We Got a Surprise at Mount Surprise

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DAY 272

We leave Normanton just after 10.00 this morning to reconnect with the Savannah Way and head East in the direction of Cairns. I said to Andy just as we pulled out, “Please can we try not to kill anything today?” He said that we would do his best not to.

The Gulflander track follows this road to Croydon, about an hour into our journey we see the Gulflander making its way steadily down the track, it takes about 5 hours to travel from Normanton to Croydon, roughly 125k’s. Andy pulls over a few kilometres down the road so we stop to take a photo as it travels past us. Once we are back on the road again we manage to catch up with it and overtake it again.

We arrive in Croydon, a town that you could easily just drive through and think it of no significance, however we chose to stop and wandered across the park to the Tourist Information just to start looking for the area ahead of us, well I have to say that these guys could not be more helpful. You are greeted outside by one of the staff and then they talk to you about what you are looking for. Inside we find Eleanor who is even keener and eager to help, she is very knowledgeable about the area and even a lot of things on the coast, well she did live in Cairns for 24 years.

We are soon loaded with brochures and camping information, she asks if we want to see the film we agree it is only 17 minutes and we do have time. So we are shown into a nice little dark TV room and we await the start of the film.

Andy and I sit there entranced for a full 17 minutes as this film enlightens us to the history of Croydon and Croydonshire. It is an old gold rush town and a very successful town by all accounts in its time, apparently the town centre was about 18k’s which today shows a very different story, when the gold ran out the town quickly diminished, some folk who were made very rich left and a community remained it is a small but a thriving community steeped in history.

After lunch we continue our journey to Georgetown. The journey takes us from flat landscape through to rolling hills and vast forests that spread out in the distance, the road becomes winding and appears littered with road kill but we soon find out why, from the scrubland that comes right up to the road a kangaroo suddenly appears in the distance, but instead of going right across the road he sits there about two thirds of the way across, Andy slows down, the Kangaroo is still and then suddenly he turns and bounds back to the bush the way he came.

Not long after we see another kangaroo bound across the road in front of us, after not seeing many kangaroos for what feels like months, they suddenly appear on the landscape. We are fortunate to also see an Emu lurking on the side of the road; I hope that it does not decide to run out at the last minute.


We filled up with Diesel in Georgetown, around $1.28 per litre, the prices seem to be coming back down again, but we are getting closer to the Coast and civilisation. We decide to carry on for a bit longer and get as close to Cairns as possible so we continue on to Mount Surprise. This area is popular for fossicking, it is renown for the gems that can be found in the rich soil and creeks that surround the area. I would like to spend a little more time fossicking, however we want to push on into Cairns for the moment so staying here another day is not an option I think Andy is quietly pleased not to spend time out in the bush with the shovel and sieves.

As we drive into Mount Surprise, we find a small surprise; there is a free vehicle wash facility as you enter the small town. Now they are not being nice about you having a nice clean vehicle there is an ulterior motive here which is to stop the spread of the seed of a particular weed (I have no idea which one), so as we have ventured from the Northern Territory into Queensland across dirt roads into National Parks and off the beaten track, goodness knows what we have picked up, so we oblige by running through the vehicle wash.

Andy thinks this is great we get a free car wash and as we are towing the trailer the trailer gets a good clean as well, washing the dust off the cover. Andy suggests that we soap up and run it through again.

We find the campsite recommended by the woman at Tourist Information, her exact words were “that it is run by a couple that really take pride in their work,” we rock up at Bedrock, trouble is, for those of you of a certain age, we now have the theme tune to the Flintstones rattling through our head as we are now singing it on our way down the track to the office.

We are booked in, we have a choice of 3 sites so we go and have a look and choose one in the corner, in record time our bed is made for the night, the kettle is on and we are sitting and enjoying the remainder of the daylight hours. The blog had already been typed and uploaded en-route, which took the pressure off in the evening, and what we have started to do is to download photos in the evening and publish the blog when we are en-route if we are lucky enough to get internet access as we pass through towns. We do look at how we best use our time to make it efficient, otherwise the potential is to drive all day and when we should be relaxing enjoying our evening and making sure we have a good evening meal we are typing the blog and getting it published.

Andy and I calculated that each blog takes about 2.5 hours to produce each day, writing, editing (removing Andy’s swear words), research, photo uploading, and as we have done 310 blogs, multiplied by 2.5 equals 775 hours, then if you divide it by 40 for a standard working week then it equates to 19.37 weeks blogging. That’s a lot of weeks and you guys think we have it easy!

The loos are labelled Fred and Wilma so I guess as long as you know the Flintstones then you might pick the right gender. There is a quiz night in the camp kitchen tonight it sounds quite lively in there, you can also order dinner from them, but you do need to bring your own crockery and cutlery.

We pop back out again just to see what is in the town, there really is not much here a small community with a hotel, fuel station and of course the vehicle wash, just for fun we drive through it again.

Back at camp we have some dinner, I cook some noodles and then add the leftovers of last nights chow mein, heat it all up and bingo we have our dinner for the night, followed by a tin of pears.

We are both tired, the temperature is dropping, we wanted to play cards, but instead decided to have an early night and keep warm in bed.

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Photos

The Pool
At Normanton Tourist Park, it was excellent

The Spa
Welcome after a days driving.

lovely Croydon
On this hot sunny day, it really gave you a feeling of Australia of years gone by.

Lovely Croydon
I think this was really well done

Old Engine
Built in Gainsborough England

The Gilbert River
Serious lack of water

Car wash
A free car wash, on the boarding in to a new county they ask you to drive through this car vehicle wash to get any soil or seeds off that may contaminate their county.