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Published: August 9th 2010
Just out of Emerald is place called Fairbairn Dam or Lake Maraboon which is where we headed for to meet Pam and Allan. For those who do not know, Margaret’s brother in-law Allan is a professional fisherman and he knows all the right places to go in Queensland “to catch a feed”. Lake Maraboon has a well known reputation for being well stocked with Redclaw; a type of yabbie that has a distinctive red slash on its claw (not surprising given its name) - of the males anyway and often grow to 30+ cms long. They look very much like the American lobster with their elongated claws on very long arms. Now, I can attest that Allan can catch mud crabs and fish just about anywhere, but despite buying 6 new pots/traps and our best efforts, our rewards were very small - both in size of ‘claws’ and numbers. It appears that the weather, depth of water (full) and time of year were all against anyone catching anything to boast about. After much ridicule from those who knew they had escaped the cooking duty, it was decided to release our ‘catch’ back into the dam to allow them to grow for the next time we are in the area. We did have a great time there, despite what would have to be described as failure in the fishing dept..
As a diversion from the fishing, we packed a picnic lunch and went out to the gem fields to a place called Anakie. We were scrabbling along the gravel sides of the roads (some people call it fossicking) and Alan found two sapphires. One was a greenish blue and the other a light blue. We ended up filling two buckets with gravel and taking it back to the lake. Pam and Marg were instructed to wash the gravel while the hunters went out to check the Redclaw pots. Many curious people stopped to ask what P and M were doing and went away shaking their heads. The bucket of washed gravel is now at Pam and Allan’s house awaiting further inspection - I am sure we will get a cheque in the mail for our share of the riches 😊. Time to move on and we headed for a town on the coast called 1770 township
1770 and Agnes Waters share a lovely piece of coast just north of Bundaberg and south of Gladstone.
It got its name from being a place where Captain Cook landed in 1770 (how about that for irony) in order to make repairs and rest the crew. Agnes Waters got its name from a sailing ship that foundered in its bay in the early 1800’s. Both are very pretty and for a while Agnes Water was being touted as the next Noosa, which of course bought in a lot of development of resort style accommodation. Sadly it is really struggling and there was one development of some 120 units that had been left in a semi finished stage for many years - it had just been auctioned as is, and it is not known what the outcome was. Suffice to say there is abundant fishing out of 1770 and beautiful beaches to relax on at Agnes Waters. Marg also wishes to announce that she thought it a beautiful place for the first day and then it turned into the hell-house of a place. There were millions of sandflies and it was impossible to sit outside the caravan without being bitten by the little buggers and then scratching for the next week at the large welts that appeared. Apart from them it was a lovely spot.
Allan had carried crab pots around with him on their trip to Western Australia, and now it was time to give them a work out. The only problem was that we did not have bait for the pots, so on the first day, we spent a lot of time fishing to get the bait. As Allan said he can turn a worm into a whiting, a whiting into a shark and a shark into a mud crab - you just have to be patient. It is true, a small hammer head shark was caught and chopped up into portions for the crab pots.
Many people were trying for ‘muddies’, and there were great numbers of pots out in the estuary. On the first day (of collecting), we came back to the boat ramp at the same time as another boat and asked how they had faired; “Been here for a week and got nothing that we could keep” was the reply. We had 4 from 4 pots and had returned about 12 undersized or females. Allan knows where to put the pots, and at 1770 it is deep in the mangroves where only the sandflies go. Speaking of sandflies, did I tell you how bad they itch? A week later and the itching from the 129 bites is just subsiding! Margaret and Pam were not immune to being bitten either and after 4 days of fairly ordinary and deteriorating weather the decision was made to move on. At that stage, despite our best efforts, there were still 7 crabs to be cooked and eaten
. In all we had 11 crabs - delicious! Also many feeds of prawns courtesy of Pam and Allan. Pam also caught a barramundi at Karumba and we were treated to this as well. So hard to eat all that lovely fresh seafood.
We parted company temporarily with Pam and Allen and headed inland to a free camp called Ban Ban Springs. The weather was inclement and the road fairly ordinary and we got there late in the afternoon. Ban Ban Springs is at a T intersection and the Camps 5 book, it boasts toilet facilities. We arrived along the leg of the T and could see about half a dozen vans directly in front across the highway; the sign said go left, but Margaret said go straight across. We did and reverse parked between 2 vans that were already there with Marg being outside in the rain and Geoff being dry in the car. A concerned gentleman from one of the other parked vans came out to tell Marg to swap places with Geoff. Margaret said that she could not see the toilets that were supposed to be there. Well it was raining and a search for them was not high on Geoff’s agenda, so we shrugged our collective shoulders and set about making the van comfy for the night. A little later the rain eased and Geoff took a walk down in the direction that the sign had indicated. Lo and behold, a proper gravel parking area and flushing toilets - too late. (We were in a visually nicer place beside the springs with lots of birdlife). The following morning after Geoff had walked back from the toilet block and washed his hands and face in the spring water, Margaret informed him that Ban Ban Springs is a sacred aboriginal site!
After allowing time for Pam and Allan to get home, we arrived in Tewantin and started to get the feel of living in a house i.e. multiple rooms and internal shower and toilet, again. Margaret took the opportunity to use Pam’s washing machine (which does not require a coin in the slot to function!) and Geoff got stuck into washing the van which by then was looking a lot like it was a moving muck heap. We did the obligatory trip to the Eumundi market which is just as fascinating as ever, watched a great nephew play a game of soccer and then decided that it was time to point the BT 50 down the Bruce highway and head for home
.
The journey home has been pretty much a 2000 km transit section for us as we have been over this route many times, so there is not much to report other than it was bloody cold/freezing in Toowoomba and very wet along most of the rest of the highway; that is to say that it had been raining a lot of the past few days/weeks and there is water along the highway. We haven’t encountered any rain. It has been cloudy at times, but mostly sunny. Next stop after Toowoomba was a free camp beside the highway and we had such fun with trucks thundering past on the right and a train line on the left. No power for a heater and neither of us wanted to get out of bed for the next hop down to Forbes and it promises to be as cold as Toowoomba. Geoff has decided that this is just a plan to acclimatise him for the snow trip when he gets back, but the temptation to head north is getting stronger with every degree colder it gets
.
Some reflections on places we liked on this trip:
• We liked Broken Hill and found that it had real character and was far more interesting than we expected for a mining town,
•
We loved Wilpena Pound and will definitely aim to go back and hopefully take another look at Arkaroola from the comfort of a dirt road caravan,
• Uluru was saved by the expensive ‘Sounds of Silence’ dinner funded by our truly lovely daughters, and also the beauty of Kata Tjuta, otherwise it is a bloody long way to see a big rock, (said by Geoff). On the other hand Marg was pleased to see something she had been reading about for many years,
• The MacDonnell ranges (East and West) are very dramatic and are definitely a place to explore further at another time and even veg out
,
• Karumba was good, but you need to be keen on fishing and preferably have your own boat to stay there for any length of time,
• Charters Towers was a very ’house-proud’ town and its work in restoring its original buildings makes it worth a visit,
• 1770 and Agnes Water were very nice, and would have been great with a more liberal dose of the sun, but you need to have a large supply of full-body pantyhose to keep the sandflies at bay!
• One of the best evenings we had was by the side of the road at a free camp which many others had taken advantage of. We joined a few couples for a drink and later after dinner a campfire was built and a couple got out a guitar and piano accordion and entertained us all. They could also sing!
And some that we would not bother with again:
• Not sure what went wrong with the farm stay at Lake Mungo, but it was not the experience that Geoff expected - the 14 million flies and 23 million ants did not help the ambiance of the area. We will try another farm stay, and see if it is a better experience,
• It is probably fair to say that we did not give Coober Pedy a fair chance as we arrived on the weekend and missed the opportunity to take a guided tour, which most likely would have given us a better view of the town,
• Alice Springs has its good and bad points. Lovely hills surround the town and it was quite green when we were there. We did not see the Todd River flowing, but it did at least three times this year that we know of
.
• Most people rave about Lawn Hill and it was definitely the focus of the trip - we even booked accommodation 2 months before leaving Melbourne. A bit the same as Arkaroola, it was 100+ kms of dirt road to get in and we expected more spectacle. The gorge was lovely, but one needed a canoe or boat to investigate it and at a cost of $20 per hour for a canoe, we didn’t spend as much time as we would have liked to see it all.
• Not forgetting of course the lack of amenities at the roadside stops in South Australia… It beggars belief!
We are home now and busy unpacking the caravan. This trip confirmed our desire to do a lot more travelling, but it became very clear that we need a bigger and stronger caravan. To be frank, Geoff held his breath every time we opened the door of the van after travelling over any rough road - there was a lot of rebuilding to be done, especially if the travel involved dirt roads. We also need our own toilet and shower so next van will be equipped with both.
Thanks to all our subscribers for you encouraging comments and we hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as we enjoyed the trip.
For the technically minded, here are the stats for the trip:
Total distance - 15,224 kms
Total time away - 11 weeks and 2 days (79 days)
Fuel economy - 13.0 lt/100 kms or 7.7 kms/lt
Average cost of fuel - $1.41/lt
Total cost of fuel - $2,791.87
Until next time… It’s got to be beer o’clock somewhere 😊
Regards
Geoff & Marg.
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Mark Manock
non-member comment
Aussie Adventure wrap-up
Dear Marg and Geoff - what an amazing journey you took. I had no idea it required 11 weeks to complete and all without your own personal toilet. Remarkable indeed! Such pioneers you are. Thank you for sharing your wellwrittne stories. I found them to be quite entertaining and educational as well. Enjoy the comforts of home and your hot running water Regards Mark