Some might say we don’t have a plan...

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Last blog had us in Quilpie, S.W Qld., well we are still in Qld but now heading East(ish); we keep hearing horror stories about the temps back home and are very reluctant to go too far South. Mind you the overnight temperatures here are freezing and we are very glad of the gas heater. 6 degrees inside in the morning is jolly cold. We desperately needed to do washing, not to mention all the water management (love that phrase) things so we opted for the only caravan park in town. It was a good choice as it was quite a friendly place with a Happy Hour around a hugefire pit at 4.30 – no waiting around until 5 for a drink! The owner kept the fire going with great pieces of wood and we have found that the wood of choice is from the Gidgee tree – it is a hot burning wood that burns down to beautiful coals for cooking and ends in white ash. Well these things are important for the free camper.

We know that we all understand the 6 degrees of separation theory, but it happened to us at the Happy Hour here. Marg was sitting next to a couple, “where are you from...” which is a common ice breaker and the reply was “Noosa”. As you know we spent some time with Marg’s sister and brother in law (Allan ) on the way north he was waiting for the appropriate weather to play the decider in the golf club championship as we were leaving. It happened in the week after we left. Getting back to happy hour, Marg replied “oh, you might know my sister’s family”. The fellow said, “yes the name is familiar”, to which Marg replied “he plays golf at the local golf club”. The chap’s face lit up, “yes, yes” he said, “My partner and I played him and his partner in the championship recently”. In the middle of Quilpie, what are the chances? Unfortunately our brother in law, Allan lost.

We had intended to stay at a riverside free camp at Quilpie, but after looking long and hard at what was on offer (free is a great motivator) we ended up at the caravan park, the main issue being that the forecast was not good and the soils around the river had the very real potential to become somewhat like quick-sand. Having settled in at the C.P we took another look around town at lunch time and unfortunately found the local bakery. They only had plain pies or sausage rolls left, but they did the damage... we had to go back the following day to try the other varieties on offer. The local Information centre (place of worship for all travellers, irrespective of religion), was hosting a show of the Quilpie quilters and Marg wanted to have a look at that, and we followed that up with a trip to another local camp area known as Lake Houdraman. We also took a look at a place called Baldy Hill which offered 360 deg views of the surrounding area. Geoff walked to the top of this hill and having noted the slippery state of the final part of the decent, very cleverly ‘slalomed’ down that part. Unfortunately Baldy Hill had seen it all before and the next thing G knew his feet were somewhere in the air and his buttock was doing all the load bearing. Bugger. Still can’t sit down easily. We moved on travelling a whole 7.5 kms to spend a night at Lake Houdraman.

Next stop – Charleville. A short 200 kms found us heading into one of a couple of places suggested to us around the camp fire at Quilpie. It was called the Bush Camp and was part of but separate from the Bush caravan park; that is it was owned by the same person and on the same land as the C.P, but it did not have the amenities of the C.P. In fact the sign at the gate said clearly that you had to have your own toilet and shower! We arrived on Sunday and Marg had read about the Cosmos centre, which was something she really wanted to do, so out to the info centre (and Cosmos centre) to make a booking. Sunday was booked out, but we took an opening on Monday. Marg read the ticket and it said that they would cancel if there was more than 40% cloud cover... I have told her that nothing good comes from reading, but did she listen? Anyway Geoff did the WW2 convoy tour on Monday morning, and learned that Charleville was actually a centre for the U.S Air force during WW2. There were some 3,500 U.S. troops in Charleville during the war and it was also a place where they kept a top secret bomb sight. It was so secret that they installed it into the B17 bombers before take off, and took them out again after each mission. A large slice of imagination was required to appreciate the various sites we visited on this tour as most were not much more than cleared ground or concrete foundations, but it was interesting none the less. Back to the Cosmos centre, and as the day wore on, the weather deteriorated and by sundown it was raining. The phone rang, and they had to cancel the night’s viewing, but offered us Tuesday night instead, which we optimistically accepted. There was nearly 100% cloud cover on Tuesday and it rained nearly all day; we decided early in the piece that star gazing was not going to happen and went out to get a refund at mid-day.

In the blog 2 posts back we mentioned an issue with the fridge (and hot water) being fixed in Townsville. Well it wasn’t really fixed and was playing up worse than ever by now, and obviously weighing on our decision making. We did however decide to keep heading back East and our next stop was an over-night at the Neil Turner weir at Mitchell. Quite a nice place stretching about 400 mts along the river here, and as a bonus there were piles of Cyprus pine off cuts from a nearby mill for the campfire. It made a nice change from the usual smell of eucalypt smoke. Mitchell also boasts an artesian ‘spa’ bath, and Marg really wanted to give that a try. The water was 38 deg. C and we spent quite a long time ‘taking the waters’. We did notice the distinct smell of chlorine on our skin later and it did take another 3 days to dry the bathers, but we did enjoy our ‘spa’. The fridge did not work that night, but the ambient temp was very low, (about 4 degrees) so there was no damage done. The best place to get the fridge looked at again was Toowoomba, and although it was not on our plan, that became our short term target destination.

We had to stop at a place called Warra, as the jump to Toowoomba was a little too far. The bible made the camp site sound quite good but it turned out to be very confined, and wedged between the highway and the railway line. Sleep did not come easy that night what with the road trains slowing down and then accelerating through the town on the one hand and the trains doing much the same thing on the other side. On the bright side, we were awake alternately and could easily confirm to each other that the fridge had not worked during the night, and we were awake very early to a bitterly cold morning. We made a sprint for Toowoomba and got there earlier than expected, which was a good thing as it gave the repairer time to test and remedy the problem. The “gas fitter” in Townsville did more damage than good it would seem! With fingers crossed, we sprinted back to a caravan park Dalby, which was pretty much on our itinerary – such as it is.

Although we did not have to run the fridge on gas at the C.P., Marg tested it a few times and we are confident that it has now been fixed properly. After more water management and a good night’s sleep we have headed South West to a place called St.George, well more precisely a riverside free camp some 15 kms out of St.George. We arrived at St George on a Sunday and the only place open in town was the information centre and a WINERY. You guessed it. The Ritchies headed to the winery and bought a red and a white and a dessert wine. We also had a cheese platter in the sunshine whilst there sitting in the very pleasant sun. We are at a free camp on the Balonne River just outside St George. On the first night we met another couple of caravanners and went over to their campfire for a drink before dinner. We were having a Moroccan tagine for dinner and it was in the campfire cooking whilst we were partaking of wine. Last night another van pulled in and they all came over to our “backyard” campfire and sat around chewing the cud until 7 pm. Once again we were using the camp over and had a roast cooking. The poor roast cooked for hours, but fortunately was still very lovely. Today we go back into St George for a Laundromat and some grocery shopping and the great white hunter will probably go and chop more wood for the campfire. Can’t help himself.

After this we are off to Cunnamulla.

See we do have a plan after all! (Don’t we Margaret?)

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Photos

Emus on the road near Windorah
Very hard to photograph as they are very shy.

Lake Houdraman near Quilpie
The water was very shallow and there were no Redclaw!

This is the secret of Charleville
Top secret Carl Norden Bomb Sight

Rare Ooline trees - tropical rain forest - near Mitchell
35 Kms out and 35 kms back - was it worth it?

St.George - Beardmore camp on Bolonne River
Couldn't resist the mirror image, but it did mean getting up early and it was only 4 deg C!!!

St.George - Beardmore camp on Bolonne River
The things I do for you people...