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Published: October 30th 2006
Blog 4
We reach lightening ridge ,the town has expanded somewhat , when last there ten years ago there was one motel now there are four and 3 caravan sites numerous shops a supermarket and a visitors centre , some of the miners still live in containers, there is one house made of bottles stuck together with mud , I was pleased to see the castle built by the English prospector is still there and there is talk of opening it as a tourist attraction , but there is a lot of house building going on , the size of the population is still unknown . This time we decide to stay on a sheep station for three days , it is called Lorne station and owned and run by Peter and Tina Waterford , the station used to cover 10,000 acres and support 6,000 sheep, then in 1880’s opals were discovered the first recorded mine shaft was sunk in 1901, for years mines were dug by hand using picks and shovels , this was done in extreme heat and lack of water , the opal miners infringed more and more upon the sheep station, to put a stop to this Peters family gave 3,000 acres to the government who let it out in 50 metre by 50 metre claims , this stopped the miners digging on the station , but didn’t stop them from stealing the sheep , the station now has cows , and the shearing shed is a museum come art gallery and the bunk houses are let out to visitors. It was here we were first visited by the dreaded fly , they are very persistent and try to suck the moisture from any wet spot , eyes , nostrils even ears , we were only left alone in the evenings , this is when they were replaced by 2 stroke mosquito’s. In the end you tire of flicking them away and kind of adopt them, I called mine huey , louy and dewy, dewy was my nose fly , I took them every where. I believe Dave had names for his also they all began with ‘F’. We enjoyed our stay here Tina and Peter were lovely hosts .
We then headed north and over the border into Queensland , only in Australia can you be driving along listening to Peter , Paul and Mary singing Puff the Magic Dragon , on bush radio , the distances between places is so vast of course we sang along , and were surprised we knew all the words, ( go on you re having ago yourselves now I can almost hear you singing. ) We were just outside Millimerran when we were jolted into the present , the rear tyre had burst , it was a dead straight road , but road trains trundling along at 110 KPH towards you is pretty scary , the day before one had ploughed into a queue of traffic at a road works , still with me in the road , waving they all missed us while Dave changed the wheel. The next town wasn’t far away and lucky they had a tyre place and even luckier they had one that fitted our van , embedded in the tyre was an 8mm bolt, the chap at the tyre place reckoned Dave wasn’t looking where he was going. On the wireless we hear there is worm racing at crows nest , this will be our next stop , there is a tourist park with a licensed restaurant , and laundry , if you want dinner you put you name on the board and appear at 7.00pm, you sit on long tables with complete strangers and Gayle and Evan produce the most wonderful meal , roast pork ,with sweet potatoes and beans and other vegetables I can only guess at , one was pumpkin followed by a choice of 4 different puddings, and it cost us 25 dollars that is about 13 pounds , it was a splendid evening. The only disappointment is the worm racing isn’t until the following week. At dinner we were told to visit the crows nest national park , it is not far, we drive up , there is a camp site we decide to stay for the night . It is here we encounter our first donkey boiler and bag showers, but first there is a wonderful walk that takes you to the top of the falls which are cascading over sheer granite cliffs , at the bottom is a beautiful pool with turtles and platypus, and it is one of the few places you will see Brush-tailed rock wallabies. We guess it probably would be like that if it weren’t for the drought , we did see the turtles and the rock wallabies.
We shower and light the barby put on the sausages , relaxing with a cold beer we are joined by Rasputin, ( the name king of suits him )he is a scrub turkey with a liking for sausages , David is put on sausage watch because if the turkey eats them that counts as stuffing.
We decide there is not enough to do here to pass the week till the great worm race , but there is a Rodeo in Yarraman not far away and it is in 2 days time. On the way we stop off at the Bunya Mountains this is part of the rainforest , the air is very moist , here we see red faced wallabies , and encounter our second bush shower, we are now expert at these. The evenings are magical with more stars than you can shake a stick at.
The next day we go to the Yarraman Rodeo , It is the highlight of the year for the locals and they are pleased we have come as there is a great group playing in the evening .
Just half an hour before the great event every one is looking behind them as great black clouds appear , they assure us it will go round,’’ is it going round ?‘’ ‘’yeh course it is ‘’ they mutter. With that there is a great gust of wind, it’s not going round every one runs for cover , we make it back to the van just as the heavens open, I have never seen rain like it, but after 20 minutes it stops the sun comes out , and everyone is in agreement it was good as it will keep the dust down and they were sure it wouldn’t go round…. It was a good afternoon and evening , the best bit was the small boys riding the calves, they couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7years , but they held on , wonderful. What the group lacked in musical talent they made up for in volume, we noticed our friends had left before they started.
From here we continue north to Mulgildie , we can’t find the camp site so call into the pub to ask directions ,’’ the camp site is too risky as it is on black dirt and if it should rain it will take us a day or two to get you out’’ , they assure us we would be better staying behind the pub , ‘’and did we know tonight was pizza night , only night you could get pizza, shame we weren’t there last week they had cane toad racing‘’. And so we stayed . The pub also had an art gallery attached and had we arrived in the morning we could have joined the art class , they had a teacher down from Monto , the class was just finishing up I surveyed there efforts and I must say they were good , I wish we had arrived in the morning I would have enjoyed joining the class .
From here we travel towards the coast , we stop on the way at a place called Calliope the site is alongside a river it is nice to see water , we sit with cold beers and look at it for hours . The next morning we hit the coast at Gladstone, this is a big disappointment , it is an industrial area , we were expecting golden sands and crystal blue water, we plough on up north Rockhampton is much the same , then we spot on the map a place called Flaggy rock , we follow a dirt track across mangroves, and through cane fields till we meet the shore , the water is blue , the sand is golden, the toilets have more cobwebs than I would care to remove without something big and hairy objecting to there removal , the place is abandoned . We retrace our steps till we meet the road again carry on up the coast to Carmilla beach, this is heaven , we are all alone, the only footsteps in the sand we made, there are no toilets within walking distance which is when we get to use the little fold up spade Dave was so pleased at having purchased, Dave gathers driftwood for a fire in the evening and I set about cooking dinner which we wash down with too much wine and port ( you can get port here in 4 litre boxes ), it had been a long day. In the morning we discover other footprints on the beach, alas not man Friday , but wallaby, this is great , the next evening armed with a torch we spot them. Did we swim in the sea ? Alas no we saw signs warning of box jelly fish and crocs. After three relaxing days we head back inland driving through pioneer valley through mile upon mile of sugar cane, the air was filled with the sweet smell of molasses to Eungella national park , this is also part of the rain forest , we are told we will definitely see platypus in the wild here, and we did , they are so cute , yet so strange they really do look like they have been made up from leftover parts of other animals. We watched in awe. Where are we now ? We are back on the coast just north of Mackay, the beach is just over there,( can you see me pointing ) It is about 30 degrees and I’m going for a swim , there is box jelly fish here but no crocs , instead of them there are sharks but there is a caged off area where it is safe to swim and I will take my chances, David is not too sure , you see he has spotted a big bottle of vinegar by the side of the cage, so is not confident the jelly fish know to stay out.
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Sue Joy
non-member comment
cane toads
Sorry you missed the cane toad race, but it is much more fun trying to run them over with your van. Give it a go.