We left Carnarvon Gorge Saturday morning 18th Sept, it had rained most of Friday night and was still raining in the morning (the start of the school holidays) our intention was to get off the dirt road section before the incoming traffic hit it, as it turned out it was very wet, chopped up and plenty of mud, by the time we covered the few kilometers of dirt to the bitumen the van was covered in a heavy build up of thick mud fortunately a couple of hundred clicks down the road at Injune there is a Parthenium weed truck washing facility (high pressure hose) so we (I) spent a good hour hosing off mud. Refuelled and heated up some soup at Roma then drove on to Miles for the night as it's not much fun sight seeing in the rain. Sunday we drove on to Highfields to camp at Nancy's Cousins, Carol and Barry Baldwin and caught up with Carol's sister Ronda and Graham Rosengreen, it was great we haven't seen any of them for so long (my fault) and they are all fabulous people. Barry and Carol have a beautiful home on 4 acres over looking SW Highfields, mind you low cloud set in and you couldn't see the end of the garden. Monday Carol took us into Toowoomba for afternoon tea at Ronda and Grahams, they are doing up a beautiful old queenslander with lovely high ceilings and brilliantly laquered timber floors a lot of work, both Ronda and Carol are very artistic and Ronda has become quite a water painter. Once again we crawled along the range in low cloud.
Tuesday mid morning we set off on our final leg for Brissy deciding to travel the pleasant drive via Esk and as soon as we struck the Hampton - Esk road we were once again engulfed by low cloud we were flat out seeing the road.
Brisbane - Wednesday morning found us snarling at one another, I think we were both suffering travel withdrawal, I don't think it will be too long before we are on the road again.
I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Click on image to enlarge
These 3 semis were at Injune on their way to the Mines each tyre weighs 4 tonnes
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Dawson Mine Moura - Click on Images to Increase Size
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To put things into perspective the small dark shape behind the dragline, is actually a huge bulldozer. How valuable is the coal all this overburden is shifted to expose 3-4 metre layer of coal.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Update 18th Sept
18/09/2010 - For the past week we have been in Carnarvon Gorge, no phone, no Internet, no TV, not even radio – the following post brings my blog up to-date.
Kroombit - Moura - Carnarvon Gorge
From Kroombit we travelled to Moura with a brief stop for a fuel top up and some fresh veggies in Biloela, once again we were only killing time before we headed for Carnarvon Gorge. Stopping at Moura gave us the opportunity to re-arrange a few things and prepare the caravan for dirt road travel, the road into Carnarvon has 27 odd kls of dirt and as it turned out was pretty rough following all the rain and the number of vehicles that traverse it. We were hoping for a coal mine tour but these are no longer carried out, however the mining company has established a well constructed viewing platform on the side of a road together with information about the Moura Mine so we settled for that and found it quite interesting. Someone told us about a free camping area alongside the Dawson River a few kls west of Moura so we checked this out for future reference and found it to be well patronised, a large area with shady trees adjacent to the Dawson River, toilets and coin operated hot showers had been provided by the local shire and a gold coin donation box for volunteer cleaning, the site is big enough to cater for about 50 caravans if people are considerate, but with the Dawson running pretty high in flood I believe it is a haven for midges at this time.
Departing Moura on Monday morning (13th Sept), for Carnarvon Gorge we found the countryside around Moura and several kilometres west to be very flat with a lot of water laying around even across the Dawson Highway in one spot and all the creeks well up. It was a good run to Rolleston travelling through grain and cattle country the countryside once again a real picture, at Rolleston we turned south on the Injune, Roma road officially called the Canarvon Developmental Road. Rolleston is also the last fuel point before Carnarvon approx: 100 kls so a top up was required, there isn’t fuel available at Carnarvon and once we leave on Saturday we will be heading south to Roma, the first available fuel is at Injune approx:150 kls.
Takarakka Bush Resort is the name of the Caravan/Camping ground at Carnarvon it’s approximately 4 kls from the actual Rangers Centre situated at the entrance to the main gorge trail.
Takarakka has at least 70 powered van sites, 33 un-powered sites, 21 canvas cabins plus plenty of tent sites, shower and toilet facilities are excellent, modern, clean and cater well for the large number of people using the park – plenty of hot water, a huge covered camp kitchen is situated on a large grassed oval where kids can play and slide shows are conducted after dark by the park rangers.
There is a very nice, large camping ground at the rangers centre but this is only available for tents and camper trailers and only during Qld school holidays.
The main gorge starts at the rangers centre and the various tracks range from a 2 kilometre circuit to 22 kls return, there is also The Carnarvon Great Walk that consists of an 86 kls circuit and takes about 8 days to complete. Of course we would have done that one but we hadn’t booked in for long enough. (yeah right)
Other easier walks start from car parks between the Takarakka Resort and the Rangers Centre, most of the tracks follow creeks that are formed by water leaching out of sandstone cliffs, winding their way through heavily timbered forests of huge gums and exotic palms. Aboriginal hand paintings are to be found in several areas and a variety of native animals and birds may be seen at any time.
We tackled 9 of the 13 walks over a 4 day period the first two were to be the easiest, not a lot of climbing but numerous crossings of Carnarvon Creek via strategically placed stepping stones, in places the creek is quite wide and all the signs indicate a large volume of water obviously rips through the gorge in heavy rain. On exiting the walking track we discovered we were 3.5 kls along the road from where we had parked the car, after walking a kilometre back towards the car we came across a side track leading to aboriginal rock art and only a kilometre round trip, so we decided to tackle this as we were still feeling pretty good and it would be cooler in the bush. On this particular track the forestation was more open and wasn’t as cooling as other tracks so by the time we got back to the road although we felt ok we both looked pretty hot and bothered and it turned out to be 31 degrees, as we sat on a log resting and having a drink of water a lady and two kids pulled up in a car and asked if we wanted a lift, unfortunately we were going in the other direction so we thanked her and she drove off. A couple of minutes later she arrived back having turned around and called out hop in it’s too hot to walk. That was Natalie from Pullenvale in Brisbane and her children Mia and Luka, they had come out all this way on their own to camp for a few days, what a lovely person that gesture really blew us away. We were quite happy to walk but we were even happier to ride. We covered about 5 kls bush walking that first day and considered that to be a good starter.
Second day (Wednesday 15th) we loaded up our backpacks with plenty of water, a little sustenance and an early start leaving camp at 7:00am to drive the 4kls to the rangers centre at the start of the main gorge track. Our first stop was 4.6 kls through timbered forest and several creek crossings to a steep side track known as Wards Canyon where rare king ferns flourish in a tiny pocket of remnant rain forest, it was like sitting in an air conditioned room with filtered light the sun just penetrating through a narrow fissure many metres above our heads.
From Wards Canyon we worked our way back down the main gorge exploring each side track as we came across them the Moss Garden and Amphitheatre each with its own significance and special features, in all we covered 12 kls that day taking about 6 hours to do so and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.
Thursday we took on a short hike up Mickey Creek, a 3 kls track between the caravan park and the rangers centre, once again there was an abundance of tall timbers, palms, birdlife and the odd pretty face wallaby. A side track off Mickey Creek took us to an area known as Warrumbah, a bit of a climb followed a creek up into a narrow canyon where the formed track finished after which we had to do a fair amount of rock hopping through narrow fissures in sand stone cliffs along rock ledges where you could literally stand on a rock ledge one side and touch the rock overhang on the other side, filtered light penetrated the fissure from many metres above where there was a constant dripping of water seeping through the sandstone cliff accompanied by the mating call of invisible frogs. We rock hopped our way through the fissure until we could go no further without paddling and although the water was crystal clear it was bloody cold so paddling was out, at this point the dim light up ahead always round a bend in the rock fissure gave us the impression that it opened out into forest not far ahead.
On the track back we met our neighbours from the caravan park and told them were we had been, later they told us they had paddle through the fissure another 50 metres and still hadn’t reached the end all the time the light ahead teasing that it wasn’t much further to go. What an incredible place that was, maybe next time I’ll take skin diving booties.
Overnight the weather changed, Friday morning dawned with a very light shower and overcast skies but by 7:20am we were on the track again this time to Boolimba Bluff. We had purposely left this particular hike to last, all of the previous tracks we tackled were classified as Class 3 Australian Standard, Boolimba Bluff is a Class 4 track and consists of 6.4kls turn around and one steep section has a 300m climb of steps and ladders over 1000 in all, but the view from the top of the bluff was worth every step, just a bit unfortunate it was so overcast. While we at the viewing platform Nancy made friends with the only other person up there, he turned out to be a young Frenchman by the name of Nicolas Boucky, Nic as he introduced himself, is a mechanical engineer who had worked for three years in Paris but decided travel was his calling, 10 months of a 12 months visa has seen Nic in more places in Australia than the average Aussie sees in half a life time, Nic came back to our caravan and had lunch with us, what a nice interesting young man.
Rain set in and it turned extremely cold we closed the van up and turned on the aircon heat cycle Nancy chose to get under the blankets – whimp.
For anyone contemplating visiting Carnarvon Gorge we would suggest it’s a must see place with a minimum stay of three nights to appreciate it. The walks are magnificent and none too difficult just need to take your time and have a little preparation and considering the continuous number of people moving in and out of the park and doing the walks you meet surprisingly few people on the tracks particularly the side tracks. There is such a diverse range of natural beauty we loved it and will certainly revisit this beautiful place.
Saturday 18th it rained quite heavily during the night so we didn’t mess around departing Carnarvon Gorge, under normal circumstances you have to ford a couple of creeks and flash flooding would certainly be common in heavy rain, not the sort of place you want to get stuck particularly in wet weather, beautiful in good weather bloody cold and miserable in the wet.
Driving out the 24kls section of gravel road was pretty cut up and muddy but I was very pleased how well the caravan handled the conditions, nothing came adrift and all draws and cupboards were still in place when we reached the bitumen. Both the Toyota and the van were covered in heavy mud so when we got to Injune it took an hour to hose them down at the Parthenium weed truck wash down facility, I didn’t fancy having to do that in Brisbane when we get back.
It was still raining after stopping for a late lunch in Roma so we decided to continue on to Miles for an overnighter, tomorrow we will drive to Toowoomba and spend some time with Nancy’s Cousins.
We covered about 400 kls today.
I must apologise for the lack of photos I am still having trouble down loading them into the blog when on wireless for some reason or other, I will post just a sheet of photos on their own as soon as I can sort it out
Kroombit - Moura - Carnarvon Gorge
From Kroombit we travelled to Moura with a brief stop for a fuel top up and some fresh veggies in Biloela, once again we were only killing time before we headed for Carnarvon Gorge. Stopping at Moura gave us the opportunity to re-arrange a few things and prepare the caravan for dirt road travel, the road into Carnarvon has 27 odd kls of dirt and as it turned out was pretty rough following all the rain and the number of vehicles that traverse it. We were hoping for a coal mine tour but these are no longer carried out, however the mining company has established a well constructed viewing platform on the side of a road together with information about the Moura Mine so we settled for that and found it quite interesting. Someone told us about a free camping area alongside the Dawson River a few kls west of Moura so we checked this out for future reference and found it to be well patronised, a large area with shady trees adjacent to the Dawson River, toilets and coin operated hot showers had been provided by the local shire and a gold coin donation box for volunteer cleaning, the site is big enough to cater for about 50 caravans if people are considerate, but with the Dawson running pretty high in flood I believe it is a haven for midges at this time.
Departing Moura on Monday morning (13th Sept), for Carnarvon Gorge we found the countryside around Moura and several kilometres west to be very flat with a lot of water laying around even across the Dawson Highway in one spot and all the creeks well up. It was a good run to Rolleston travelling through grain and cattle country the countryside once again a real picture, at Rolleston we turned south on the Injune, Roma road officially called the Canarvon Developmental Road. Rolleston is also the last fuel point before Carnarvon approx: 100 kls so a top up was required, there isn’t fuel available at Carnarvon and once we leave on Saturday we will be heading south to Roma, the first available fuel is at Injune approx:150 kls.
Takarakka Bush Resort is the name of the Caravan/Camping ground at Carnarvon it’s approximately 4 kls from the actual Rangers Centre situated at the entrance to the main gorge trail.
Takarakka has at least 70 powered van sites, 33 un-powered sites, 21 canvas cabins plus plenty of tent sites, shower and toilet facilities are excellent, modern, clean and cater well for the large number of people using the park – plenty of hot water, a huge covered camp kitchen is situated on a large grassed oval where kids can play and slide shows are conducted after dark by the park rangers.
There is a very nice, large camping ground at the rangers centre but this is only available for tents and camper trailers and only during Qld school holidays.
The main gorge starts at the rangers centre and the various tracks range from a 2 kilometre circuit to 22 kls return, there is also The Carnarvon Great Walk that consists of an 86 kls circuit and takes about 8 days to complete. Of course we would have done that one but we hadn’t booked in for long enough. (yeah right)
Other easier walks start from car parks between the Takarakka Resort and the Rangers Centre, most of the tracks follow creeks that are formed by water leaching out of sandstone cliffs, winding their way through heavily timbered forests of huge gums and exotic palms. Aboriginal hand paintings are to be found in several areas and a variety of native animals and birds may be seen at any time.
We tackled 9 of the 13 walks over a 4 day period the first two were to be the easiest, not a lot of climbing but numerous crossings of Carnarvon Creek via strategically placed stepping stones, in places the creek is quite wide and all the signs indicate a large volume of water obviously rips through the gorge in heavy rain. On exiting the walking track we discovered we were 3.5 kls along the road from where we had parked the car, after walking a kilometre back towards the car we came across a side track leading to aboriginal rock art and only a kilometre round trip, so we decided to tackle this as we were still feeling pretty good and it would be cooler in the bush. On this particular track the forestation was more open and wasn’t as cooling as other tracks so by the time we got back to the road although we felt ok we both looked pretty hot and bothered and it turned out to be 31 degrees, as we sat on a log resting and having a drink of water a lady and two kids pulled up in a car and asked if we wanted a lift, unfortunately we were going in the other direction so we thanked her and she drove off. A couple of minutes later she arrived back having turned around and called out hop in it’s too hot to walk. That was Natalie from Pullenvale in Brisbane and her children Mia and Luka, they had come out all this way on their own to camp for a few days, what a lovely person that gesture really blew us away. We were quite happy to walk but we were even happier to ride. We covered about 5 kls bush walking that first day and considered that to be a good starter.
Second day (Wednesday 15th) we loaded up our backpacks with plenty of water, a little sustenance and an early start leaving camp at 7:00am to drive the 4kls to the rangers centre at the start of the main gorge track. Our first stop was 4.6 kls through timbered forest and several creek crossings to a steep side track known as Wards Canyon where rare king ferns flourish in a tiny pocket of remnant rain forest, it was like sitting in an air conditioned room with filtered light the sun just penetrating through a narrow fissure many metres above our heads.
From Wards Canyon we worked our way back down the main gorge exploring each side track as we came across them the Moss Garden and Amphitheatre each with its own significance and special features, in all we covered 12 kls that day taking about 6 hours to do so and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.
Thursday we took on a short hike up Mickey Creek, a 3 kls track between the caravan park and the rangers centre, once again there was an abundance of tall timbers, palms, birdlife and the odd pretty face wallaby. A side track off Mickey Creek took us to an area known as Warrumbah, a bit of a climb followed a creek up into a narrow canyon where the formed track finished after which we had to do a fair amount of rock hopping through narrow fissures in sand stone cliffs along rock ledges where you could literally stand on a rock ledge one side and touch the rock overhang on the other side, filtered light penetrated the fissure from many metres above where there was a constant dripping of water seeping through the sandstone cliff accompanied by the mating call of invisible frogs. We rock hopped our way through the fissure until we could go no further without paddling and although the water was crystal clear it was bloody cold so paddling was out, at this point the dim light up ahead always round a bend in the rock fissure gave us the impression that it opened out into forest not far ahead.
On the track back we met our neighbours from the caravan park and told them were we had been, later they told us they had paddle through the fissure another 50 metres and still hadn’t reached the end all the time the light ahead teasing that it wasn’t much further to go. What an incredible place that was, maybe next time I’ll take skin diving booties.
Overnight the weather changed, Friday morning dawned with a very light shower and overcast skies but by 7:20am we were on the track again this time to Boolimba Bluff. We had purposely left this particular hike to last, all of the previous tracks we tackled were classified as Class 3 Australian Standard, Boolimba Bluff is a Class 4 track and consists of 6.4kls turn around and one steep section has a 300m climb of steps and ladders over 1000 in all, but the view from the top of the bluff was worth every step, just a bit unfortunate it was so overcast. While we at the viewing platform Nancy made friends with the only other person up there, he turned out to be a young Frenchman by the name of Nicolas Boucky, Nic as he introduced himself, is a mechanical engineer who had worked for three years in Paris but decided travel was his calling, 10 months of a 12 months visa has seen Nic in more places in Australia than the average Aussie sees in half a life time, Nic came back to our caravan and had lunch with us, what a nice interesting young man.
Rain set in and it turned extremely cold we closed the van up and turned on the aircon heat cycle Nancy chose to get under the blankets – whimp.
For anyone contemplating visiting Carnarvon Gorge we would suggest it’s a must see place with a minimum stay of three nights to appreciate it. The walks are magnificent and none too difficult just need to take your time and have a little preparation and considering the continuous number of people moving in and out of the park and doing the walks you meet surprisingly few people on the tracks particularly the side tracks. There is such a diverse range of natural beauty we loved it and will certainly revisit this beautiful place.
Saturday 18th it rained quite heavily during the night so we didn’t mess around departing Carnarvon Gorge, under normal circumstances you have to ford a couple of creeks and flash flooding would certainly be common in heavy rain, not the sort of place you want to get stuck particularly in wet weather, beautiful in good weather bloody cold and miserable in the wet.
Driving out the 24kls section of gravel road was pretty cut up and muddy but I was very pleased how well the caravan handled the conditions, nothing came adrift and all draws and cupboards were still in place when we reached the bitumen. Both the Toyota and the van were covered in heavy mud so when we got to Injune it took an hour to hose them down at the Parthenium weed truck wash down facility, I didn’t fancy having to do that in Brisbane when we get back.
It was still raining after stopping for a late lunch in Roma so we decided to continue on to Miles for an overnighter, tomorrow we will drive to Toowoomba and spend some time with Nancy’s Cousins.
We covered about 400 kls today.
I must apologise for the lack of photos I am still having trouble down loading them into the blog when on wireless for some reason or other, I will post just a sheet of photos on their own as soon as I can sort it out
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Up date from Moura
Now that we have wireless signals we can bring the blog up todate
Lochanbar Cattle Station – Kroombit
Called a “Hands On Aussie Farmstay” Lochanbar Station is a working cattle property. Although there are a few grassed caravan and motor home powered sites situated in a pleasant setting amongst towering gum trees adjacent to a running creek, the main accommodation facility comprises of a number of log cabin dormitories and high mounted barrack like dongas. Massive sawn log tables and bench seats 40 – 50 feet long are set up for eating in a central communal area, alongside is a camp kitchen cooking area with its wood camp fire and numerous camp ovens and grills, everything is set outdoors under a tin roof to create the right atmosphere. On the other side of what you could classify as the camp compound a chuck wagon acts a bar with a number of huge sawn tree stumps set up as tables and seats where thirsty wringers can relax and have a drink. Next to this a mechanical bull has been set up to form part of the cattle farm experience while creating some good entertainment. A short distance away an area is set up to try the hand at whip cracking. Other activities include clay target shooting, quad bike and horse trail riding, goat mustering both on horse back and quad bikes, a goat rodeo and 4wd cattle station tours depending on how long the stay is for.
Young international backpacker groups appear to be the majority of people that visit Kroombit, mid sized buses (large mini buses) towing luggage trailers wizz these young back packers around the country on package tours staying at places like Kroombit for one or two nights max and then on to somewhere else.
We spent 2 nights at Kroombit during this time 2 buses as previously described arrived about mid-day and young back packers quickly got involved in as many activities as they could. As night fell, as to be expected the chuck wagon bar became very popular while everyone waited for their camp kitchen dinner. Later the property owner gave a talk on local history and then demonstrated how to crack a stock whip, everybody then moved to the area set aside for this activity and the majority had a go at cracking a whip with a bit of tuition from Allan the owner and his band of young female staff, all of whom were very patient. This was followed by mechanical bull riding which of course was quite a source of entertainment and NO I didn’t have a go, fortunately I can claim age as an excuse and a good reason for not making a complete fool of myself.
All credit to these young foreigners they were very polite and well behaved albeit they were probably exhausted from their non-stop tour.
6:45 am the following day they were on their way again one bus going north the other south I believe at least one bus had an eleven hour journey ahead of them !!!
It was also time for us to pack up and move on, well a couple of hours later anyway and by the time we departed two more similar buses loaded with back packers had all ready arrived.
Summing up Kroombit, the two families involved in the property have endeavoured to create the impression of a traditional western cattle camp and give people a feel for the type of life wringers of earlier days would have lived. Certainly young foreign back packers find it an enjoyable experience and get to see something different including kangaroos. Personally, the ambience would have been there once but now it appears very tired and looking at some of the camp kitchen areas such as food prep and dish washing etc – hmm. However we enjoyed the tranquillity and setting, did some 4wd bush bashing ourselves, had some good laughs and met some nice young people all in all it was another experience.
Next stop Moura
Lochanbar Cattle Station – Kroombit
Called a “Hands On Aussie Farmstay” Lochanbar Station is a working cattle property. Although there are a few grassed caravan and motor home powered sites situated in a pleasant setting amongst towering gum trees adjacent to a running creek, the main accommodation facility comprises of a number of log cabin dormitories and high mounted barrack like dongas. Massive sawn log tables and bench seats 40 – 50 feet long are set up for eating in a central communal area, alongside is a camp kitchen cooking area with its wood camp fire and numerous camp ovens and grills, everything is set outdoors under a tin roof to create the right atmosphere. On the other side of what you could classify as the camp compound a chuck wagon acts a bar with a number of huge sawn tree stumps set up as tables and seats where thirsty wringers can relax and have a drink. Next to this a mechanical bull has been set up to form part of the cattle farm experience while creating some good entertainment. A short distance away an area is set up to try the hand at whip cracking. Other activities include clay target shooting, quad bike and horse trail riding, goat mustering both on horse back and quad bikes, a goat rodeo and 4wd cattle station tours depending on how long the stay is for.
Young international backpacker groups appear to be the majority of people that visit Kroombit, mid sized buses (large mini buses) towing luggage trailers wizz these young back packers around the country on package tours staying at places like Kroombit for one or two nights max and then on to somewhere else.
We spent 2 nights at Kroombit during this time 2 buses as previously described arrived about mid-day and young back packers quickly got involved in as many activities as they could. As night fell, as to be expected the chuck wagon bar became very popular while everyone waited for their camp kitchen dinner. Later the property owner gave a talk on local history and then demonstrated how to crack a stock whip, everybody then moved to the area set aside for this activity and the majority had a go at cracking a whip with a bit of tuition from Allan the owner and his band of young female staff, all of whom were very patient. This was followed by mechanical bull riding which of course was quite a source of entertainment and NO I didn’t have a go, fortunately I can claim age as an excuse and a good reason for not making a complete fool of myself.
All credit to these young foreigners they were very polite and well behaved albeit they were probably exhausted from their non-stop tour.
6:45 am the following day they were on their way again one bus going north the other south I believe at least one bus had an eleven hour journey ahead of them !!!
It was also time for us to pack up and move on, well a couple of hours later anyway and by the time we departed two more similar buses loaded with back packers had all ready arrived.
Summing up Kroombit, the two families involved in the property have endeavoured to create the impression of a traditional western cattle camp and give people a feel for the type of life wringers of earlier days would have lived. Certainly young foreign back packers find it an enjoyable experience and get to see something different including kangaroos. Personally, the ambience would have been there once but now it appears very tired and looking at some of the camp kitchen areas such as food prep and dish washing etc – hmm. However we enjoyed the tranquillity and setting, did some 4wd bush bashing ourselves, had some good laughs and met some nice young people all in all it was another experience.
Next stop Moura
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Cania Gorge
Sunday 5th Sep we travelled through showers from Munduberra to Cania Gorge passing through Eidsvold an attractive looking town, then Monto where we picked up a few necessities at the only open foodstore, we had considered staying one night in Monto but driving through it was enough to spur us on directly to Cania Gorge where we set up in the rain.
Sunday night the rain bucketed down, apparently 100mm or 4 inches in the old scale and we did have a drip from the corner of the airconditioner, nothing serious but it will need to be tracked down once back in Brisbane, other than that we haven’t had any problems – touch wood.
Monday saw a substantial improvement in the weather with the sun out and only an odd shower, it was nice to relax and read to while away the time with just the sound of birdlife in the trees the peace was blissful. During the afternoon we drove 10kls to the Cania Dam for a look and stretched our legs with a short bush walk.
A starry night heralded fine weather and with it quite a drop in night temperature, the electric blanket was a godsend however and the bonus that it was followed by several days of perfect weather, clear skies and warm temps. Over a couple of days we did a bit of bush walking that was most enjoyable both of us needing the exercise but we had to take it easy as poor old Nancy’s Sciatic nerve in her hip has been giving her hell lately and as much as she wanted to do things it was obviously very painful.
Thursday 9th Sept we decided itchy feet were getting the better of us so we packed up reasonably early and departed the serenity of Cania Gorge, Nancy had suggested staying at a place called Lochenbar Station a working cattle station farmstay located 35 kls south east of Biloela and adjacent to Kroombit National Park. The drive between Cania and Biloela is through cattle grazing country and was an absolute picture with it’s fresh look from the good rains they have enjoyed in recent months, I have never seen Queensland country areas look so green not like New Zealands emerald green, this has a beauty of its own.
Sunday night the rain bucketed down, apparently 100mm or 4 inches in the old scale and we did have a drip from the corner of the airconditioner, nothing serious but it will need to be tracked down once back in Brisbane, other than that we haven’t had any problems – touch wood.
Monday saw a substantial improvement in the weather with the sun out and only an odd shower, it was nice to relax and read to while away the time with just the sound of birdlife in the trees the peace was blissful. During the afternoon we drove 10kls to the Cania Dam for a look and stretched our legs with a short bush walk.
A starry night heralded fine weather and with it quite a drop in night temperature, the electric blanket was a godsend however and the bonus that it was followed by several days of perfect weather, clear skies and warm temps. Over a couple of days we did a bit of bush walking that was most enjoyable both of us needing the exercise but we had to take it easy as poor old Nancy’s Sciatic nerve in her hip has been giving her hell lately and as much as she wanted to do things it was obviously very painful.
Thursday 9th Sept we decided itchy feet were getting the better of us so we packed up reasonably early and departed the serenity of Cania Gorge, Nancy had suggested staying at a place called Lochenbar Station a working cattle station farmstay located 35 kls south east of Biloela and adjacent to Kroombit National Park. The drive between Cania and Biloela is through cattle grazing country and was an absolute picture with it’s fresh look from the good rains they have enjoyed in recent months, I have never seen Queensland country areas look so green not like New Zealands emerald green, this has a beauty of its own.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Munduberra
Munduberra for those that don't know, is a citrus growing area in what is called the North Burnett region, it's about 200 kls due west of Bundaberg situated on the Burnett River. Although Citrus is considered the primary product produced in the are, beef cattle, pecan nuts and stone fruit are also well represented. I believe the population of Munduberra is just over 2000 under normal conditions but from April until Sept there is a huge influx of itinerant workers mainly fruit pickers that decend on the place, the majority seem to stay in caravan parks and many of them are young Koreans. According to reports they all seem pretty well behaved.
We are staying at the Three Rivers Caravan Park for a couple of nights, for no particular reason as there isn't much to see or do here, but there was great excitment and anticipation in town when we arrived as the annual fishing comp was being held this weekend, so we sauntered along to the 1130am weigh in on Saturday for a looksee but can't say fresh water fishing is inspirational, they look horrible and smell as bad, at least I think it was the fish.
While I made a potential life changing investment in the local news agents Nancy checked out the local IGA supermarket, God she's got to get a life.
Munduberras main street is a couple of hundred metres long and like a lot of country towns, very wide with roadside and centre parking, it has a variety of small shops that cater for the local community. The place must be dead in the off season.
Three Rivers Caravan Park is very well set out with wide concrete roads, large sites with hedgerows, concrete pads for vans and annexes, large ablusion block, plenty of hot water, good pressure and very clean and tidy, without a doubt would have to be the best CP we have stopped in. tomorrow we are heading to Monto and on to Cania Gorge.
We are staying at the Three Rivers Caravan Park for a couple of nights, for no particular reason as there isn't much to see or do here, but there was great excitment and anticipation in town when we arrived as the annual fishing comp was being held this weekend, so we sauntered along to the 1130am weigh in on Saturday for a looksee but can't say fresh water fishing is inspirational, they look horrible and smell as bad, at least I think it was the fish.
While I made a potential life changing investment in the local news agents Nancy checked out the local IGA supermarket, God she's got to get a life.
Munduberras main street is a couple of hundred metres long and like a lot of country towns, very wide with roadside and centre parking, it has a variety of small shops that cater for the local community. The place must be dead in the off season.
Three Rivers Caravan Park is very well set out with wide concrete roads, large sites with hedgerows, concrete pads for vans and annexes, large ablusion block, plenty of hot water, good pressure and very clean and tidy, without a doubt would have to be the best CP we have stopped in. tomorrow we are heading to Monto and on to Cania Gorge.
Munduberra
Munduberra Saturday morning shopping big wide street with centre parking.
Getting excited at the fishing comp weigh in.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Blog update
My last entry mentioned how tight the caravan position was at Mooloolaba and it was no mean feat getting out without sustaining any damage or causing any carnage but it did require the assisstance of a couple of good helpers and the relocation of somones car and annexe.
We didn't journey far settling in at Tewantin about 3/4 hr later for a couple of days enabling us to catch up with Nancy's brother Barry and his wife Joe. At least the van site was easy to reverse into and well away from neighbours.
Our next port of call was Maryborough, we booked into a CP near the city for 3 nights with Nancy wondering what the hell we were going to do for 3 days well surprise surprise we stayed an extra day, what an amazing little city, so much history, so much pride and people involvement. Each day we enjoyed a 20 minute walk into town to do all the touristy things such as historical and heritage walks etc but we also spent quite a bit of time just walking and driving around the streets looking and photographing the beautiful old homes that abound in the this place, obviously a mecca for historians.
As a good gesture to the people of Maryborogh we endeavoured to boost the local economy as much as possible by buying out Aldi, Bunnings, Woolworths and the local camping store plus all the vendors at the weekly market held in the centre of town every Thursday, which Nancy considered was the best market she had been to.
Tomorrow we are off to Munduberra for a couple of nights (only because we have never been there) and then weather permitting we will head for Cania Gorge near Monto.
We didn't journey far settling in at Tewantin about 3/4 hr later for a couple of days enabling us to catch up with Nancy's brother Barry and his wife Joe. At least the van site was easy to reverse into and well away from neighbours.
Our next port of call was Maryborough, we booked into a CP near the city for 3 nights with Nancy wondering what the hell we were going to do for 3 days well surprise surprise we stayed an extra day, what an amazing little city, so much history, so much pride and people involvement. Each day we enjoyed a 20 minute walk into town to do all the touristy things such as historical and heritage walks etc but we also spent quite a bit of time just walking and driving around the streets looking and photographing the beautiful old homes that abound in the this place, obviously a mecca for historians.
As a good gesture to the people of Maryborogh we endeavoured to boost the local economy as much as possible by buying out Aldi, Bunnings, Woolworths and the local camping store plus all the vendors at the weekly market held in the centre of town every Thursday, which Nancy considered was the best market she had been to.
Tomorrow we are off to Munduberra for a couple of nights (only because we have never been there) and then weather permitting we will head for Cania Gorge near Monto.
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