gorge, which was recommended to us. There was no pool, so we cooled off in the river which flows past our campsite. There is also a pool with Platypus in, which we have yet to see. At 5pm we went to a talk on the gorge which we will explore tomorrow. At sunset we had thousands of Little Red Flying Foxes flying around picking a roosting place for the night. It is comical watching them land in the trees as their feet are right at the bottom of their bodies. They grip onto a branch and then fall upside down.

21 Nov – We left the camp site by 6:30am and drove to the start of the track up the Carnarvon Gorge and were walking by 7:00am. There is a main track that follows up the gorge for about 6kms and there are side tracks leading off this to various scenic spots. We chose to walk right up the gorge and do the side tracks on the way back. 

Our first point of interest was the “Art Gallery”, an area of Aboriginal Art on a limestone cliff. Interesting as these figures were much newer (6,000 years) than the artwork we had seen on the west coast (30,000 years).

The next side track lead up into Wards Canyon. This was a beautiful, very narrow canyon.

A longer track climbed up to the “The Ampitheatre” via some steel ladders. A narrow slot opened out into a spectacular hidden valley with high cliffs all around. We were getting a bit buggered by this stage but carried on to the “Moss Garden”, another hidden waterfall with beautiful moss hanging all around. The last 3kms back to “Andy” were a bit of a battle with sore knees and feet. We had walked 17kms!!! Back at our camp we limped to the river and cooled off.

22 Nov – Our plan was to do another shorter walk before leaving the Carnarvon Gorge, but our bodies thought otherwise so we drove out of the National Park, back to the main road, and on to the small town of Injune for the night, where we stayed at the local racecourse.

23 Nov – A later start continuing our trip south and a short drive to Roma. This is a reasonable sized town servicing the farming area. After shopping we found a camp with a small swimming pool. Our plan is to publish this blog and walk up to the town for a meal tonight.

Townsville Area

4 Nov – Early start to the airport for our flight to Townsville via Brisbane. No screens so 5 hours of reading our Kobos. We caught an Uber to the storage place where “Andy” was waiting for us. Put the bikes on the back and then discovered the cranking battery was flat. Had to take a house battery out and jump start. No problems. We shopped before heading into Townsville city and the same camp that we stayed last trip at Rowes Bay. It was fairly hot (around 33C) so we enjoyed a cool off in the camp pool after we had set everything up. Dinner outside with the sunset around 6:00pm. A good long day with everything achieved. Bed was good!!

5 Nov – A good sleep and not too hot at night (around 22C).  I took the bikes off the back, pumped up the tyres and we rode along the cycleway to the Strand, the main Townsville beach. This is a great area and has a “stinger net” where we could safely swim without the fear of being stung by the jelly fish. We had a great morning with a couple of swims and reading in the shade of the palm trees. Back to the camp where we spent the afternoon at the camp pool, cooler than the sea!

6 Nov – Our trip this time is to re-position “Andy” from Townsville to Lithgow, just outside Sydney, so that we are in a position to head south next March. We have 4 weeks for this trip, so we have plenty of time. We headed north out of Townsville and drove 120kms to Ingham and then turned out to the coast, past the smelly smokey sugar refinery, to Forrest Beach. We camped in a large domain right by the beach with another stinger net. Unfortunately, the swimming in the stinger nets is only good a couple of hours either side of high tide.

7 Nov – Into our togs early for a swim (high tide) and a sit under the Palm trees in the shade. After lunch we walked around the small town and back along the beach, paid our camping fee ($10/night) and bought an ice-cream. Another campervan came in around sunset and we chatted with them.

8 Nov – Much cooler in the night and even had to pull up the doona! We headed back into Ingham for shopping, (stuff we forgot on our first day) check the tyre pressures and buy some plywood to fix the house battery locker. We drove 50kms south and then followed a rough road into the Paluma National Park and a camp at Big Crystal Creek. The creek forms a beautiful fresh water pool, called Paradise Pool, 100m from where we are camped. We tried the pool out. It was clear and cool with many fish swimming around. Just the ticket to cool off in. Quite a few mossies around at sunset!!

9 Nov – The weather is very unusual according to the locals. It should be cooler but much higher humidity. Today the temperature went to 37C but as it is dry is quite bearable. Being Saturday, all the locals have arrived at Paradise Pool for a picnic and a swim. We spent some time cutting and fitting the plywood, bought yesterday, to form a new base for the house batteries. We walked up to the pool to cool off and read in the shade in the afternoon before returning to the pool for another dip later in the day.

10 Nov – Swimming in Paradise Pool by 10:00am. Lots of families already there. Packed up and drove back out to the coast at Balgal Beach and found a site straight over from the beach and a grassy reserve. Low tide, so there will be no swimming in the stringer nets during the day. We sat in the shade of the trees overlooking the beach with a nice cooling on shore breeze. Temp a pleasant 29C.

11 Nov – Out of bed and straight into our togs for a swim at high tide. The water is at bath temp. After breakfast the reserve, which is also the local war memorial, was set up for a Remembrance Day Service. At around 10:30pm people started to arrive, so we sat under out awning and watched the service which included the singing of the NZ National Anthem and every possible local organization laying wreaths. We both have been bitten by some small insect giving very itchy welts. The Camping area filled up around dinner time and we even had an Asian family squeeze their caravan in next to us, with much yelling of instructions, at around 10:30pm just as we went were going to sleep.

12 Nov – Another pre-breakfast swim. We left Balgal Beach and headed south back towards Townsville for a last beach stop before going inland. This is another free camp right on Saunders Beach. No stinger nets here but some people braved the possible stingers and croc for a swim. We settled for reading in the shade and the cooling sea breeze. Later, when it was cooler, we walked along the beach and the small town.

13 Nov – We drove back into the outskirts of Townsville and after a quick shop (more insect repellent and anti-histamine) we headed inland following the road towards Charters Towers and stopped at a mango orchid where we could camp for the night. Very nice sitting under the old mango trees. At sunset thousands of fruit bats flew over us headed to their overnight roosting trees.

14 Nov – We drove west up the hills to Charters Towers. We stopped here earlier this year on our way to Townsville. As the forecast was for 39C and Val had a load of washing we went to a camp just short of the town. The camp had a great swimming pool and we spent the afternoon swimming and reading. As we had power, we ran the air-con and the interior is nice and cool. Tomorrow we start our trip south on the Gregory Development Road and it will be a few days before we get to any towns. We have been watching and listening to the news and so far, our trip will be nowhere near where the major bushfires are. We will be well west of them. This could change though!!