Mount Surprise 14 August
– 18 August
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| Mount Surprise hotel |
Our site was really cheap at $17 and lots of nice,
friendly people. Russell, the owner was also the cook of his small café on site
which housed a huge tv screen, an old Ford GT and some old but comfy sofas and
the strangest museum we had ever come across. Noel, a helper/worker on the site
booked us into a tour of the Lava Tubes the next morning.
On Friday we travelled 45kms back the way we had come and
turned into the Undara National Park it was quite something at the resort. We
made our way to the section for free coffee and tea and what a site this was we
were surrounded by old railway carriages which were used by the clientele as
bar/eating areas.
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| Some of the Railway carriages |
There is going to be a large event “Opera in the Park” from
the 9-11 October, it would be quite something to see this!. The tour took us by
small Toyota bus (which held about 20 people) further into the National Park
our guide was very knowledgeable and gave a continuous commentary on how the
park had evolved. Lots of kangaroos were seen with one actually laid on top of
a very large rock sunning himself or herself!! The Lava Tubes were fascinating
and it seemed very strange that this area of Australia had been a volcanic many
thousands of years ago. After the 2 hour tour, we had a bite to eat and more
free coffee.
The amazing Undara lava tubes
We drove the Ute down an unmade road (yes another one) and parked at the bottom of the Kalkani crater, we followed the path for 600 metres climbing all the time and arrived to an awesome view, but the inside of the crater was over grown with trees and bush.
Once back at camp we decided to ask if we could dine in the café and of course on the menu was fish and chips…we duly booked ourselves in for 7pm. The Fish and Chips were good with good company too. Richard was more concerned that we would be able to watch the Wallabies vs AB’s game the following night and of course they would be showing it on the big screen. He was has happy as a little sandboy!!!
I nice surprise on the Saturday we saw a Land Rover and
Caravan turn into the site with a fella called Mark, we had met previously (on the coast) a
couple of beers were had to celebrate meeting up again. He was the chap who
transported our alcoholic beverages from a Bottleshop at Home Hill.
Before the game on Saturday night saw a duo playing and singing under the stars. They were very good and Russell put on Pizzas, as much as you could eat for $10 the place was full.The Rugby was duly watched with Richard wearing his Allblack’s shirt (the only one!)
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| Pizza in the Shed |
Sunday morning Helen couldn’t believe being woken up at 6:30
by the sound of a washing machine, she wanted to go and investigate but decided
against it mainly because she would have wrapped the machine around the persons
neck!! Lo and behold at 8:30 on the way to the shower Helen saw that a lady had
got all her washing lined and pegged up around her caravan with the machine
outside under the canopy. Whatever possess someone to get up and do the laundry
at that hour amazes Helen… her words “She doesn’t have a job and has all day to
do the bloody washing”… We have since been told (on our travels) that some
women like to do the washing early as then they have the day to themselves!!!
Oh pleeeeeasssseee!!
Around 9 a.m. we were called over to an area of the
campsite where the owner Russell was going to give a small First Aid talk on
how to deal with snake bites. He brought out this beautiful looking snake a
carpet python and talked to the small group of us about his passion for the
creatures. He let us hold it which Helen didn’t want to, she did after Richard
encouraged her. We were all fascinated by Russell and his passion.
He brought out a dead white rat for the carpet python to eat, but this snake didn’t seem to be hungry! The dead rat was duly left on the grass until Russell went and brought out his next baby which was a brown like translucent looking snake, which bit him which brought lots of blood.
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| Russell |
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| Helen feeling nervous |
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| Water Boa |
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| Nearly finished the white rat |
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| All gone |
We were all happy to hear that this snake
wasn’t poisonous and that we didn’t need to call for the medics and how they
would get to us was anyones guess!! Anyway this snake ate the white rat, right
in front of our very eyes… After lots and lots of information from Russell we
do now know how to deal with snake bites! It was a great 2 or 3 hours with some
lovely people. Later we took a short walk to the local Hotel/pub and then over
to the Station and was told that we had missed the Savannahlander that parks up
here overnight with the passengers being put up in the local Hotel/pub or
another campsite in cabins (including all food) near ours. This train travels
from Cairns – Forsayth –Cairns taking in lots and lots of beautiful sites on
the way. Another one for our bucket list.
18 August
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| Fletcher Creek |
We did have to stop and wait for the trucks to come through.
We decided to stay on a free camp called Fletcher Creek, it was very good with
toilets and showers. A young English couple in a small campervan were parked
near us and we had a nice evening chatting with them, they both worked for
Tesco in Brighton!
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| Fletcher Creek |
19 August
We had a lazy morning with not far to travel to our next
campsite at Charters Towers. Our booking was at the Top Tourist site only for
two nights. We joined in the evenings 3 course meal cooked and supplied by a
couple who were passionate about their charity (men who take their own lives).
We had great neighbours with the same caravan as ours. We also met a friendly,
lovely couple from Brisbane who are English Aussies they have lived here for
over 40 years. Helen received a text message during our meal from our very good
friends Butch and Linda asking where we were, they are in Charters Towers too,
so we organised meeting up for lunch the next day.
Before meeting our friends we had a drive up to Towers Hill where we admired to panoramic scenery, there is a small amphitheatre where some evenings after dark they show a film called “Ghosts after dark”.
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| Towers hill |
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| The Stock Exchange |
Charters Towers is a very unusual city/town, I would even say it’s exquisite (see the above pics) It was a very prosperous place because of the Gold boom between 1872 and 1899. It was Queenslands largest city outside of Brisbane and operated one of the few regional Stock Exchanges in Australia. The cities buildings are quite unique and the town is just one of those that you feel at home. To add to the draw of the town it does have two supermarkets and even a Target!
We met up with our friends and had lunch in the Stock
Exchange building, we were joined by our other acquaintances Glenn and Sue from
Brisbane were we all sat eating, chatting and drinking coffee for about 2
hours. Our next stop south would be Clermont and this is where we would see
Butch and Linda again. Back at site, we had a very pleasant evening at Happy
Hours with our neighbours and Glenn and Sue. Discussions took place on where we
would be on the road south and it was agreed we would catch up (maybe at Roma)
with Glenn and Sue.
21 August
Southward we travelled once again on the Gregory
Development Road, I think I should point out that this route/road is being
upgraded by the Queensland government and we continually came across roadworks
in numerous places over the many hundreds of kilometres we travelled. We also have
and use a two way radio on all our journeys which enables us to listen out for
the Road trains, wide loads etc. Not
long into this journey Richard was talking to another caravanner who was
travelling in front of us they chatted and discussed various things for about
20 minutes. The route to Clermont also takes
us past a roadhouse called Belyando Crossing that we have been warned about, it
being expensive for fuel and have to pay to use the toilets. It certainly was
expensive fuel at $2.05 per litre for diesel and $2 to use the toilet. Needless
to say we didn’t partake of their facilities, we used our own and made lunch
and coffee in the van. Their loss as we would have bought coffee. Continuing the journey we looked out for
Butch and Linda but didn’t have any luck seeing them on route. Our two way radio told us that there were
“cattle on the road” Richard slowed down but we didn’t see the animals until we
turned a slight bend on an incline and there was the cowboy with his horse
flagging us down. There were approximately 100 cattle at either side of the
road and some on the road, it was amazing to see that the other person was a
woman on a scrambler motorbike herding the cattle across the road and very
efficient she was.
We continued on the roughest road imaginable, 80 kilometres
from our destination we hit a very rough patch, we would be lucky to get away
with no damage in the van. It was really bad and we made a note to text Glenn
and Sue about it
We arrived at Clermont a very small town with wide roads
and only one tiny IGA supermarket. The campsite was very pleasant with a
campfire every evening at 5pm. Butch and Linda were all set up, they came to
help us on our site all really easy. We opened the caravan to find one of the
big drawers was on the floor with the cutlery all over the floor of the van.
That was the rough road and us travelling to fast!! This camp ground was full of newish cabins which were all empty due to the demise of the coal industry. Butch and Linda also told us they had seen many new houses in Clermont but not many lived in and that the campsite had about 100 very nice cabins not being used.
Richard and I had a trip out to a disused Copper Mine, the tall chimney was cordoned off, but still a nice and interesting place to visit.
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| Our pitch at Clermont |
Richard and I had a trip out to a disused Copper Mine, the tall chimney was cordoned off, but still a nice and interesting place to visit.
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| The disused Copper chimney |
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| At the Copper chimney |
Richard loved taking these photos of the old tractors at the Clermont Museum, sorry I didn't take any of the Japanese gifts.
On a walk around Clermont the next day we came across a
small sign advertising a Computer fixing service, we found the small unit type
shop and the man was very happy to help try and fix our laptop, we gave him our
separate hard drive to transfer any files if possible as we probably knew it
was unrepairable. He only visits every six weeks to the outback town and so it
was our lucky weekend. That evening we had dinner with Butch and Linda a roast
done on our Cob and Helen made roast potatoes it was great. The conversation
turned to our travels down to Clermont with Linda telling us about two men one
being a “Pom” talking for ages on the two way radio about stupid mechanical
things….Helen couldn’t stop laughing and then told Linda that it was Richard,
Linda then said yes I knew it was a “Pom” but didn’t realise it was Richard, we
all had a giggle.
Butch and Linda left the next day heading for Sapphire to
do some fossicking and we had a call from the computer man, the laptop was
knackered and he was transferring all our files, thank goodness. We caught up
with him later that day after visiting the local Museum. Clermont’s museum was
interesting, mainly all about the Blair Athol coal mine that closed less than 2
years ago and this is the reason for empty houses we think. Blair Athol coal mine
had very big links with Japan and there was a large display of the gifts that
the Japanese business people brought to Clermont on their visits. Clermont town
had a massive flood in 1916 and many of the businesses moved further up the
road a little higher. It is there big centenary year in 2016 with lots of
functions planned already. 
24 August Photographs below of our route on the Carnarvon Highway it was just amazing!
From Clermont we travelled once again through Emerald and on to the Carnarvon Highway this was a beautiful route and yet again somewhere we must come back to. We stayed overnight at Injune on the race course, only 3 rigs on site a very chilly night, yes, we are heading south.
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| Helen at Injune Racecourse for an overnighter |
25 August
Left Injune and travelled 93 km again on the Carnarvon
Highway to Roma a Top Tourist site, we could drive the caravan straight on the
pitch but no room to put out the canopy a bit of a letdown this site.
We set up OK and welcomed Glenn and Sue who parked up next to us. Our mission here was to look for a laptop and also a BBQ as this town had a Barbeques Galore store, we have to try and spend the voucher we have. Roma is a very busy place and it had an airport where we saw at least 200 white Toyota Utes parked up. It seems to be quite a prosperous place due to the Oil and Gas exploration. As we walked up and down the main high street Roma had a nice feel to it with a few unusual stores.
We set up OK and welcomed Glenn and Sue who parked up next to us. Our mission here was to look for a laptop and also a BBQ as this town had a Barbeques Galore store, we have to try and spend the voucher we have. Roma is a very busy place and it had an airport where we saw at least 200 white Toyota Utes parked up. It seems to be quite a prosperous place due to the Oil and Gas exploration. As we walked up and down the main high street Roma had a nice feel to it with a few unusual stores.
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| Our Pitch |
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| Our pitch at Roma |
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| Helen, Glenn and Sue |
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| Roma "The Big Rig" Museum |
One of the most
extraordinary shop we went into was a haberdashery that sold just about
everything, school uniforms, cowboy hat (akubra ones) knitting wool, needles,
you name it he had it!! The aisles were so full you couldn’t get through just
amazing, yet, the owner knew where everything was!! Roma has the wide roads and
one particular street was named "Heroes Avenue" which was lined with the most incredible Bottle trees with plaques stating the name of a person who had not returned from WW1 from the town. There were 138 in total and a wonderful memorial to the people of the town.
Sorry to say I cannot find my pics of the Bottle Trees but will at later date.... They were amazing!!
A computer shop was visited but no luck as
their laptops were very expensive! We spent about an hour in the BBQ’s Galore
store but once again didn’t decide on which BBQ is the right one for us. We had a very nice happy hour with Glenn and
Sue and some other neighbours but the evening turned very cold and we had to
decamp to the inside of van, in fact blankets were required on the bed. A beautiful morning again, Glenn and Sue took
us for a little tour around the area as Glenn, when working would visit clients
in Roma. We had lunch at “The Big Rig” museum which was about 80 metres away
from campsite. Once again another very cold night. Seems to be glorious days
and very cold nights but then again we are going SOUTH!!
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