Sunday is blog day. I really enjoy doing the blog. For one thing I revisit the past week so I figure my memories of our trip will be reinforced for future recollection. Then of course, it keeps family, friends and anyone interested updated on where we are and what we're doing. It's also a diary of our travels, so even if my computer crashes and my daily journal entries are lost it's not a huge drama - the blog is pretty much a re-hash of my journal anyway. What would be lost are the reports which detail our expenditure, mileage etc. As of today, day 123, we have travelled 15,166 km, spent a total of $17,784 of which $4553 is fuel, $2447 accommodation and $10,784 miscellaneous expenses - in other words, everything else. The reporting in Nomads Notes is pretty detailed. I can extract all sorts of data from how much we have spent on bait or cappuccinos or drinks at the pub to how many nights we free camped, average fuel burn etc.
As Sunday 7th July was our last day at Isisford we eased slowly into preparations for moving on. After a ride through the surrounding bush tracks with James bounding along beside us the bikes got put back on their racks on the van. All the bits and pieces we didn't need to use anymore were cleaned and packed away - camp oven, Baby Q, generator, cherabin pots, fishing gear etc. We went and collected a big load of wood for both the evening's fire and to take with us. We've found it pays to carry at least one good campfire's worth with us when possible. I reckoned there were probably a couple of fires in what we'd stowed in the Beast. Before dinner Phil and Tracey came over and joined us by the fire for drinks. We had a lovely last night at Isisford.
There was a bit of competition for our spot by the river at Isisford. Several people were ready to pounce when they saw we were packing up Monday morning. Brian and Phil had colluded to make sure no one else got it and Phil pulled his van in as we pulled ours out. Tracey and Phil were planning to stay at least another 5 days.
Our destination for the day was Slygo Station, around 210 km Northeast. We planned to stop on the way at Blackall to shop, but when we got there decided against it. The town was smaller than we expected and the shopping limited. We did spend some time walking around while there and visited "The Black Stump", which was originally used as a survey point in the 1800's. The term "beyond the black stump" is an actual reference to anything west of that point.
At Blackall we put a call into Slygo and only got a message, so we checked with the Info Centre and they knew nothing about it. It was 94 km toward Jericho, which was only another 27 km further on, so we figured we could stay there if needs be. The Blackall Jericho Road was part made and part unmade and pretty rough. It was a fabulous drive though - no traffic and that feeling of really being outback. As we approached Slygo we could see there had been a large bush fire not long before and the gates were closed, so on to Jericho we went.
Jericho is another Queensland town that caters to the Grey Nomad trade by providing quality free camping, toilets, drinking water and dump point. We pulled up at Redbank Park just out of town beside the river in a lovely spot with views, fire pit and space. Excellent. James thought so too! After a late lunch we hopped on the bikes and did a tour of town, which really only consisted of half a dozen or so streets. The main street has a railway station, pub, a couple of shops and a tiny drive in theatre that has a grandstand seating area at the back so it doubles as the town cinema. Innovative eh!
We rode out to the aerodrome, showgrounds and cemetery, which had graves dating back to the late 1800's. The town has quite a few houses that look like they might have been built in that era - excellent photo material. Back at camp we lit a fire (even though it was still mid 20's) and spent the evening star gazing. We even got to see the International Space Station pass overhead. Brian pulled up "Solar Walk" on his Ipad and we tracked satellites all over the world. That was cool!
From Jericho we headed due east on the Capricorn Hwy to Emerald. The countryside changed profoundly. After months in the Outback and weeks in a largely flat, dry and often barren stock-grazing environment, we drove into the Central Highlands region of Queensland with hills, trees, crops, clouds and cooler temperatures. We also hit our first traffic lights since Mount Isa three weeks ago. Bugger!
Emerald is situated 263 km west of Rockhampton pretty much right on the Tropic of Capricorn. It is a big town of some 14,000 residents and is the gateway to the Sapphire Gemfields, the largest, and one of the richest sapphire fields in the southern hemisphere. Lake Maraboon, which is as big as Sydney Harbour, was 18 km south and just two km down the road from our camp at Higher Ground Homestay.
Homestay camping was new to us. If Higher Ground is anything to go by it is effectively camping in some-one's back yard, albeit in this case several hectares of bush back yard with a river flowing through it. Higher Ground does have a handful of powered sites, but for the most part you just find a clear spot in the bush and set up. Powered sites cost $13 per night and unpowered $6. There are no facilities, so you can only stay if you are totally self-contained. We opted for power to top up our chargeables and located the van so it was facing into the bush. James loved it, especially when he got a walk down to the river one and a half km away.
Late afternoon we left James behind and drove into Emerald to do the shopping. We figured we'd get that out of the way, stay two nights and keep Wednesday for sightseeing. The township is very urban, and while we didn't really get much of a look around it does have a beautiful old railway station and seemed quite a neat and attractive place. When we got home with $300 worth of groceries I decided it I needed to light a fire which left Brian to do the unpacking and putting away. That was a bit naughty of me!
After a mild night we woke very early to a cool and damp morning. Very early! The bloody roosters started crowing at 4am. Bugger!
Our day of sightseeing started with Fairbairn Dam or Lake Maraboon as it is also called. It is huge, impressive and pretty, rugged mountains in the background with large expanses of shaded grassed areas for day trippers. At the base of the massive dam wall the water was cascading into a small canyon and dozens of pelicans were feasting on fish. It really is a fantastic recreational area with a boat ramp, swimming area and nearly 300 km of shoreline to explore. It is also apparently full of fish. What a great asset for Emerald.
We headed back past Higher Ground into town, dropping James off at the van on the way. The heart of Emerald has been beautifully planned and the main streets are landscaped with spreading, shady trees under-planted with tropical palms and ferns. The main roundabout in the shopping area features a stunning sculpture and the lush, green golf course lies at the end of the boutique shopping strip. Even in the dry of mid-winter the course was in excellent condition with undulating fairways edged in a variety beautiful, mature trees.
There is a big landscaped park on the Capricorn Hwy just before the CBD in the middle of which stands 'The Big Van Gough'. It could be corny, but I thought it was a brilliant piece of sculpture. We headed out to the airport on the Gregory Hwy that runs south. Along the centre medium strip tall palms separated the four lane highway which lead to a brand new shopping complex 2 or 3 km out of town. The airport appears to be undergoing refurbishment and there are signs of prosperity and growth everywhere. Brian and I were both very impressed with Emerald. We look at towns from the perspective of whether we would like to live there and we decided we would. It is clean, green, has all the facilities we think are important including a great golf course and a waterway. It probably has great weather too.
Thursday morning we left early taking the back way over the dam wall to pick up the Gregory Hwy some 10 km south of Emerald. Our destination for the day was Moura, 300 km southeast.
Springsure was less than an hour down the road and the scenery in the area was quite spectacular. Craggy mountains loomed large in the windscreen as we approached. Virgin Rock, so named because of its resemblance to the Virgin Mary nursing Jesus, towered over the quaint township. We stopped to take photos and grab a coffee. There are several national parks around Springsure and Carnarvon Gorge lies to the south. It's a place we will need to re-visit when we have time to explore.
The Gregory Hwy terminates at Springsure and the Dawson Hwy takes over. We maintained an easy pace as the Dawson was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. A couple of times it felt like our rig just about became airborne. James was not particularly impressed, and 300 km for us in one day is more than any of us like to do. Not only that but at one point a roo came bounding out from some long grass on the side of the road and hopped parallel to the Beast for several meters. Brian had to swerve to miss it. The countryside, however, was varied and interesting. We passed by a lot of paddocks that had been sewn with row after row some unknown crop that was woody, straggly, ugly and stood a couple of meters tall. It had green foliage sprouting. We were later told by a fellow traveler it was a feed crop for cattle.
We got to the Dawson River around lunchtime, none too early as the large riverside rest area was already fairly full of nomads free camping for the night. We squeezed the van between a couple of big trees at the top of the boat ramp. It was the best spot in the park, furthest away from the highway, no-one close by and looking out over the beautiful big river. We had a bite of lunch then went into Moura, 7 km further on.
Moura's an ordinary place (in my opinion anyway). It's a coal mining town surrounded by open cut mines and farmland. The best features of Moura were the river on which we camped, and the lush, green golf course opposite. It would have been nice to play but Brian had a heap of work to catch up on. Bugger! We drove along some bush tracks just outside the town in search of wood, and what do you know....some kind person had sawn up a dead tree and left us a beautiful pile of dry, cut firewood. Excellent! We had a lovely night sitting in front of the fire looking out over the river. What a great campspot!
The temperatures continued to drop as we moved south. Normal morning dress code went from shorts and thongs to long dacks, socks, joggers and windcheaters. It hasn't got any cooler by night, but day temps are in the low teens and only get to low twenties at best. There's also been a fair bit of cloud. The weather forecast does not look kind for our rendezvous with Shell, Em and Lachy on the coast. Showers and rain. Bugger!
Friday we planned another 300 km day, continuing 50 km east along the Dawson Hwy to Biloela (pronounced billow-wheeler) before heading southeast on the Burnett Hwy to a rest area just outside Gayndah at a Claude Wharton Weir. We stopped at Biloela for a walk and a cappy. Travel was pretty slow on the Burnett with lots of roadworks, but nice driving through hills, farms and forests. We pulled over for lunch (cold sausages, James favorite!) at Ceratodis Rest area just short of Eidsvold and reconsidered our plans. If the weather at Inskip Point was going to be wet then maybe we should look at meeting the kids further inland.
With Willyweather on the Ipad and the 'Camps 7' book open we looked at some options and decided we should check out Boondooma Dam, pretty much due south by 150 km. The turnoff was at Mundubbera, 40 km down the highway. The Black Stump Rest Area was pretty much at the turnoff so we decided we would stop the night there if it was ok and do a short hop to Boondooma Saturday morning.
When we arrived at the Black Stump we were surprised to find we were the only caravan there. A combi and a car were parked with two young French couples camped and that was it. We parked the van in front of a big fire pit and as far from the highway as we could, although we did expect some road noise as the rest area was on top of a hill, small and close to the road. The view out over Mundubbera was lovely however. Time to explore! We unleashed the Beast (from the van) checked out the small township, the airport, drove along some bush tracks and collected wood.
By 4pm I had a ripper fire going. The French camp grew in size to about eight as the boys knocked off work picking mandarins and returned to socialize before sleeping in their cars. They were a great bunch, very friendly and considerate. One of the guys even came over with two slices of fresh bread and traditional French pate. By nightfall only a couple more combis had come in. We had to wonder why more nomads were not using the Black Stump. They certainly cram into other rest areas. We wondered if there was something we didn't know.
We had a lovely night sitting by a roaring fire, watching the lights of Mundubbera and listening to the good music the Frenchies had on. We both slept like logs. The trucks stopped, the music stopped and there was virtually no noise for the entire night.
Saturday morning we woke to find the van shrouded in fog. With only a couple of hours travel ahead there was no hurry, so we waited until it burned off to give us a beautiful, bright sunny day. After a cappy in town we were on the road by ten.
The drive to Boondooma Dam was lovely. The undulating countryside was a mix of forest and cattle grazing farmland and the road had hardly any other traffic. For the most part we had two lanes but there were sections where it dropped back to a one-car, skinny bit of bitumen. We pulled off to the side of the road and collected some great pieces of wood, filling the back of the Beast.
Prostin was the only town on the way - just 18 km before the dam. As we approached we saw a beautiful, lush golf course with real greens, not sandscrapes like most we'd seen in past weeks. Excellent - 9 holes on Sunday was a given. At Higher Ground Homestay a couple of days before I had played ball with James, using my fire-poking stick to drive it like a golf ball. Man, did that feel good. I sent the ball a mile. I sooo needed a game of golf!
Boondooma is a big dam surrounded by bush. The camping section offers standard side by side powered sites or bush camping right down to the water's edge. The use of generators is ok so we elected to go bush. There was hardly anybody there so we were able to set up under trees about 50 meters from the water in a spot where we could not even see another camper. It's a great place. You can have a big fire, moor the tinnie or canoe in front of your camp, the fishing is supposedly good and there are lots of places to walk or bike ride.
We did a bit of housekeeping as soon as we got there - washing, bathing James, topping up with water and stuff. While James was left on the bed in the sun to dry we jumped on the bikes and rode for an hour, checking out the camping areas, boat ramps and the lookout over the dam wall. By 4 pm it was starting to get a bit chilly so I lit the fire and we settled in front of it to enjoy the clear, still night in the absolute solitude of the stunning bush environment. What a beautiful space!
As Sunday 7th July was our last day at Isisford we eased slowly into preparations for moving on. After a ride through the surrounding bush tracks with James bounding along beside us the bikes got put back on their racks on the van. All the bits and pieces we didn't need to use anymore were cleaned and packed away - camp oven, Baby Q, generator, cherabin pots, fishing gear etc. We went and collected a big load of wood for both the evening's fire and to take with us. We've found it pays to carry at least one good campfire's worth with us when possible. I reckoned there were probably a couple of fires in what we'd stowed in the Beast. Before dinner Phil and Tracey came over and joined us by the fire for drinks. We had a lovely last night at Isisford.
There was a bit of competition for our spot by the river at Isisford. Several people were ready to pounce when they saw we were packing up Monday morning. Brian and Phil had colluded to make sure no one else got it and Phil pulled his van in as we pulled ours out. Tracey and Phil were planning to stay at least another 5 days.
Our destination for the day was Slygo Station, around 210 km Northeast. We planned to stop on the way at Blackall to shop, but when we got there decided against it. The town was smaller than we expected and the shopping limited. We did spend some time walking around while there and visited "The Black Stump", which was originally used as a survey point in the 1800's. The term "beyond the black stump" is an actual reference to anything west of that point.
At Blackall we put a call into Slygo and only got a message, so we checked with the Info Centre and they knew nothing about it. It was 94 km toward Jericho, which was only another 27 km further on, so we figured we could stay there if needs be. The Blackall Jericho Road was part made and part unmade and pretty rough. It was a fabulous drive though - no traffic and that feeling of really being outback. As we approached Slygo we could see there had been a large bush fire not long before and the gates were closed, so on to Jericho we went.
Jericho is another Queensland town that caters to the Grey Nomad trade by providing quality free camping, toilets, drinking water and dump point. We pulled up at Redbank Park just out of town beside the river in a lovely spot with views, fire pit and space. Excellent. James thought so too! After a late lunch we hopped on the bikes and did a tour of town, which really only consisted of half a dozen or so streets. The main street has a railway station, pub, a couple of shops and a tiny drive in theatre that has a grandstand seating area at the back so it doubles as the town cinema. Innovative eh!
We rode out to the aerodrome, showgrounds and cemetery, which had graves dating back to the late 1800's. The town has quite a few houses that look like they might have been built in that era - excellent photo material. Back at camp we lit a fire (even though it was still mid 20's) and spent the evening star gazing. We even got to see the International Space Station pass overhead. Brian pulled up "Solar Walk" on his Ipad and we tracked satellites all over the world. That was cool!
From Jericho we headed due east on the Capricorn Hwy to Emerald. The countryside changed profoundly. After months in the Outback and weeks in a largely flat, dry and often barren stock-grazing environment, we drove into the Central Highlands region of Queensland with hills, trees, crops, clouds and cooler temperatures. We also hit our first traffic lights since Mount Isa three weeks ago. Bugger!
Emerald is situated 263 km west of Rockhampton pretty much right on the Tropic of Capricorn. It is a big town of some 14,000 residents and is the gateway to the Sapphire Gemfields, the largest, and one of the richest sapphire fields in the southern hemisphere. Lake Maraboon, which is as big as Sydney Harbour, was 18 km south and just two km down the road from our camp at Higher Ground Homestay.
Homestay camping was new to us. If Higher Ground is anything to go by it is effectively camping in some-one's back yard, albeit in this case several hectares of bush back yard with a river flowing through it. Higher Ground does have a handful of powered sites, but for the most part you just find a clear spot in the bush and set up. Powered sites cost $13 per night and unpowered $6. There are no facilities, so you can only stay if you are totally self-contained. We opted for power to top up our chargeables and located the van so it was facing into the bush. James loved it, especially when he got a walk down to the river one and a half km away.
Late afternoon we left James behind and drove into Emerald to do the shopping. We figured we'd get that out of the way, stay two nights and keep Wednesday for sightseeing. The township is very urban, and while we didn't really get much of a look around it does have a beautiful old railway station and seemed quite a neat and attractive place. When we got home with $300 worth of groceries I decided it I needed to light a fire which left Brian to do the unpacking and putting away. That was a bit naughty of me!
After a mild night we woke very early to a cool and damp morning. Very early! The bloody roosters started crowing at 4am. Bugger!
Our day of sightseeing started with Fairbairn Dam or Lake Maraboon as it is also called. It is huge, impressive and pretty, rugged mountains in the background with large expanses of shaded grassed areas for day trippers. At the base of the massive dam wall the water was cascading into a small canyon and dozens of pelicans were feasting on fish. It really is a fantastic recreational area with a boat ramp, swimming area and nearly 300 km of shoreline to explore. It is also apparently full of fish. What a great asset for Emerald.
We headed back past Higher Ground into town, dropping James off at the van on the way. The heart of Emerald has been beautifully planned and the main streets are landscaped with spreading, shady trees under-planted with tropical palms and ferns. The main roundabout in the shopping area features a stunning sculpture and the lush, green golf course lies at the end of the boutique shopping strip. Even in the dry of mid-winter the course was in excellent condition with undulating fairways edged in a variety beautiful, mature trees.
There is a big landscaped park on the Capricorn Hwy just before the CBD in the middle of which stands 'The Big Van Gough'. It could be corny, but I thought it was a brilliant piece of sculpture. We headed out to the airport on the Gregory Hwy that runs south. Along the centre medium strip tall palms separated the four lane highway which lead to a brand new shopping complex 2 or 3 km out of town. The airport appears to be undergoing refurbishment and there are signs of prosperity and growth everywhere. Brian and I were both very impressed with Emerald. We look at towns from the perspective of whether we would like to live there and we decided we would. It is clean, green, has all the facilities we think are important including a great golf course and a waterway. It probably has great weather too.
Thursday morning we left early taking the back way over the dam wall to pick up the Gregory Hwy some 10 km south of Emerald. Our destination for the day was Moura, 300 km southeast.
Springsure was less than an hour down the road and the scenery in the area was quite spectacular. Craggy mountains loomed large in the windscreen as we approached. Virgin Rock, so named because of its resemblance to the Virgin Mary nursing Jesus, towered over the quaint township. We stopped to take photos and grab a coffee. There are several national parks around Springsure and Carnarvon Gorge lies to the south. It's a place we will need to re-visit when we have time to explore.
The Gregory Hwy terminates at Springsure and the Dawson Hwy takes over. We maintained an easy pace as the Dawson was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. A couple of times it felt like our rig just about became airborne. James was not particularly impressed, and 300 km for us in one day is more than any of us like to do. Not only that but at one point a roo came bounding out from some long grass on the side of the road and hopped parallel to the Beast for several meters. Brian had to swerve to miss it. The countryside, however, was varied and interesting. We passed by a lot of paddocks that had been sewn with row after row some unknown crop that was woody, straggly, ugly and stood a couple of meters tall. It had green foliage sprouting. We were later told by a fellow traveler it was a feed crop for cattle.
We got to the Dawson River around lunchtime, none too early as the large riverside rest area was already fairly full of nomads free camping for the night. We squeezed the van between a couple of big trees at the top of the boat ramp. It was the best spot in the park, furthest away from the highway, no-one close by and looking out over the beautiful big river. We had a bite of lunch then went into Moura, 7 km further on.
Moura's an ordinary place (in my opinion anyway). It's a coal mining town surrounded by open cut mines and farmland. The best features of Moura were the river on which we camped, and the lush, green golf course opposite. It would have been nice to play but Brian had a heap of work to catch up on. Bugger! We drove along some bush tracks just outside the town in search of wood, and what do you know....some kind person had sawn up a dead tree and left us a beautiful pile of dry, cut firewood. Excellent! We had a lovely night sitting in front of the fire looking out over the river. What a great campspot!
The temperatures continued to drop as we moved south. Normal morning dress code went from shorts and thongs to long dacks, socks, joggers and windcheaters. It hasn't got any cooler by night, but day temps are in the low teens and only get to low twenties at best. There's also been a fair bit of cloud. The weather forecast does not look kind for our rendezvous with Shell, Em and Lachy on the coast. Showers and rain. Bugger!
Friday we planned another 300 km day, continuing 50 km east along the Dawson Hwy to Biloela (pronounced billow-wheeler) before heading southeast on the Burnett Hwy to a rest area just outside Gayndah at a Claude Wharton Weir. We stopped at Biloela for a walk and a cappy. Travel was pretty slow on the Burnett with lots of roadworks, but nice driving through hills, farms and forests. We pulled over for lunch (cold sausages, James favorite!) at Ceratodis Rest area just short of Eidsvold and reconsidered our plans. If the weather at Inskip Point was going to be wet then maybe we should look at meeting the kids further inland.
With Willyweather on the Ipad and the 'Camps 7' book open we looked at some options and decided we should check out Boondooma Dam, pretty much due south by 150 km. The turnoff was at Mundubbera, 40 km down the highway. The Black Stump Rest Area was pretty much at the turnoff so we decided we would stop the night there if it was ok and do a short hop to Boondooma Saturday morning.
When we arrived at the Black Stump we were surprised to find we were the only caravan there. A combi and a car were parked with two young French couples camped and that was it. We parked the van in front of a big fire pit and as far from the highway as we could, although we did expect some road noise as the rest area was on top of a hill, small and close to the road. The view out over Mundubbera was lovely however. Time to explore! We unleashed the Beast (from the van) checked out the small township, the airport, drove along some bush tracks and collected wood.
By 4pm I had a ripper fire going. The French camp grew in size to about eight as the boys knocked off work picking mandarins and returned to socialize before sleeping in their cars. They were a great bunch, very friendly and considerate. One of the guys even came over with two slices of fresh bread and traditional French pate. By nightfall only a couple more combis had come in. We had to wonder why more nomads were not using the Black Stump. They certainly cram into other rest areas. We wondered if there was something we didn't know.
We had a lovely night sitting by a roaring fire, watching the lights of Mundubbera and listening to the good music the Frenchies had on. We both slept like logs. The trucks stopped, the music stopped and there was virtually no noise for the entire night.
Saturday morning we woke to find the van shrouded in fog. With only a couple of hours travel ahead there was no hurry, so we waited until it burned off to give us a beautiful, bright sunny day. After a cappy in town we were on the road by ten.
The drive to Boondooma Dam was lovely. The undulating countryside was a mix of forest and cattle grazing farmland and the road had hardly any other traffic. For the most part we had two lanes but there were sections where it dropped back to a one-car, skinny bit of bitumen. We pulled off to the side of the road and collected some great pieces of wood, filling the back of the Beast.
Prostin was the only town on the way - just 18 km before the dam. As we approached we saw a beautiful, lush golf course with real greens, not sandscrapes like most we'd seen in past weeks. Excellent - 9 holes on Sunday was a given. At Higher Ground Homestay a couple of days before I had played ball with James, using my fire-poking stick to drive it like a golf ball. Man, did that feel good. I sent the ball a mile. I sooo needed a game of golf!
Boondooma is a big dam surrounded by bush. The camping section offers standard side by side powered sites or bush camping right down to the water's edge. The use of generators is ok so we elected to go bush. There was hardly anybody there so we were able to set up under trees about 50 meters from the water in a spot where we could not even see another camper. It's a great place. You can have a big fire, moor the tinnie or canoe in front of your camp, the fishing is supposedly good and there are lots of places to walk or bike ride.
We did a bit of housekeeping as soon as we got there - washing, bathing James, topping up with water and stuff. While James was left on the bed in the sun to dry we jumped on the bikes and rode for an hour, checking out the camping areas, boat ramps and the lookout over the dam wall. By 4 pm it was starting to get a bit chilly so I lit the fire and we settled in front of it to enjoy the clear, still night in the absolute solitude of the stunning bush environment. What a beautiful space!
it is not good as you have define in your post.
ReplyDeleteaccommodation Jericho