When indecision sets in!

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Day 74 - Cania Gorge to Byfield State Forest via Biloela, Gladstone and Rockhampton!

The day started clear and bright but mighty cold! Lordy, Lordy! We were surprised to see our neighbours still there when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed just after 7am, they were supposed to be setting off early but it looked like the cold morning at caught them out too! It’s great to be on a caravan park when you’re in need of a hot shower but with water in such short supply out here they exercise the ‘light spray’ option so we’d probably have a better one with the solar shower … although not this morning as it’s too cold!!

We’ve been told that Mount Morgan is a fantastic oldy, worldy mining town and as it’s on the way to our chosen free camp site we’re heading there. The journey is mainly highway today so we don’t get to see anything too unusual in the early stages. We get to Biloela in good time and stop for fuel then pop into the small tourist information place for a bit more detail on Mount Morgan. This is where things went a bit array! You see when we’d been talking to the people who were telling us about Mount Morgan they’d also included Fossicking in the conversation. We thought that sounded fabulous fun and something completely different. So that was our main intention for heading towards Mount Morgan, except when I asked for some details at the tourist place I found that they must have been at Emerald which is a 4 hour journey inland. Oh well, we decided to carry on to Mount Morgan but somehow ended up on the new road to Rockhampton so now we were really buggered! No drama, a new destination was picked from the Camps book at Caliope, a riverside location which sounded ok for tonight. We got close to Caliope but there was no sign of any nice looking river side rest stop, only a couple really close to the highway! Darn! We were close to lunch time so we headed towards Gladstone to find somewhere to eat. We found a nice spot on the river bank and fed the ducks, it was almost like being at home! Gladstone seemed really built up and very industrial with a huge power station on the outskirts and two of the longest trains we’ve ever seen! One was empty and the other was carrying coal. We counted 50 carriages to the first engine and another 50 after that! Amazing!

So, where to stop now?! We knew that Roger & co were heading to Stanage which is north of Rockhampton but is 70km + of dirt track and there’s nothing listed in the Camps book about any sites up there so we’d be keeping our fingers crossed that we found something and we were a bit too weary for that sort of caper today! Instead we went to plan G which was the Byfield State Forest out from Yepoon. We stopped in the ‘local general store’ which was 20 kms this side of the site as we wanted some firewood for tonight as it’s illegal to collect firewood in a National Park. We found Red Rock camp ground easily enough and after a couple of circuits of the empty spots we picked an area under the pineapple trees away from the track and the day use section. There were already 4 other campers here and another 2 turned up a short time after us.

We said hello to our neighbours and their dog! They were a lovely couple and there’s a chance we’ll see them again in a few days as we’re both heading for Carmilla Beach!

Time was getting on so we lit the fire and got the cooking underway! Sausage casserole tonight with left over veggies, it smelt and tasted delicious! Another good meal by campfire!

We get the torches out for a bit of spotlighting in the pine trees above us but they’re so tall we can’t imagine too much living in them and if there is we can’t see it! We spend a while chatting to the family camped in front of us and the couple beside us, it’s a nice night with the young girls toasting marshmallows on the fire and a scrub turkey wandering dangerously close to the camp fire!

Night everyone

Dar and Sar

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