Posted 30th Jan 2013
We've arrive at Mitchell. Looks like there are floods throughout Queensland but we're not affected as yet. Since my last post on 23rd we have been steadily heading south/southeast. The weather is still very hot, but at least we are finding some campsites with some shade. We were both feeling a little sick and was blaming it on the heat, but we realised that the bore water we have been drinking is causing us trouble so we have started to buy water and are feeling much better now. The Qantas museum was quite interesting, I liked the part where they drove up to Darwin, in an old Ford through much of the country we traveled on. That's where they got the idea to start Qantas in the fist place. Just in case you've forgotten QANTAS stands for Queensland & Northern Territory Airline Service. (This was a question on Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" So it could be important info lol. We've seen heaps of history, which I won't go into here, but it seems that in 1886 there was heaps happening here in Qld. Shearers were forming the Labour party & a trade union & going on strike and the black stump was being used to survey old, railway stations were being built and everyone had a goat or two for milk. We're camped at the weir just outside of Mitchell we stayed last night and will stay tonight again, we need to get some meat frozen in the freezer. (We found some goats last night and some other things) We'll head off thru St George and Morven tomorrow to try and get to Nimbin.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
I've reached Longreach (well almost)
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangoes so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
Camped 16o39'55.10" S 145o19'38.53"E
On Mulligans Hwy, Rifle Creek just outside of Mount Molloy
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunately we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
Posted Tuesday 15th January 2013
Today we are camped just outside of Townsville. Yesterday we drove across the great divide yet again, I've lost count how many times we've crossed it since we arrived at the coast. We found a tea plantation with an honesty box out the front so we bought 6 pkts of tea, later on we found an wild banana tree and got a whole pile of bananas. S also found some limes they are very small but smell nice. Last night we camped at Tully Gorge NP, we had the whole place to ourselves, it was lovely. This morning we went for a walk through the butterfly walk and saw a few butterflies. Yesterday we went down to the river, we both got stung by a paper wasps, gee those buggers hurt, luckily only for a minute till you can put some cold water on the bite. S got stung on the ear so his took a bit longer to settle down. On the way to our current camp we stopped at Frosty Mango for an ice-cream Yum! I had chocolate & he had dragonfruit. We had to stop at our current campsite because we were both very tired and needed a rest, it's not much chop, just a side of the road camp, there is a great adventure playground for the kids and an outdoor shower so you he to keep your cloths on, but as they say any port in a storm. Oh the surrounding trees contain heaps of bush tucker, it's a shame they don't have a sign for the plants, but we recognised some & picked some others to see if we can identify them later in our journey. Coordinates of the park 19o10'37.37"S 146o33'02.71"E Elevation 11m about 20k from N of Townsville.
Posted Thursday 17th January 2013
Well the camp from Tuesday wasn't that good after all, we couldn't run our genny because it's too loud and there were quite a few other campers around, the breeze died down as soon at the sun went down, so it was a very airless night, had heaps of trouble sleeping. Yesterday we were sent on a wild goose chase, of should I call it a wild rabbit chase? We dropped in at the gun shop in Townsville S had to get new sights for his gun, the bloke there tells a story of rabbits & deer galore on the Hervey Ranges, so hoping to get something in the pot we set off, needless to say about 150klms of dry dirt road later, no sign of even a rabbit hole let alone a rabbit. We limped into our current camp just short of Charters Towers. It's turned out to be a very nice camp, we are down by the river with a far bit of shade. There is another camp site up on the hill but now shade there. Haven't caught any fish (i think we'll have to go back home to catch one at this rate!) but we're taking it easy today, this part of the country is very boring with nothing but cows and grass so we'll head out tonight and try to do some hunting. Who know maybe we will find a rabbit.***
*** I didn't believe there were rabbits above the Tropic of Capricorn until the other week when I saw one on the Savannah Way (it could have been an escaped pet) I'll have to keep my mind open
On the 13th we dropped into Mount Molloy and I bought the worlds largest hamburger for his majesty's birthday it was huge, but he thought he could do better so on Wednesday he made the world's most delicious burger here is the recipe can you do better?
Makes 2
Ingredients
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion sliced
2 slices fresh pineapple
2 ripe mango cheeks
2 eggs
2 buffalo steaks ( can have cow if you prefer)
2 buttered wholemeal hamberger buns.
1 grated carrot
few slices tasty cheese
some Cos lettuce
1 tomato sliced
few slices of green capsicum
2 slices beetroot
sauce of your choice we had mango & basil chutney
Method
Spray table with areoguard to deter flies*. Heat oil in fry pan, add onions & cook till clear. Add pineapple to pan and fry gently. Prepare the raw ingredients (butter buns, slice cheese grate carrot etc) After about 5 mins turn pineapple slices and place onion onto the pineapple slices, add steaks to pan. Wash ginger ants off the steaks.** Cook steaks very briefly about 1.5 mins each side (you may want more time for cow) Remove steaks from heat and allow to stand. Add eggs to pan and fry gently, turn over 1/2 way (i think this is called over-easy) Assemble your hamburger and enjoy yum!
* omit this step if you're not in cow country.
** you may choose to skip this step.
Posted 18/01/2013
Today we are camped at Porcupine Gorge NP about 65kms N of Hughenden it's quite pretty here. This morning we walked down to the gorge which is about 1.2kms, the walk down is easy the walk back up much more challenging. Down the bottom is a creek running through the water is lovely and cool, I had packed sandwiches and intended on staying longer, but there was not much shade so after we'd had a dip and a drink we set off back upstairs. Last night on the way to the gorge we caught 2 rabbits, we are going out again tonight to see if we can catch anymore. Yesterday we decided to have an experiment and travel at night, we left about 4:30, it worked out very well, much cooler traveling in the evening, the sun is setting about 7pm so we still get to see a lot. Arrived at campsite not too tired, we will leave here again tomorrow at about 4pm. Bugger we've had the campsite all to ourselves for till now but some campers just arrived, will probably have to turn off genny :o(
Posted 23/01/2013
We've had a pretty tiring time of it the last couple of days. We left Porcupine Gorge last Thursday and headed for Mt Isa. The day was extremely hot, the wind was blowing a gale of very hot air. We stopped for lunch at Hughenden where there is a lake and a water park. The drive between Charters Towers and Cloncurry is very flat, the country as far as the eye can see has been cleared and there is no break for the hot wind. there was no suitable campsite** so we pushed on to Mt Isa. We stayed in the caravan park there. I was supposed to be 4 stars but the swimming pool was green, the camp kettle was broken the staff were quite rude, the grounds were untidy with leaves and sticks from the trees, and the laundry cost $6 per load! I won't be staying there again!
We left Mt Isa on Monday after I picked up the number plate for the trailer.. we have been driving around Queensland for nearly a month and have only been queried once on not having a number plate.
As it has still not rained we decided to try an alternate route to Cameron's corner. We scrapped the idea of going via Birdsville and started down towards Burke, we can head west from there. Monday was still very hot with a strong headwind as we headed down towards Winton. We stopped at the pup where Banjo Patterson first sung Waltzing Matilda and had a quick drink. We were directed by the barmaid to camp at the local water hole. It was the best camp available. Unfortunately the creek and trees have all been fenced off to protect them so we couldn't camp close to the creek. The wind blew hot all night so we decided to leave very early in the morning about 2am. We arrived at our current campsite about 10am yesterday. We have some shade! The wind is still blowing but is not quiet as strong or hot. We will spend a couple of days here. We're going into town (Longreach) tomorrow to check out the Qantas Museum. Oh great the bananas have ripened having a banana sanga for lunch :o)
**(There was a possible campsite at Julia River along the river, but we were hoping for a bit more shade)
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Just chilln again
Posted Friday 11th January 2013
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forrest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangos so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunatly we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
(will be off to chocky factory tomorrow ;oD
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forrest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangos so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunatly we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
(will be off to chocky factory tomorrow ;oD
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Hi am in cooktown !! (now updated :))
POSTED Saturday 4th Jan 2013
It's been several days since we left the Burke & Wills camp. We continued on down the Savannah Way to Normantown & then on to Karumba. When we first arrived in town we were not impressed, the caravan park in which we intended to stay had little shade & the town was quite ugly, it is a port for exporting cattle. One important thing to note is that you can get diesel there for $1.60/lt which is much cheaper than in Normantown $1.77. We were just about to leave when we found another section of the town, across the way. That part must be the tourist part, there were several shops 2 more caravan parks and several houses. You also have access to the beach from this section. We stayed in the older caravan park as it had more shade, if I had to pick again I think the one closer to the water would be better as it might get more breeze.
When we pulled up to book in S turned off Dorothy, and then she wouldn't start again! He tried & tried, the man from the park came out to try and jump start her but no go. Finally we got started with a tow, start. The battery was very hot, next morning she still wouldn't start so we had to get AANT (RACQ). Turns out to be a battery so we had to buy one from them $205 :o( but at least we get 2 years warranty, the old battery was only 18month old but only 1 year warranty.
We went down the beach and put in a couple of crab pots, next morning we had 2 muddies and a barra, You're not allowed to catch barra at this time of year but, he was dead & still fresh so we kept him. We were going to spend that night on the beach but there is only one tide per day in the gulf, so we packed up and went to our next camp site. This site was about 20kms out of Normantown, there is a creek and an old abandoned camp ground. We put some pots in, when we were walking along the bank there was a big splash and I saw a crock in the water, S says it was a freshy but looked like a small salty to me.
We had no luck getting any cherabin or redclaw and the water was a bit to dirty any way so we left to continue the journey. We stopped at Normantown again on the way out, we were thinking about going the back way to Cooktown but the tourist guy and AANT guy said it would be too wet. Turns out they've had no rain here yet and all the creeks along the suggested way were empty. The 2 most interesting things along this route Cobbold Gorge and Undara Caves were closed for the season, so we should have gone the back way after all.
There was a mango tree with a sign 'Water Me' that had some nice mangos on it, at Mt Surprise there is a free car wash that cooled the car down. We've arrived at a very nice campsite just short of Ravenshoe. there is a nice clean creek running through and lots of shade, we'll stat here for 2 days.
17o38'50.26" S
145o20'51.07"E
POSTED 8th Jan 2013
17o23'83.60" S
145o09'48.46"E
We've arrived at a lovely campsite east of Irvinvale. Yesterday we going to camp @ lake Tinaroo we drove around the checked out the curtain fig & cathedral fig both were really cool but I couldn't see any figs. The lake was full of blue green algae so we couldn't camp. (also you have to pay to camp there and I'm not willing to fork out money to camp by a lake I can't fish, swim in or drink from thank you very much!! )
In Atherton we had a look at the crystal caves $22.50 each but well worth it. It has crystals and fossils from all over the world and the worlds largest amethyst rock. It was really cool. We dropped in at the Atherton Tourist Information, they weren't a lot of help the woman suggested a camp site between Herberton and Irvinvale, but turns out the camp site is non existent. You can camp on the common at Irvinvale, but we wanted to use our generator and there was no water in the creek so we moved on. The road is unsealed and very rough with a 10% incline in some places. He who shall not be named had to climb some hills in 1st gear (he still wont let me drive loll) Herbertville and Irvingvale are quite interesting and full of history from the tin mines in the 1880s, I prefer Irvingvale and it it more authentic. We found this campsite about 5pm. There is a dam with swans & ducks, in the evening a family of wallabies came down for a drink. The water too muddy to drink but OK for a wash up.
POSTED 9th Jan 2013
Today we continued on our journey to Cooktown we stopped at Mareeba at the chocolate and coffee factory you can eat all the chocolate and drink all the coffee & tea you like for $19 per head, and IF you have one of their brochures you get $5 off so we only paid $28. We scoffed lots of chockies, drank a mountain of coffee and I forgot to mention about the liquors we scoffed them down at well, I liked the coffee liquor at 22% best. They also have a really interesting coffee museum where you can look at a vast collection of coffee & tea memorabilia we certainly had a lovely morning. To top it off you only have to ask and they will give you a free pass to enter again next time! The lady didn't look impressed when I asked but handed over the pass anyway. We'll be back later :) We found a nice campsite on the way to Cooktown, the water is clear and there is plenty of shade so all is good.
Camp's location 145o25'01.23"E 16o58'78.63"S
Friday 11th January 2013
Yesterday we arrived at Cooktown. On the way we saw the Black Mountains, absolutely amazing! They look like a huge dump truck has come in and dropped a load of granite rocks onto the ground. They were formed by the lava cooling too fast and causing the granite to crack up. The top layer of clay quickly eroded and then you were left with a whole lot of granite rocks, that have now eroded to round boulders. There is no soil on the rocks so plants can't live there. So now you just have these big piles of rock with just a few plants that don't need dirt hanging on, very weird.
Cooktown is a nice little village not really set up for tourists. The main occupation seems to be fishing with lots of boats in the water. It is the first landing place of James Cook, so there are a few monuments. I found the museum most interesting. It was an old convent boarding school before the war and there is lots of history about the nuns and the girls that went there. There is of course some history about Cook and the Endeavour's anchor. The old building is lovely and the grounds though small have an interesting array of plants.
We camped overnight by the beach at the mouth of the Annan River. It's quite hard to find you have to go down by the golf course on a sandy 4WD track to the beach, then you make your way along to the river. We got out directions from the bait shop. S nearly caught a sting ray, had him almost on the beach but the line snapped. I also nearly caught something, it ran out all my line and nearly pulled me into the water, unfortunately it was too big and my line snapped as well.
We put some pots in, we'll see if we get some crabs or lobsters about 2pm today.
It's quite hot here on the beach, we have plenty of shade but the air temp is high. I'm sitting under a tree, about to get another coke, S is fishing, he keeps nearly getting the big one but no luck so far. Earlier today we were inundated by the tide, had to move the car and gear so it didn't get wet. Table and chairs had water around them, just when we thought we would end up with wet bums, the tide turned and went out again. The camp site is very picturesque but too many people have left their rubbish, I will pick up 10 pieces of their rubbish, if everyone did the same, the place would be clean in no time!
In the area of the campsite there are several coconut trees and some other bush tucker trees so we won't go hungry, S just returned with a shooting coconut, yum better go :o)
It's been several days since we left the Burke & Wills camp. We continued on down the Savannah Way to Normantown & then on to Karumba. When we first arrived in town we were not impressed, the caravan park in which we intended to stay had little shade & the town was quite ugly, it is a port for exporting cattle. One important thing to note is that you can get diesel there for $1.60/lt which is much cheaper than in Normantown $1.77. We were just about to leave when we found another section of the town, across the way. That part must be the tourist part, there were several shops 2 more caravan parks and several houses. You also have access to the beach from this section. We stayed in the older caravan park as it had more shade, if I had to pick again I think the one closer to the water would be better as it might get more breeze.
When we pulled up to book in S turned off Dorothy, and then she wouldn't start again! He tried & tried, the man from the park came out to try and jump start her but no go. Finally we got started with a tow, start. The battery was very hot, next morning she still wouldn't start so we had to get AANT (RACQ). Turns out to be a battery so we had to buy one from them $205 :o( but at least we get 2 years warranty, the old battery was only 18month old but only 1 year warranty.
We went down the beach and put in a couple of crab pots, next morning we had 2 muddies and a barra, You're not allowed to catch barra at this time of year but, he was dead & still fresh so we kept him. We were going to spend that night on the beach but there is only one tide per day in the gulf, so we packed up and went to our next camp site. This site was about 20kms out of Normantown, there is a creek and an old abandoned camp ground. We put some pots in, when we were walking along the bank there was a big splash and I saw a crock in the water, S says it was a freshy but looked like a small salty to me.
We had no luck getting any cherabin or redclaw and the water was a bit to dirty any way so we left to continue the journey. We stopped at Normantown again on the way out, we were thinking about going the back way to Cooktown but the tourist guy and AANT guy said it would be too wet. Turns out they've had no rain here yet and all the creeks along the suggested way were empty. The 2 most interesting things along this route Cobbold Gorge and Undara Caves were closed for the season, so we should have gone the back way after all.
There was a mango tree with a sign 'Water Me' that had some nice mangos on it, at Mt Surprise there is a free car wash that cooled the car down. We've arrived at a very nice campsite just short of Ravenshoe. there is a nice clean creek running through and lots of shade, we'll stat here for 2 days.
17o38'50.26" S
145o20'51.07"E
POSTED 8th Jan 2013
17o23'83.60" S
145o09'48.46"E
We've arrived at a lovely campsite east of Irvinvale. Yesterday we going to camp @ lake Tinaroo we drove around the checked out the curtain fig & cathedral fig both were really cool but I couldn't see any figs. The lake was full of blue green algae so we couldn't camp. (also you have to pay to camp there and I'm not willing to fork out money to camp by a lake I can't fish, swim in or drink from thank you very much!! )
In Atherton we had a look at the crystal caves $22.50 each but well worth it. It has crystals and fossils from all over the world and the worlds largest amethyst rock. It was really cool. We dropped in at the Atherton Tourist Information, they weren't a lot of help the woman suggested a camp site between Herberton and Irvinvale, but turns out the camp site is non existent. You can camp on the common at Irvinvale, but we wanted to use our generator and there was no water in the creek so we moved on. The road is unsealed and very rough with a 10% incline in some places. He who shall not be named had to climb some hills in 1st gear (he still wont let me drive loll) Herbertville and Irvingvale are quite interesting and full of history from the tin mines in the 1880s, I prefer Irvingvale and it it more authentic. We found this campsite about 5pm. There is a dam with swans & ducks, in the evening a family of wallabies came down for a drink. The water too muddy to drink but OK for a wash up.
POSTED 9th Jan 2013
Today we continued on our journey to Cooktown we stopped at Mareeba at the chocolate and coffee factory you can eat all the chocolate and drink all the coffee & tea you like for $19 per head, and IF you have one of their brochures you get $5 off so we only paid $28. We scoffed lots of chockies, drank a mountain of coffee and I forgot to mention about the liquors we scoffed them down at well, I liked the coffee liquor at 22% best. They also have a really interesting coffee museum where you can look at a vast collection of coffee & tea memorabilia we certainly had a lovely morning. To top it off you only have to ask and they will give you a free pass to enter again next time! The lady didn't look impressed when I asked but handed over the pass anyway. We'll be back later :) We found a nice campsite on the way to Cooktown, the water is clear and there is plenty of shade so all is good.
Camp's location 145o25'01.23"E 16o58'78.63"S
Friday 11th January 2013
Yesterday we arrived at Cooktown. On the way we saw the Black Mountains, absolutely amazing! They look like a huge dump truck has come in and dropped a load of granite rocks onto the ground. They were formed by the lava cooling too fast and causing the granite to crack up. The top layer of clay quickly eroded and then you were left with a whole lot of granite rocks, that have now eroded to round boulders. There is no soil on the rocks so plants can't live there. So now you just have these big piles of rock with just a few plants that don't need dirt hanging on, very weird.
Cooktown is a nice little village not really set up for tourists. The main occupation seems to be fishing with lots of boats in the water. It is the first landing place of James Cook, so there are a few monuments. I found the museum most interesting. It was an old convent boarding school before the war and there is lots of history about the nuns and the girls that went there. There is of course some history about Cook and the Endeavour's anchor. The old building is lovely and the grounds though small have an interesting array of plants.
We camped overnight by the beach at the mouth of the Annan River. It's quite hard to find you have to go down by the golf course on a sandy 4WD track to the beach, then you make your way along to the river. We got out directions from the bait shop. S nearly caught a sting ray, had him almost on the beach but the line snapped. I also nearly caught something, it ran out all my line and nearly pulled me into the water, unfortunately it was too big and my line snapped as well.
We put some pots in, we'll see if we get some crabs or lobsters about 2pm today.
It's quite hot here on the beach, we have plenty of shade but the air temp is high. I'm sitting under a tree, about to get another coke, S is fishing, he keeps nearly getting the big one but no luck so far. Earlier today we were inundated by the tide, had to move the car and gear so it didn't get wet. Table and chairs had water around them, just when we thought we would end up with wet bums, the tide turned and went out again. The camp site is very picturesque but too many people have left their rubbish, I will pick up 10 pieces of their rubbish, if everyone did the same, the place would be clean in no time!
In the area of the campsite there are several coconut trees and some other bush tucker trees so we won't go hungry, S just returned with a shooting coconut, yum better go :o)
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
The Bourketown Adventure lol
Posted Monday 31st December
Well it's been a difficult couple of days. Yesterday we only traveled 40 klms when we came to a creek just out of Burketown. The water was flowing and there was a good camp site so we decided to have an early camp. During the day 6 different cars from Burketown drove over the bridge and then turned around & went back again it was quite odd. We thought we must be the talk of the of the town. We had Internet coverage so I updated the blog and Facebook etc while the boss went fishing. He caught 2 small sharks and 5 good sized catfish in the pots he got some freshwater prawns. In the late afternoon some of the locals (white fellas) started to come down for a fish, they would fish for about 20 mins then go off again for about 1/2 hour then they would come back again. The same cars with different people over and over. There was at least 6 car's worth. This continued all evening, just when we thought they were gone back they would come getting drunker and drunker and laughing and swearing. In all this time they caught no fish, just kept casting and drinking and driving back to town. By about 10pm we decided to go. We thought it best to wait until they went on one of their beer runs, before packing up and leaving so as not to draw attention to ourselves. Unfortunately from then onwards there was always at least 1 car load there. Finally at about 2pm they all went off again, I heard them talking about coming back later, so we leapt up packed up the remainder of out stuff and zoomed out of there asap. While we were packing they were just down the road revving their engines, we could see them as we left parked about 500 metres down the road. Mad Maxish or what.
We drove about 50 kms down the road, wallabies all over the place we ended up hitting 2 and a bird flew up and bashed itself into the windscreen. We were looking for another camp site all along the way but the ground was very soft at one stage we nearly got bogged on a side road, we finally camped in the driveway of Floraville Station, the dog started barking but luckily the station owner just shouted for him to settle down. We we did want an adventure but I'd prefer a little less scary next time.
Today we got up early, and drove to Burke and Will's North-most camp, camp 110. We have camped here for the night. There doesn't seem to be any markings but they may be further up the road. There is so much food here I can't understand why they didn't stop for a while and rest up. I know they had to get back to the base camp, but you could easily get fat living out this way. Wallabies, bush turkey's big grey birds with red heads (gotta find out what they are) *edit I think they might have been brolgas* loads of other birds and plenty of water and fish. I'll have to study up on what they did while they were here. I took some pix of the where their camp is marked on the map. PS the water in this river is brackish, and tidal.
Fuel : We used up all but 80 litres of Diesel and have just started on the second 20 lt. container of petrol for the genie. Well mozzies are out, there still doesn't seem to be many flies, but millions of burrs. No walking around in bare feet in this camp!!
Good night. :o) (oh yea happy new year)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)