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Published: November 7th 2009
DAY 364
An awful nights sleep, with continual scratching at the early part, I am sure whatever has been biting is still in here despite the copious amounts of Mortein sprayed earlier, I had to get out of bed and take one of these allergy tablets that seem to be doing little to help, oh and a generous helping of calamine lotion once again, I got back into bed and wrapped myself in the sheet and blanket, I am convinced it is in the sleeping bag, I even wore my fleece as it was a cold night.
Dogs barked pretty much all night and there was this one cow in particular that had a very deep and meaningful mooooo that bellowed out into the darkness.
The Wallaby wanderers were in this area back around June time, which is winter in Australia and in the mountains it can be jolly cold, well I can only imagine right now how it must have been for them, because it was a really cold start to the day.
I awoke to hear two men outside talking, one voice I could hear was Andy’s the other voice which was much louder,
Crediton Hall
A great Camp spot, fee's go towards the renovation of the Hallfor a change Andy’s was not the loudest, I remember thinking to myself, it is still early and I am pretty sure that most of the campsite is or perhaps was asleep.
I slept through until 7.20, only slightly later, but I peered out of the mosquito netting to find Andy’s happy face looking up at me, the good news is that the kettle is on already, I wonder how anyone can look so happy in the mornings, especially on a cold morning like this one, oh did I mention that it rained in the night, so I got up and went outside to make sure that the chairs were folded and out of the rain and to make sure that nothing else was going to get wet, like the matches to light the gas stove for instance!
So the morning is grey, Andy seems to be in continued conversation with a guy called Lester who I think kind of wants to keep talking despite the fact that we are breaking up camp rather rapidly as we want to fold the tent while it is still dry, there is a huge black cloud looming with promise of more
rain. Luckily for us it is windy so the wind seems to have dried the tent from the overnight rain.
Lester is a nice chap, it sounds like he is relishing the company, I wonder when the last time he spoke to someone was. No matter how many times Andy tried to finish the conversation so that we could get on with packing up, Lester still leaned in against the tree and said “yup!” and remained in situ discussing the intricacies of our camper trailer.
Our option this morning is just to go and get breakfast back in Eungella or Finch Hatton, we have no power for toast, and we have run out of cereal, so it looks like another bad day for eating.
In the meantime everything is packed away, I am drinking my tea sitting in the truck, the rest of the campsite is awake and everyone is beetling around bleary-eyed getting breakfast, whistling kettles are going off everywhere!
I am doing some map research and make sure of our journey today (an easy one), Andy does a morning routine of checking the tyres, inflates them a little as for the first time in
a long while the tyres are cold and are giving a more accurate reading. We hook up, soon Andy checks all the rear lights, everything is working, indicators, brake lights and rear lights, so we are good to go.
We say goodbye to Lester, wish him a good trip and we are off, a short spell on the dirt before getting back to bitumen. At Broken River we decide to pull in and check out if the Platypus it was still only 9.30 and as it is a dull day there is every chance that a platypus may still be out and about. However nothing doing so on we go.
We drive into Eungella hoping to find breakfast, the two places that we know of are not open so with nothing doing here, decided that Finch Hatton is good for breakfast. It is also where we stopped for coffee yesterday morning on our way up. They do meals all day so we knew we would be good there.
It was about 10.30 by the time we were sat down and tucking in to our breakfast, I did order two skinny lattes but they appear to be cappuccino’s
Taipan
This was the best I could do to capture this snake as he did his best to get out of the way.
he Taipan is the top 5 deadliest snakes in the world but never mind it is coffee it has the same effect. Finch Hatton General Store is definitely worth a stop for a coffee and a bite to eat.
We resume our trip to Finch Hatton Gorge, we really only wanted a quick trip here as we have Don and Doreen to see in MacKay and we need to get a few bits and pieces from SupaCheap Auto.
We pass Platypus Bush Camp, cross a few creeks, nothing major and soon we park up, as soon as we get out and put some decent hiking sandals on we see a huge Goanna lurking in the bushes next to us, he wont come out he knows we are here.
We find that the walk is expected to take a good couple of hours, so I go back to the truck to get plenty of water for the journey. When I come back I find Andy engaged fully in conversation with Col Adamson.
Col is a tour guide and seemingly a popular one at that, he is currently on an advert being broadcast on Channel Seven for Queensland being 150 years old. I think he is getting used to
the fame we chatted about the wildlife and the madness of Queensland parks pre booking system.
However I must say that we do find the National Parks a great facility so I am not going to grumble too much, just get the booking system sorted out, if there is no internet access then at least have some self registration sites that you can book on arrival, sometimes you don’t know if you want to stay or not, the place has to feel right. At least you don’t have to pay day entry fees like other states.
Col relayed a story about a Western Grey Kangaroo being over in Queensland and mixing with the flora and fauna more familiar to Eastern Grey Kangaroo’s, he was very dismayed to find out one day that someone fresh out of university and working for QPWS had the kangaroo removed because it was not native. Not native to Australia? Surely not, it begs the question that when a kangaroo is removed as it is not native, my opinion, if I am entitled to have one as I am not Australian, is that surely if the animal has wandered over to this territory then
Caroline
Washing her face in the stream surely it has a right to be there, if it survives on the food that is plentiful and makes friends with other kangaroos then it must surely be capable of being their native or not, perhaps this is part of evolution or the fact that Walleroos exist and not just one breed of Kangaroo. I could go on but I wont.
A Dutch couple wandered past and showed us a photograph, they were very excited as they had seen a snake, turns out this magnificent snake about 3 metres long is a python. They were thrilled to bits as we had been when we have seen snakes in the wild. While chatting we were lucky enough to see yet another huge Goanna wander past us.
Time to move on, Col’s tour group had reappeared looking eager to get back on the bus and go to the next place. We commence our hike up into Finch Hatton Gorge, in the hope that today we may just see some good wildlife. We were not going to be too disappointed our 3rd Goanna of the day appeared, a fairly young one who climbed up a tree when he saw us coming.
We get to the junction where the couple saw the Python but nothing doing, the Python is long gone, so we took the turn to head down to Araluen Cascades, we are a few metres from the lookout when Andy shouts “snake!” We both stop and look into the scrub and there is an olive coloured snake with a Yellow belly (we could not see its head) the snake disappeared rapidly into the undergrowth, he must have felt the vibration and scarpered.
The colouring of this snake was very much like the one we saw at Lake Tinneroo that day that I was reading quietly when a snake just happened past my feet.
The pool looked fantastic, and very inviting, but we head back up to the junction and decide to walk up to the Wheel of Fire, we weren’t going to because of time, however we are here and it would be silly not to. So on we go, eventually crossing the creek, walking up steps, rocks and the boardwalk before getting to more steps that take eventually takes us down to another fabulous pool and clearly where the waterfalls from each side drop into this
magnificent gorge.
A few people are in the pool already, Andy cannot wait to get in, I did not have my bikini on, really because I had not thought that we would come up here, but sometimes I think you should just wear it every day because you never know!
Andy was quickly in the pool, I had considered going in fully clothed because it would not take long to dry out, otherwise if there was no one around I would easily have gone in in my underwear, but it does not look good now, my lovely whites are now fairly grey in colour with hints of red, so I declined.
I sat and dangled my feet, the water was cold but tempting, everyone that went in did not stay in for long. We chatted to another English couple, they had been working in Thredbo for the ski season and were enjoying some warm weather before heading to Japan in 3 weeks for the ski season there, but due back in England just before Christmas.
We pass a small group of Australians, we are up around the corner when they call us back, because they see
a large monitor, and thought that we would like to see it, so we wander back. Sat in a nice little sunny spot basking, it poses for a few photos, these guys also tell us that they saw a Taipan, down by Araluen Cascades, we describe the snake we saw earlier, they agree that it was a Taipan, possibly the same one.
Just before reaching the car park we see a Kookaburra basking in the sunshine, one wing was splayed out and its eyes were closed, I moved in for a photo, it opened its eyes looked at me and closing its eyes again paid no attention to me.
We enjoyed our walk, but now we head into MacKay, I manage to phone Don and Doreen they are expecting us. 20 minutes later we are pulling up in MacKay out of the front of their house.
We are greeted with happy faces, it is 7 months to the date since we waved goodbye To Don and Doreen as they left Ranges View where we all camped for a couple of nights. We have a refreshing glass of lemonade and lime, much needed today we are both feeling
Big Goanna
Hiding on a tree thirsty still on this hot day.
They have a beautiful house, they had it built 20 years ago and have been here since, I cannot say as I blame them as it is beautiful, each room is large and airy, yet they do have a fireplace for those 5 cold nights that they get in the winter months here. He covered veranda is a large area with another kitchen, a huge sofa and outdoor dining table.
We stay and chat for a couple of hours, but we have to get on the road, we need to knock of a couple of hours driving before bedtime and hope to get to St Lawrence where there is a nice little free camp, it is in Camps 5 but it has also been recommended to us by a few people in the last couple of days.
We say our goodbyes promise to stay in touch and hit the road, before leaving we Mackay we fill up with diesel grab a bun on the run and away we go.
We are now sharing the road with a large number of trucks, it seems to be that time of day as
Big Goanna
Yes Amother one a number of them drive at night, dusk is upon us. We have a truck bearing down on us so at a safe spot Andy got on the uhf and told the driver to pass us, we slow down and pull over, the truck gracefully drove past pulling his load of vans and utes, a voice comes back and says “Thanks, have a good holiday mate!”, Andy thanked him and said “yup it’s a long one” the trucker came back and said “nice one mate.”
If any of you newer readers wonder how the trucker knew that we were on holiday, the camper trailer we are towing gives it away!
Driving in the dark is something we try not to do often, pulling up mid afternoon is recommended, but a couple of times we have been caught out when places we had hoped to stop have not really worked out and especially in WA when it got dark at 5.30 every night can be a bit of an issue.
We don’t mind driving in the dark, you just have to be extra careful and look out for wildlife in the road, we have a plan tonight, we
The Tiapan
Can you see him just need to find the recommended camp spot and pitch up.
Just after 7.15 we pull into our camp spot, this is far later than ususal but we needed to get some mileage covered as we didn't leave MaKay until fairly late, it is dark but there are a couple of lights over the car park, it is not very busy, it seems quite a nice quiet spot we drive through the grounds and find a nice secluded spot to pull up. We are pitched up, but don’t get all of the gear out, we only need a chair each and a table, we use the small gas stove to boil the kettle.
We wanted corn on the cob for tea, something light and tasty, however you may be aware that we have been having trouble with the freezer not freezing our food, sadly the corn had not frozen and had gone over so we just had some cheese and biscuits with our cup of tea.
The great thing about this site is that it has showers, you have to pay $1.00 per 3 minutes, after 3 days without a shower I had the luxury of 6
minutes for £2.00, great!
A little bit of blog work, a few emails later it was 10.00 and another exhausting day took its toll on us.
Tomorrow is a special day and if you have been with us since the beginning you will know why Until tomorrow!
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Stacy
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Another message..
...from me! Still reading your blogs. Actually, I went back and read them all from the beginning, I am hooked! I hope the next blog isn't your last one, it would be great to know where you are going to live and how your day to day life is post - travel! Still (mega) jealous and can't wait to get out there myself one day, but reading where you've been and what you've done has given me a lot of things to think about for when I start planning my own adventure. :-)