Surat

I saw a poster advertising the ten things not to miss, I think it was just in Queensland, one was the Cobb and Co Museum at Surat. It was the last coach run done in Queensland in 1924 and the last coach itself was there. As it was only seventy ks south of Roma, we deviated to pay a visit.

This was the restored coach.

The museum was well laid out and they had used things from the bush for display purposes.

Such as photos on windmill blades and a post and rail gate.

This is how the coach would have been hitched up with seven horses, the coach was licensed to carry 14 passengers.No women were allowed to ride next to the driver, maybe because they may have been a distraction if the wind blew their skirts! When the coaches were in full swing Cobb and Co used 6000 horses every day in their operations, I dont know how many routes they did or the cost I couldnt find that info.

Aside from the museum which just asked for a donation, in another room was a display of photographs from the Surat shooters. Such brilliant work, could have bought a framed photograph for $150. I did consider it but opted to buy a couple of postcards using scenes from the town. The population is only 500.

After the best coffee we have had on this trip, usually coffees are served too strong for my liking and need to add 2 or 3 sugars to make it palpable, this coffee was the best, we took a quick river walk and pied this town map with bronze animals around it.

The road across to Toowoomba wasn't the best, very up and down but it was bitumen and far better than the road to Carnavan Gorge.

Farm Stay at Roma

We had not done a farm stay before but this one came highly recommended via people on Wikicamps and they had two sites available so we went there.It was only five kilometres out of Roma and there was a roaring camp fire each night, it was quite cold when we were there.

Warren was suffering a cold and he stayed in bed while the other boys took in a movie and Sheridan and checked out the sights of Roma.

We visited the largest bottle tree in Australia with a circumverice of 9.5 metres! (Damn, cant spell this and google is not helpful, but the roundy bit of the tree was 9.5 ms). It was a big tree and very healthy looking. Just have to take my word as although we got out and walked around it, I didnt take any photos, too keen to get back in the car as it was freezing, coldest day recorded in several years and we are not used to the cold nor as we terribly prepared for it.(Still cold today and even though I am sitting outside in the sun, I know it is cold as my rings are running around on my fingers as I type)

We went to a couple of parks and walked around the Bush Garden, it was/had been a dam that the trains used to get water for when the line run steam trains. The sun had come out then so not so cold and a nice concrete path around it. The old train station lunch and then we hit the shops for last few items needed (like a long sleeved shirt, got a flanny for Warren).

Not sure if he had a name but he did like apples.

Owner's dog and there was a llama wandering around and several pea hens.

A fuel tank was being painted, I talked with the painter and he was retired and just doing it in his spare, it looked great. On the other side were horses and jockeys but this side was my favourite.

Carnarvan Gorge

For the last years Warren has wanted to visit here and has mentioned it often. It was too far away for our shake down trips because with me still working three days a week, four days wasn't long enough to get out there. Travelling south we came quite close to it and we scheduled in to stay at the Gorge for two nights to give some decent time to do some of the walks.

When we remembered that it was school holidays, we thought that we should book, ahh! they were booked out. Plan B was to stay at Rolleston which is the closest town, 100k away and drop in for a couple of hours before continuing on to Roma.

It was 60k down the main highway and then 40k or so to the west. We left about 8 am and even at that hour did have to look out for kangaroos, one pair Warren had to brake quite hard to avoid hitting the second on and they are bigger in this area.

The road got narrow after we turned to the West and after about fifteen kms we lost the bitumen and it became the worst gravel road we have travelled on and we have been on quire a bit of gravel in our time.

It was up hill and down, thru water crossings, thankfully not deep. The road was getting worse and we were worried about the caravans. Finally we got to the turn to the caravan park, the entrance to the gorge was another ten kms further on, Chris and Sheri were waiting for us as we had had pull over to  let a van go thru, had a quick debrief and decided that we didnt want to go any further so we turned around and went back over the horrible road again with Warren saying that he could not beleive that a major tourist place would have such a bad road to it.

We followed three vans out,

The eighty kilometers off the highway took two hours to drive, sometimes we were down to 20 kms an hour.

Warren said that we would leave it for another time, my comment was like never and he agreed.

The highway when we got back to it was very much appreciated.

Rolleston

We were going to stay at Carnavan Gorge, a place Warren has had on his bucket list for quite a while. When we rang to book after realising that we are in school holidays, they were full, this required a new plan.

Instead of staying there (At Carnavan Gorge) we thought that we would go to Rolleston, the closest town and  visit Carnavan Gorge on the way to Roma. First plan was to stay at CG for two days and walk some of the tracks.

The Rolleston caravan park were thrilled to have so many people stay and it was a nice park esp for $26 and no extra charge  for the kids.

All drive thrus, this photo was taken at 7 am. Had to wipe the windscreens before we left, we were looking for warmer clothes in the morning.

Help!

A drive on the country roads ended up in a quick phone call.

A bit damp underneath and a soft spot.

Bogged!

Warren grabbed the car keys and off we went. I thought that we would be helping to push out but no, Warren had packed a small tow rope. Apparently it had been in my car for some years and he put it "just in case". It is the first time it has been used.

Well, "just in case" came in handy and he had Chris out in a few minutes. Ah, travelling together does have benefits that's for sure.

Morning visits

One morning at Sapphire we were outside having breakfast, Sheridan was visiting for coffee and crumpets when one of the parrot jumped/flew onto her shoulder. It nearly had her piece of crumpet out of her hand but Warren went and got some bread and ended up feeding all of these.We counted twenty six altogether.

Sapphire

We are currently in the small township of Sapphire, nearby is Rubyvale and Anikie with Emerald being the larger regional centre forty kilometres away. It is a gem fields area.

A large pick, shovel and sieving pan stands outside the caravan park.

We all went fossicking for guess what, sapphires yesterday. I think we are dragging home a couple of buckets of sand (or stuff) from the river bank.

This is apparently  the only miners common left in Australia.

Jordan amused himself by climbing on the roots of a tree in the river bed while Sheridan and I took ourselves off to Rubyvale to suss it out, it was a little bigger but not much. great area to spend a few days.

Nightly visits

As one gets older and the weather gets colder, it seems that visits to the amenities are more common.

Warren was out the other night and heard some pitter patter so come he crept into the van and got my camera and this is what he saw.

The possum was about ten feet above the ground in the tree next to our van.

Warren thinks he had probably been checking out the drain as our hoses just went straight into the garden.

Clermont

Down the development road from Charters Towers to Clermont as it was too far to Emerald. The road was quite wide and really good but then there were some narrower parts and rolling bits. It was like riding on waves, thank goodness there was much less of that.

Only one "town" in between and we stopped and had lunch. I had said to Warren that it must have been a sizable place as along the way signs had advertised a motel as well as a caravan park, we already knew that there was a roadhouse there. A few k's down the road after our lunch, I remarked that I had missed the township and it must have been off to the side. Warren looked at me and rolled his eyes, then said the motel and caravan park was at the back of the roadhouse, that was all there was of the "town". It was a welcome stop for us and we had a good lunch.

As I walked to book into the caravan park, a vehicle pulled up alongside of Warren, I found out later that the guy had come to tell him that the blinkers (indicators) appeared to be wrong when turning right the left hand one went on and vice versa. I check the lights on the van each morning we leave and yep both blinkers had been operating but never in our minds did we need to check which side was being used. We figure it had been like that since Darwin after we picked up the ute.

Luckily Warren was able to correct it without too much drama. Sheridan and I went for a walk around the town while the boys solved that problem. We ended up walking five and a half kilometres and discovered some plagues to read, there had been a huge flood through the town in 1916 and a relic piano was up in a tree to show how far up the waters came up, it was about thirty two feet or ten metres.

Charters Towers

Its very quiet in Charters Towers on a Sunday afternoon. Can take a walking tour, I guess with a guide but we did our own thing. Great buildings.

And a mural just to break up the scenery.

the last one we had seen the top of and thought it was a church building but no it is the Post Office.

The Strand Townsville

I dont know why it is called the Strand but it is the the part that runs alongside of the waterfront. Years ago when we were living here and I used to work weekends at Jezzine barracks, it was the accepted (expected) form that we would run down the Strand and back again. Jezzine Barracks being at the very end of the Strand. We were to head to the "sugar bowl" and turn at the swimming pool, supposed to be 5 kms, felt a lot longer than that. I dont think i ever made it to the end as I used to turn around when most people were coming back and just tag on the end.

Anyway, that is a memory, the Strand was pretty good and it was nice to run/walk along the edge of the sea. Over the years, lots of time and money has been spend on the Strand and there is sports equipment along the way, small cafes, ice cream places and plenty of places to just sit and look at the sea or anything else that takes one's fancy.

We were going to have a coffee but the place we headed to was a sit down table service, as Warren had to make a pit stop on the way, I went ahead and was shown to a table. We didnt want a full blown meal so opted for an entree each, folded up the menu and waited and waited. Warren said to me that maybe we need to go up and order which he started to do when he was told that they would come to the table to tak our order. We waited and waited again, I had decided that I was walking in two minutes, they had 30 secs to spare when someone came past for our drinks order, he was given our meal order as well. Not happy with the service so far, and the food wasnt that nice either.

Luckily our walk along the strand was nice.

Pallaranda/Rowes bay

We drove out to Pallaranda on the way to the strand. Pallaranda was the place to launch boats and small sailing craft. Very soon after we were posted to Townsville we bought a catamaran. With lots of people transferring out, things such as this were often available from those who were moving, we thought it would be a good thing to do as a family and so we became the proud owners of a marie cat. Didnt matter that neither of us had sailed before or knew how to use it, no internet or youtube back then.

First day out Warren took the boys on board and when they were about eighty metres off shore a gust of wind came up and tipped them over, scary stuff at the time but we did get used to it and we used it quite a bit. Another time, we had been busy but mid afternoon we thought we would go out. Jason was visiting a mate so it was just the four of us. The plan was to go to Pallaranda, sail to Maggie Island (about 8 kilometres) buy an ice cream and then sail back. We were across to the island pretty quick and as the sun was dropping got back out on the water, about two hundred metres out from shore the wind dropped and we didnt move, had not experienced that before so just waited, then the sun set and we started paddling and paddling. We had no lights, no compass and no paddles so we each lay on the trampoline and paddled with our hands.

Maggie (Magnetic) Island

Doesnt look far and its not except when there is no wind.

We just hoped that we were heading in the right direction, finally we could see a lone light, it was the light on top of the boat ramp! Yay, we were nearly there. It had taken us about 20 minutes to sail across and four hours to get back.

Many weekends we spent out at Pallaranda, until we wanted to buy a house and the catamaran was sold to become part of our deposit.

Like all places Pallaranda has been built out with houses all along the road out to the boat ramp, on the sea side is parks and shady trees to have picnic and looks to be a very popular place.

Townsville city in the distance, it was a grey day with storms and rain due later in the evening.

  

 

Townsville

Wow, this city has grown and is quite the grown up version of a small city which it was when we lived here, only thirty odd years ago.

We entertained ourselves by going back to old houses and haunts. The first house that we owned looks much the same except that it now has a large fence between the back and the front and it appears that some one has made the downstairs garage into a room.

The married quarter that we lived in again has a nice fence between front and back, when we lived there it had a fence but a cyclone one, it is now cream instead of green but other than that no different.

The biggest change and it was like it when we visited eight years ago is the big shopping centre built on a large empty block except for a water park. Sitting on our balcony we could hear kids on the slides. It was very popular at first then went into a decline until it was closed and sold off and now it is a massive shopping centre. The bigger shops where I used to shop have been increased and are also very big.

The office where I used to work is no longer there well it probably is but has been turned into shops rather than a shop front office.

The school where they kids went had gotten bigger and now has a community kindergarten and childcare attached and finally a car park, it used to be a nightmare getting a park to pick up the kids on the occasions that I did collect them.

Down the Tablelands to Townsville

Misty rain and cloud cover leaving Atherton but at least it was cool and as Warren said the brakes wouldnt be over heating.

Ahh, know that one is in Queensland by the scenery.

Sugar cane on either sides for as far as we could see.

If it wasn't sugar cane then it was bananas.

All that was needed now was pineapples but we are too far north for pineapples yet.

First stop was to be Tully for morning tea.

While I was searching for Tully, it told me that Tully was famous for Mt Tyson and the Golden Gumboot which stands 7.9 metres high, this was the most rainfall ever received in Tully. We knew that it does have the highest rainfall in Australia of around 5 to 6 metres of rain each year.

The Golden Gumboot complete with green tree frog climbing up the side. Love it!

Growing up in a wheat belt our average rainfall was 19 inches or half a metre so cant really imagine getting 5 metres of rain a year. 

Atherton Tablelands North and east

It was a wet and windy day but we had things to see and do so we put on a jumper and went out. First stop was Tinaroo dam, this was a memory stop as we had camped on the edge of the lake about thirty something years ago and while it was a great spot, we had not been back until today.

Warren made me get out and take a photo, I did suggest that we walk across the dam wall but it was not open to the general public, what a shame (thank goodness)

Tolga was the next point of call to visit a peanut place and a gem gallery. Tolga is a tiny place and we just had to have a coffee while we got our bearings. We realised we werent far away from the gallery so took the opportunity to walk hoping that the rain wasnt going to come down on us.

This is what i bought there, a glass blown pendant, I have a leather strap at home to hang it on, it was a nice gallery. The nut place was further on but we gave it a miss in the end.

Onwards to Marreeba to the coffee works.

It smelt good and lots of different goodies in the shop, very up market stuff, a couple of pieces I liked but not the prices. The tour to do the coffee factory was $19 and we thought no we wouldnt do it, as Warren said there were probably coffee tasting that would keep me a wake for three weeks. We didnt even feel like lunch at that time.

Not often that one gets the chance (or would want to) to get up close and personal with a brahnam bull. This was in the park coming into Mareeba, they weigh around 500kgs when sold for market.

Atherton Tablelands South and East

Heaps to see and do it Atherton so we (I) made a plan, a circular route today being back in time to watch the footy. We thought it was a public holiday today but it seems it is only in Victoria which is why my team as playing this afternoon.

We also did a couple of geo caches down the street, found one but not the other, interesting to do as they tell about the place more in depth and get around more. For instance we needed to walk up the street to do one and as we didnt need anything at the any of the shops we would not have gone otherwise, it was an interesting walk.

We then headed out to the Gallo Dairy, they did have a viewing area to see cheese made but we were either too early or too late but not too late to have scones, jam and cream for morning tea.

The cows were coming across the road when we came out, there were several hundred of them and as they had been in a paddock across the main road, they crossed through a tunnel then came up the rise. Most of them didnt like walking on the bitumen and like the one in the front would avoid the concrete preferring to walk on the dirt/grass.

Next to the Curtain Fig Tree, we had seen it when we had been here last but that was many years ago.

Now there is a board walk around it and it was pleasant walking in the rain forest.

On to Nerada tea plantation, even though we are not tea drinkers, they offered free factory viewing so we thought it would be interesting. The first thing we noticed as we drove in past the tea bushes, they all have a flat top unlike the ones in China. The other thing was the absence of people manually picking.

The machinery or some of it.

They pick 4000 tonnes in an hour  6 million kilos of tea leaves are processed each year resulting in 1.5 million kilos of black tea, which then is transported to Brisbane for packaging.

We did buy some tea, surprise surprise! and I am now enjoying a ginger and lemon tea.

Yungaburra, pizza and gems were next on the agenda. Neither of us were ready for lunch but I thought we could buy one to take back as apparently it was The place for pizza. We parked and walked to the Gem Gallery, where they had a jeweller on site. It is a family run business with both father and son practicing jewellers. They had lots of pearls, they go to buy in China and they also had Argylle diamonds from the West Coast. On display was a chocolate diamond which I had not seen or heard of before, we didn't buy anything there. Pizza place is closed on Monday's so will have to make lunch.

Shaylee strawberries was next port of call, it was a cafe advertising ice creams and yogurts but as it is for sale, I think they may be down sizing. There was no menu and no ice cream except to buy to take away. We bought some sorbet, fresh strawberries and Warren couldn't resist a couple of jams. We dont eat much jam but we have five jars now now all from here.  

 

A Change in Terrain

We left Mt Surprise this morning heading East to Atherton, It was a nice morning and we were dressed in shorts and T shirts as usual. The first eighty ks were pretty flat with low bushes and trees with lots of large rocks.

Then we started to have some hills, the foliage changed, much more and ferns, suddenly it seemed that we were going from hot dry rocky red ground to tropical with lots of green gras large trees and big ferns.

Still climbing and then we saw a wind farm haven't seen one of those since we were in southern Western Australian, then we realised that while we could see some of them, there were others that we could only see the shaft, the arms were in the cloud or fog.

The road was becoming very windy as well as narrower. I was glad that I wasnt driving.

Arrived and cooked lunch, as it was feeling a little cool. had to find a jumper and then just after lunch it started raining, haven't seen rain since late January. Big changes in terrain and temperatures and we only traveled two hundred kms.

Mt Surprise

What a great little place. We stayed at the Bedrock Village caravan park on wikicamps recommendation, thanks wikicamp people.

The population of Mt Surprise is 162 residents. There is a school, a police station, medical clinic, no staff but do have a visiting service. two m, two servos three caravan parks, a gem den plus a post office. The gem place is reasonably big and is for sale and the PO is tucked into one corner of that.

Bedrock Village was a small property that a couple bought and they intended to grow pumpkins, they were both working in the area at the time. They noticed all the caravans going past and had a brainwave to build a park.  They opened the following year with eight sites that was almost twenty years ago and they have progressed since then.

Now they have sites for about forty caravans, there are 36 cabins, a pool, a cafe, a bar that opens at night and they also run tours to the lava tubes, half and full day tours.There is a staff of eighteen during the holiday season from March to October. Three or four couples came back each year to work and they also employ backpackers and WWOOFers. (Willing Workers on Organic Farms)

Each site is drive through and has screening by trees and plants from other sites. I n keeping with the Bedrock theme and there are lots and lots of rocks around and big ones, the toilets are named Fred and Wilma and one unisex is Wilfred.

As people book in they are given a booklet with a map of the park, their starting story, emploees photo and a short profile of each and the tours that they offer, a nice touch. Cost was $28 a night

Fossicking

We bought a license yesterday so we could go and fossick. The area was about 45 kms from here with most of it on country (read gravel) roads.

The creek bed was dry with some patches of water, we selected a spot and walked down to it and then we heard voices. There was a young family just up the bed and he was about a metre down, they had obviously started much earlier than us. We went to say hello and of course find out if they had had any luck. He said that they had found a couple of small ones so they were there. "They" being topaz.

We wandered back to our first spot which was about one hundred metres from them. It was so quiet and still except for the birds.

Warren looking in hope.

Hum, that looks interesting.

We dug and sieved (read Warren dug)and ended up with a bucketful of stones that we will put into our tumbler when we get home.

I decided to drive home to give me more practice in the ute, not that I am intending to drive with the caravan in tow but it was quiet so I took the opportunity. Oops, there were two water crossings that I had forgotten about, this was one but it was solid underneath so no dramas at all.

The other issue were the cattle, big or fully grown no problems but the calves are more skittish and really they dont even know what direction they will take.

I put the GPS on to come back, dont know why but it said that it would take until 15.29 to get back to caravan park. We started at 11.29 am so four hours to do 45 kms, must have thought I was going to crawl along at 10 to 15 kpm. We had some photo stops and on to check out a spot in the paddock and we arrived back at 12.20 pm, silly GPS.

Undara Lava Tubes.

Warren has always wanted to see these and the caravan park where we are are very close and they run tours from here. I looked at the info and decided that it wasnt for me.

The volcano erupted about 20,000 years ago and made these tubes in the earth. It has been left in a fairly natural state and while people can walk in and through them, there are no steps only a rope to hold while going down into the chambers.

Thankfully Warren didnt try to persuade me and he did go without me. I had a nice morning at home, relaxing although I did do the washing and the housework, that takes such a looong time in a caravan.

The Gulflander

We took a train ride on the Gulflander. This is a short stretch of line between Normanton and Croydon, it is 97 miles and 27 yards long. It was built with the sole purpose to transport gold from the goldfields at Croydon to the port in Normanton. All the markers are done in miles, there is the nineteen mile camp and several others along the track there had been three other townships which have now gone.

The train has been running continuously for almost a hundred and twenty five years, they will celebrate the 125th birthday next month.We have thought that it was privately owned but no, it is part of Queensland Rail. We had the driver who also did the commentary and a guard on board, they are also the maintenance crew and it is rare that drivers and guards do the routine maintenance but that is a requirement of the job that they need to be skilled in both areas.

The web site says that it runs once a week but due to demand, they also run shorter trips on other days.

It was a five hour trip to Croydon with a stop to deliver mail at a property station on the way out of town.

Unfortunately I missed the letter box which was a 44 gallon drum was remodeled to look like a train.

This was the inside of our carriage, we were in the last one of three, that day there were 77 on board and it can hold 100. The seats on the left were bigger and suitable for three and the right hand side for two. There was a toilet in each carriage as well as water and cups.

Morning tea was taken at Black Bull Siding, when we paid for the ticket we were given an enamel mug with a picture of the train, these were to be used for tea or coffee and every one also got a muffin.

It was a slow rolling ride top speed was about 35kpm and most times didnt do that. The options were ride one day, stay overnight and go back on the train the following day, catch the Cairns bus back to Normanton. There was even a shared arrangement which one couple took up and that was one ticket, one ride and the other drive to the morning tea spot and then they could swap over. We ride the train and caught the bus, the bus took an hour and a half.

Cost of the trip was $34.50 on the train and $33 each on the bus, half price for OF's (old farts as Warren likes to refer to ourselves). It was interesting to learn that the train line hasn't made a profit since 1907, but they keep it going as a tourist attraction.As far as we could work out, there are nine people employed in and around the station, driver and guard, station master, gardener and a ganger and four fettlers (The last keep the line in good repair.

Normanton township

Sign coming into town says "Our population is small but we love them all, please drive carefully" I think the population was 300.

There are three pubs in

town which seems a bit of overkill, a big purple one where we had to turn to go to our caravan park, there are two. So the story goes Neville Shute came here and stayed at the Purple pub (National Pub)when he was gathering information when he was writing his famous "A Town Like Alice" (if you havent read it, its a good read).

There was street parade tonight getting ready for the rodeo which starts tomorrow.

Down the street is a huge croc that had been shot by a croc hunter, it was eight and half metres long.

Karumba

This township is 70 kms away from Normanton and we took a drive there to see the sea and also try the barramundi. Normanton is the barramundi capital of Australia apparently but the best place to get it cooked is Ashe's at Karumba.

This was the sea and although not showing here, there were a lot of boats out, we watched a few being pulled in.

Our Barra and wedges. A piece of barra was $9, it was worth it, even the batter was good, pretty fine and light. The cafe only served their meals in wrapped paper, saves a lot of work for them and they were really busy. After we had to walk on the beach to walk off lunch. It was very shelly, crushed shells in the sand.

Driving back we saw a mob of horses running along the road.

They were strung out along the road but were not being driven, there had been a ute in front of them and a helicopter in the air, we assumed that they knew where they were going. There was a set of stockyards in town with a heap of cattle and some horses and stockmen. Only four in the photo but there was about fourteen altogether. We also saw lots of brolgas but too far away to get pics.