Day 30 to 34

Day 30 Charters Towers to Emerald        510 km

What a difference a day makes – this morning we woke to the unfamiliar sight of clouds, the kind with rain in them. Not that it was any colder, just a lot more humid. Apparently there was an enormous storm last night down near Emerald. It must have extended some of it effect up to Charters Towers, as there were at least 2 blackouts during the night (unless they are normal in Charters Towers).

We had a fairly long driving day ahead of us today, so we were on the road at 8:20am, after doing a complete re-pack of the car, trying to get it organised a bit better. Once on the road, we had to actually use the windscreen wipers! Check out the misty weather.

The roads in this part of the world are pretty straight. We occasionally measured them, and one of them was straight for 17km!

We stopped for morning tea at about 10:30 at the first town after Charters Towers. Actually, it isn’t a town at all, simply a place to stop, get fuel (for the vehicles and the humans), make a toilet stop etc. It’s 206km from Charters Towers – yes, it is the first place to get any of those things since leaving the town. It is called Belyando Crossing, because it is where the road crosses the Belyando River.

After Belyando Crossing, the next place is Clermont, another 200km further on. Along the way, we saw several more emus (more emus today than in the entire holiday before this), and brolgas (we thought they were water birds, so what are they doing in this part of the world?).

We made it to Clermont at about 1pm, for lunch. We went into the town (you have to leave the highway), as there is a park in the town that was a lovely place to have lunch. Actually, the town looks quite nice. I suspect the mining companies put a fair bit of money into the town. Some of the things in the park we had lunch in were paid for by the Blair Athol mine.

The birds like the park as much as we do.

After Clermont, it was only another 50km or so to the next town – just up the road. It is a little place called Capella, and again, it was quite nice. There was an avenue of bottle trees

And a quite  impressive monument to the Light Horse Brigade. It’s only new – just erected in 2009.

3pm saw us at Emerald, doing the shopping for the next few days, and topping up with fuel. Our accommodation tonight is not actually in Emerald, but at a caravan park on Lake Maraboon, which is about 30km out of Emerald. The lake is created because of Fairbairn Dam, and the caravan park is on the shores of the lake, not far from the dam wall.

Our cabin doesn’t actually have views of the dam because of the trees between us and the water. But it is still quite pleasant. Joy say outside on the verandah reading a magazine, occasionally having to duck because of the rainbow lorikeets flying through. The lorikeets are quite forward – the people in the cabin next to ours had their door open, and the birds just walked right in!

Tea of soup and toast (nice to have “home-cooked” food).

Day 31 Emerald to Carnarvon Gorge        245 km

What a difference a day makes – this morning we woke to the familiar sight of blue sky. As we did not have far to go today we were able to sleep in for a while and got out of bed at about 7:45.

After breakfast we packed the car and headed out of the caravan park at 8:50. Decided to backtrack a few hundred metres so we could go to the lookout over Lake Maraboon. It is obvious that the dam was low for some time as it is now full and there are trees that obviously grew when the dam was low poking up through the water.

Interesting hills and scenery along the way

and made a stop for a photo at ‘Virgin Rock’ just outside Springsure. Why is it called ‘Virgin Rock’? No idea!!  (Ed Note: It was named that way as apparently you can see an image of the Virgin Mary in one of the rock formations)

Had a café morning tea in Springsure, Les finally got a milkshake which is not as good as a thickshake but we are in the outback!!.

As we passed over Panorama Creek ( 5km north of Rolleston) we noticed the flood debris in the trees and as this went on for probably a kilometre you can image the water that must have been coming down the creek. The top bit of debris is probably 10 feet up the tree.

Quick stop at Rolleston for fuel and then down to Carnarvon Gorge.

There has been some good rain over the last few days so there was water lying by the road which is strange at this time of year.

As we were too early to check in we went to the picnic area 3.5 km past the lodge and had lunch and then went back and checked in. They supply a trolley to carry your gear from the car to the tents and we needed to fill it twice with all our gear!!

We decided on an easy afternoon and after unpacking we headed to the restaurant for a coffee/lemon squash and scone with jam & cream. Afternoon spent working on diary/blog/photos and Joy doing puzzles and crossword in magazine.

Tent where we stayed for 3 nights



View from verandah of tent



Kids on Sundowner Chair at tent

Tea was in the restaurant . 

Day 32 Carnarvon Gorge        6 km

Another fantastic day weather wise  and a fantastic day as it is our 9^th Wedding Anniversary today. So how do you celebrate a wedding anniversary? Easy, go for a romantic walk for approx. 15 km through a national park. But I am getting ahead of myself.

This morning lay in bed looking at the trees outside the tent until we got up at about 8:15 and had breakfast out on the deck of the tent. Yes they are fancy tents as they also have an ensuite and a fridge plus tea and coffee making facilities.

After making lunch and Joy having a coffee we headed up to the National Park at 9:35 am, which is 3.6 km up the road. After parking and walking to the information centre where the track starts we headed off at 9:55 am. The walk crosses the Carnarvon Creek several times but in 2010 they realigned (that means moved) the walking track so we now miss creek crossings 2 to 7. This is probably to make life easier for the park staff as after each flood they have to redo all the stepping stones to allow access across the creek. Unfortunately this makes the walk less interesting for the first 3 or so kilometres.

There are quite a few wild flowers out and also Les has spotted a few waterfalls.

We walked to what is called the “Art Gallery” which has aboriginal stencilling on the cliff face. When we arrived there was an aboriginal park officer called Fred who was giving a talk on the park and the history. We missed the geological and aboriginal history but were there when he talked about ‘Captain Starlight’ who was in the area. As we had heard about the aboriginal history before we headed back rather than waiting for the talk to start again. On the way back to the main track, Joy saw a snake, but scared it off before Les saw it, or could take a photo of it.

Just after one of the creek crossings, there was an echidna. At first it tried to curl up and pretend it wasn’t there, but because we were quiet and patient, it started to move again, and waddled off into the grass.

The next stop on the return trip was Ward’s Canyon which is a beautiful, narrow canyon. It is however a bit of a climb to get to the canyon but worth the effort.

We then found a nice spot on the creek with a couple of rocks as seats and settled down to eat lunch.

After lunch we went to the “Amphitheatre” which is a very unusual rock formation and is hard to describe without seeing it for yourself. It was formed when water started to wash away a hole from the top of the plateau. This hole is about 50 metres deep and the water and rocks have been washed out of the hole via a very narrow entrance.  To access the “Amphitheatre” you climb a series of steps (10 metres high) and then walk through the narrow entrance to the ‘hole’.

Entrance to Amphitheatre

Interior of part of Amphitheatre

The final stop on the way home was the Moss Gardens. This one also has a climb and it was much longer than we remembered from last time. The water has seeped down through the sandstone and when it hit a hard slate layer the water comes out of the rock and the moss grows on the cliff face.

We made it back to the visitors centre at 3:55 pm, weary but happy. Back to the tent for a cool drink and then cheese and biscuits before a soak in the bath tub.

As we had been on this walk before we did not go overboard with the photos….. only took 187 for the day!!

Tea at the restaurant again.

Day 33 Carnarvon Gorge        3 km

Well it is again one of those great days in regards the weather. The temperature here at Carnarvon Gorge has been in the low 20s during the day and about 10 degrees at night so we have been sleeping with a doona. However when walking it can be quite warm but in the side gorges it is like someone has turned on the air-conditioning and is cool to cold.

Last night after we went to bed we could hear the normal sound of bits of tree falling on the iron roof but there was also a scurrying across the roof of the tent but we have no idea of what it was. The tent has a cloth roof but there is an iron roof over the top and this noise came from between the two roofs. It was probably a lizard but we will never know.

After our long walk yesterday we decided to take it a bit easier today as we also have a long day tomorrow (610 km of driving). Slept in this morning and after a late rise had breakfast and decided to do some washing. As it was a sunny day we set up a clothes line on the verandah of the tent so we could dry the clothes rather than put them through the dryer.

Interior of tent with ensuite through door on left

After this and morning tea we set off up the road and started the ‘Mickey Creek’ walk at 11:30. It is about 3.5 km including the walk into Warrumbah Gorge. There were flowers for Joy and waterfalls for Les but the best part is the top of Warrumbah Gorge where the walls come so close you can touch both sides at once. We did not get quite to that spot as the rock hopping was a bit tricky but we did see the gorge and it is well worth the bit of rock hopping we did.

Les in Warrumbah Gorge

As the kids have been whinging that we never take them on a walk we took them today and we have the photos to prove it. It looks like they are going to take after Les with his love of waterfalls. We have however told them that if they want to go in future they will have to walk themselves rather than be carried in the backpack.

Back to the car by 1:30 and back to the tent for lunch. As the bread was stale (well it was stale the day after we bought it – 3 days ago) we had salad on biscuits.

The afternoon has been spent reading, packing and working on the photos and blog/diary. While resting this afternoon we have seen an echidna, pretty face wallaby and several kookaburras, one of which swopped down and got something from the ground near our tent.

Each afternoon at about 5:00 we have to head inside as the mozzies come out and we both react badly to mozzie bites.

Tea will be in the restaurant again tonight as there is nowhere else to eat but the meals are good although a bit pricey.

Day 34 Carnarvon Gorge to Goondiwindi        616 km

All I can say is thank goodness we are not still using a film camera. On a day where we were basically just trying to get from A (Carnarvon Gorge) to B (Goondiwindi), and knowing that it would take us all day to do it (we left at 8am and arrived at 5pm), we still managed to take 30 photos! Not that all 30 of them are worth looking at, but at least we don’t have to pay to get them developed and printed to find that out.

So, this morning we didn’t have time to fluff around. It was out of bed, shower, breakfast, pack, and on the road. The weather was kind to us, again, as although there were clouds around, it never even looked like raining, and it was a pleasant temperature (we are both still wearing shorts and t-shirts).

On the road out from the Gorge to the main road, we saw kangaroos, wallabies, a pheasant, a bustard, a snake, and lots and lots of cattle (the road is unfenced, so we had to be careful not to hit any of them, as they do tend to wander on to the road, and if they are spooked, run straight out in front of the car).

Injune was our first stop, for morning tea. Whilst it was only 150km, it took us over 2 hours, mainly because the road out to the main road is not too good – gravel for a third of the distance, plus a few creek crossings. It was only as we were driving out of Injune that we realised why there seemed to be a bit of activity in the town – the rodeo was on!

After Injune, the only notable wildlife sighting was a camel – certainly weren’t expecting that. Next stop was Roma, to get fresh bread rolls for lunch (we had thrown out the stale bread we’d eaten at Carnarvon), and some treats for afternoon tea, and to refuel the car.

Our lunch stop was at Miles, at a lovely park beside the river. We’d stopped there on our last trip up this way 2 years ago, so we knew it was a good stop. The river certainly has a lot of water in it – we’ll have to check to see what sort of rain they’ve been having to cause the river to be up so far.

We’d also noticed all the creeks we’d been crossing had lots of muddy water in them. And the paddocks have a lot of water laying around too.

For one of the few times this trip, we needed a stop for afternoon tea. We stopped at Moonie, which claims that it is the Oil Capital of Australia – this is because it was the first place oil was commercially drilled for. They have an Oilfields Memorabilia Walk near the visitors’ centre, which is where we stopped for afternoon tea, so even though we had a long day, Joy decided to do it (Les was too lazy). Since it was only about 50m long (Les thinks it was not even that), it wasn’t too much of a stretch. But afternoon tea was nice – once Les rescued his custard tart from the Kids.

The only other notable things along the way are that the roads around here are straight – very straight, as in 30km of straight in one hit – and that there is a lot of prickly pear. Apparently the prickly pear took over for a while, and was only controlled by that bug they introduced. Since that was so successful (not), they are now testing out some other ways of controlling it. They certainly need to do something, because the plants are like trees.

Arrived at Goondiwindi at 5pm. Tea in the restaurant at the motel, which was quite good.