West to Cloncurry

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Tuesday 20th April

Before saying goodbye to Charters Towers called into the info centre and chatted to Steve Caught, a friend of Lyle’s from Kuranda. There were a couple of activities on in or near the town. One was viewing distance education in action the other was just out of town looking through one of the old gold mining operations. We decided not to go and headed west.

At Homestead there was no diesel so continued west.

Tried to find the entrance to White Mountain National Park, went a few km too far so stopped and asked at the Torrens Creek Post Office. The lady in the tiny Post Office gave us directions so we headed back only to find that no unauthorized vehicles were allowed to enter. We had asked about it earlier but no-one seemed to know much about it except that a new section is going to be opened up to the public. People have told us conflicting stories so gave up and decided to head for Porcupine Gorge.

Stopped at the pub in Torrens Creek for a pie and drink. Every available surface of the pub is covered in graffiti. The town had a pub, Post Office and a school. There were 22 residents in the town.

Pentland was the next stop for a top up of fuel then we headed to Porcupine Gorge which we had difficulty finding details about.

As the shortcut from Prarie on the Flinders Hwy was closed we took the more roundabout route through Hughenden. We didn’t stop at Hughenden and the sign told us 63 Km to Porcupine Gorge. They are upgrading the road so it was a mixture of sealed and dirt with some short detours. We then had an 11km drive to Pyramid camp. The camp turned out to newly fitted out, so new that we thought we must have passed the workman on the way. Good camping areas, with tables and bench seats (way too low to sit and eat at), toilets and a day area with covered tables and a water tank.
After setting up a tarpaulin and the stretchers we did a 200 mtr walk to view the pyramid which is a triangular shaped cliff in the Gorge. There was some lighting in the Gorge at sunset but not really spectacular tonight. Also it is extremely windy and becoming cold.

Around dinner time we were visited by the local Rufus Betong. They have signs up pleading with people not to fee the animals but this one has definitely been fed in the past as Lyle was able to touch it. She was carrying a very heavy young one with her pouch dragging on the ground. She soon gave up when no food was offered and wandered away into the very long grasses.

There is high grass everywhere and everything is very green and lush. We were told at Torrens Creek that there had been fairly consistent, small amounts of rain that has been well absorbed making the local farmers very happy.

I imagine that normally the ground is quite dry with lots of dust. The other interesting thing is that there has been almost no road kill anywhere so far. I guess there is so much feed and water around that the animals don’t need to travel across the roads. Another great effect of the rain! The creeks have been becoming drier as we headed west.

Wednesday 21st April

19°C 6.30am 44.5°C 1pm

Last night was windy and quite cold. Will break out the sleeping bag tonight.

We have 2 enormous spider webs in the tree near the camp. They barely move day or night. Some sort of orb spider I think.

After breakfast headed off down the 1.2km track into the Gorge. The Walk down is pretty steep in parts with occasional flights of stone steps. On the way down there are flashes of views through the trees as you descend.

Then a walk along Porcupine Creek with it’s white sandstone cliffs striped at times with yellows and reds. The bed of the creek is mainly white sandstone but with black basalt boulders lying around and gouging holes in the sandstone leaving many, often large, honeycomb holes.

The creek was flowing slowly and very clear.

On the far side, before the pyramid is a beautiful tree’d area looking like a picnic ground. The walk back up was very hot 44.5°C when I arrived back at camp.

Too hot to do much although there was a cool breeze that made it more pleasant so I slept for a couple of hours. Lyle went to do some bird spotting with his scope but unfortunately no birds to spot. In fact very few birds around at all. Some Aboriginals came by with a few children and had a great time looking through Lyle’s scope.

Tomorrow we are off to Cloncurry.






Thursday 22nd April

Packed up early left by 8.15am with me driving to get the feel of the car. The coil springs suspension makes the car rock & roll. They are supposed to give a much smoother ride but turning corners you can feel the roll.

Stopped at Hughenden for petrol and a few extras, plus refilled the water tank.

The countryside looked very green all the way to Julia Creek and a little beyond. So green in fact that the grasses grew long right up to the road and it was impossible to tell if it was safe to pull off the road. The country looks fabulous. Then all of a sudden it started to dry out with dry sparse grasses and stunted trees and no water at all in the creeks. Just before we reached Cloncurry the trees became taller there was some water in the creeks and the grass became green again.

Booked into Gilbert’s Caravan Park for the night. A very well run park with everything clean, neat and working. All the facilities are available including cooking.

Will probably stay 2 nights and have a look around Cloncurry. Walked the 2-3km into town for dinner. Found an old pub that had been turned into a restaurant and motel called the Wagon Wheel. Very good food and not particularly expensive.

The walk back seemed a lot more than 3 km.

After Cloncurry will head to Camooweal Caves National Park.

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Comments

[Alia Naughton]

fitness
Imagine how fit you are going to get Margaret by the end of the trip. We won't recognise you!

[Wayfarermarg]

Fit
I don't know how fit I will be when I spend the best part of a day of more doing te blog. By the time you deal with power issues etc time just flies. Also I have found that working on the computer in the outdoors is not the easiest thing with light, reflections and at night the moths and insects love the screen. I type around the moths, it's called moth eaten.