2nd November 2017–Grafton and About

Distance: 80.5Km
Fuel: 58L

I have never stopped in Grafton before but I have been over its bridge on several occasions and wondered who designed it to be such a difficult bridge to negotiate. It is very high and narrow for two lanes of traffic with very tricky bends at each end and no footpath either side. I never had to cross it often enough to wonder why.

Today I had a serious look at it. It is a two level bridge with a railway and two footpaths occupying the lower level – you would never know that from driving to or on it.. At one time it was possible to raise a section for river traffic to pass but that was sealed up years ago. It needs a good coat of paint as it is covered in rust but the reason for that could be seen next door where a $240 million bridge is being built.

I suspect the town has been waiting for this new bridge for a very long time as it is such a bottle neck with queues at either end almost continuously yet otherwise Grafton is just a typical country town.

One of the reasons for visiting the bridge was to see the wreck of the SS Induna which was supposed to be at the SW corner of the bridge but I couldn’t see any sign of it. Winston Churchill escaped the Boer War on SS Induna before it became a rail and vehicle ferry across the Clarence River.

Headed south to Shannon Creek Dam 18km away. Not the most exciting dam that I have visited but it was full and nearby they had created a very nice picnic area.

Then it was north to Junction Hill to visit an Open Garden we had been given a postcard about at the Festival. It was a very beautiful garden in a suburban street which charged $2 for entry (worth it). They also offered morning or afternoon tea of scones etc for $10 and, as it was well after lunch time, we tried that. I wonder how they get on with their neighbours – remember the fuss and eventual closure of Janet’s Royalty Rooms in Woonona?

Returned to Grafton to look at the Arboretum in See Park but it was a bit underwhelming so spent the next hour trying to get round detours for a festival event and road closure. It was hell! (especially when you have no idea where you are going).

Late afternoon took down the gazebo ready for tomorrow’s departure.

1st November 2017–Jacaranda Festival

Distance: 12.3Km

Drove into the centre of Grafton. Traffic jam crossing the bridge and anyway I still managed to take the wrong turning (if I was coming again I would try to stay on the north side of the river). South Grafton streets seem to have lots of short stretches with quick turns – very easy to take the wrong turning.

Drove the circuit of Jacaranda lined streets and they were very impressive. Finally parked next to Market Square which seems to be one of the festival centres. It too is filled with Jacaranda trees.

We were just thinking of leaving when a couple of kids started playing guitar and singing on the open air stage in the park. I think it was pupils from Grafton High School performing (unless I misheard). Some of them were very good but all of them performed very well. It was a pity they only performed in front of a small audience comprising their school mates and half a dozen of us old folks. They deserved better. I have to be honest and say I only recognised one piece they sang (a Missy Higgins composition) but I presume they were all contemporary songs.

They were followed by a primary school who started off with a school orchestra. Obviously the days of the screeching recorder are over; these kids had flutes, trombones, saxophones, clarinets, drums etc. The orchestra was followed by a Year 2 choir and dancers then Stage Two (?) choir. While this school performed there was a big audience of doting parents and grandparents.

After all this free entertainment went shopping in the local shopping mall to buy important ingredients like milk, tomatoes and nuts (forgot bread) before returning mid afternoon to the caravan park for a late lunch and recovery time. Then planned tomorrow’s excursions which will involve more driving and less walking.

Spent a little time trying to improve the TV reception in the camper but the local transmitters are over 35km away and seemingly too weak for my aerial. The TV knows the signal is there but can’t make head nor tail of it.

Disaster! The power supply for the HDD seems to have failed. No TV and far worse – no films or TV series for late evening. To be fair I did know that this power supply was dodgy but I thought it was just a connection glitch, I hope it hasn’t taken the drive with it.

20th June 2017–Injune to Hebel

Distance: 446 km

This will be my last day in foreign parts (for this trip at least); Hebel is only about 4km from the NSW border so I will be back on home soil tomorrow.

I intend to start early tomorrow and get as far south as I can, the weather is forecast to be fine for the next few days but the downside to clear skies is cold nights. Last night I had to sleep under my winter doona and it is not going to be any warmer the further south I go. it was about 7’C this morning – remember I am not near the coast.

I will get at least as far as Gilgandra but might even try for Dunedoo or Mudgee – if I get that far I could probably make home in one more day ie arrive Thursday. I have allowed two days but I think one would be better.

I have passed through Hebel on a few occasions but this is the first time I have stopped. There are only about 15 to 20 buildings; it is literally a town where if you blink you miss it – though the right angle bend in the middle of town might bring you undone if you did blink.

The pub sells fuel at $1.50/l however I have slightly under half a tank which should get me to Walgett (135km) where I expect more normal prices.

The caravan park is behind the General Store (which is for sale BTW) and $20 for a powered site. After a walk round Hebel and its “Historical Circle” I had a homemade peppersteak pie and a beer in the store for only $10 which I thought very fair.

Once the sun went down went back to the General Store for a meal, not an exciting menu but a modest selection of beef, chicken and seafood meals, let’s face it the dining room has four tables so they probably don’t get a lot of custom. I ordered chicken parmigiana together with a couple of beers and it was very nice. Back to the camper to write this while listening to some music. A nice end to a nice day.

19th June 2017–Capella to Injune

Distance: 376 km

Set off relatively late (for me) this morning. Went for a walk to look at Capella especially near what I took to be a creek (well, it had a bridge for the highway). It was a dry creek with the beginnings of a community picnic area – I forgot to take a picture of that. Next to it was what I presume to be the Capella Bowling Club which had evidently hit bad times and closed.

Eventually set off just after 8.30am and the drive south was uneventful, I stopped a couple of times to stretch my legs and enjoy the volcanic scenery of central Quuensland.

There was a section of major road works where they had thoughtfully wetted the dirt down to stop dust. Personally I would have preferred the dust, it blows away, but the wet dirt sticks!

Injune is an even smaller town than Capella with a population of less than 400 but it has a caravan park abet a self service one. The servo had run out of diesel when I arrived but he said he was expecting some in the evening. I was not that worried I have plenty to get me to Roma 90km away and am carrying 20 litres in the tray.

How nice it is to stay in Injune in June. Just as the sun set I went back to the Caltex place and filled up with fuel for tomorrow. All is good.

18th June 2017–Charters Towers to Capella

Distance: 429 km
Fuel: 46 L

Fog! Woke up to a thick fog, visibility was down to less than 50m however by the time I was ready to leave at 8am you could see the end of an adjacent paddock. For the first 30km of the drive it was still pretty thick fog.

Almost suddenly I was driving in sunshine, the clouds disappeared rapidly and it was horizon to horizon blue skies which remained for the rest of the journey.

On the way south I passed hundreds of caravans and trailers going north, “hundreds” is not an exaggeration I counted 30 in one 12 minute period. I can understand now why someone said that on 1st July the parks put their fees up to $50 a night with all that traffic.

Nearing Clermont I passed the Clermont Coal Mine with its conveyer belt running for km beside the road and its enormous spoil heap stretching along the other side of the road.

I had intended to stop at Clermont tonight but because there were few opportunities to stop on the road it was still reasonably early when I arrived so I only stopped to fill up with fuel before driving on to Capella another 60km further south.

Capella is a small town of less than 1000 people but it has a caravan park. It is Sunday and the town is dead except for the pub which was surrounded by utes and as noisy as anything. I bought a 6 pack of beer and had a quick schooner there.

17th June 2017–Charters Towers

Distance: 59 km

Slept until 6.30am this morning. There was a lot of dew so I used it to clean the car windscreen, lights etc before washing yesterday’s clothes. I think I should have enough clothes to get me home now.

Because it is Saturday decided to go out to the Burdekin Weir first thing before the families get out to the picnic ground there. This is the source of Charters Towers drinking water. The original weir was built in 1902 but has been raised to its current level to increase the water available when the population increased dramatically during the Second World War.

This is a half scale model of the old and new weir.

On the way back to town I detoured past the Columbia Mine Poppet Head.

Followed that by a trip to the Zara Clark Museum. Strange place – absolutely jammed with stuff and vaguely organised into ‘rooms’ with a theme. Spent quite a time there because it covered anything from transport, communications, Flying Doctor, home furnishing to mining and agriculture. There was the occasional exhibit which reminded me of my grandmother’s and great aunt’s homes (the reason why I rarely visit country museums) but overall it was interesting.

The museum was very close to the centre of town so I retraced my steps to follow parts of the self guided walk that I missed yesterday.

I visited the Miners Cottage which was from the same school of curatorship as the museum. Room after room of objects piled upon each other, this however was a private collection with even less organisation and explanation than the Museum. The owner was a prospector who used a metal detector which he demonstrated – it can tell the difference between gold and iron. I had no idea.

Made a return trip to Towers Hill to have a walk to Clark’s Gold mine which I had missed yesterday. To be honest it was not a great miss.

Followed this up with a bit of shopping (postcards and biscuits) before returning to the caravan park in the middle of the afternoon.

Took down the gazebo as the sun went behind the trees, there is dew in the morning and I don’t want to pack it up wet; besides taking it down is a time saver in the morning.

At about 5.30pm decided that I needed a curry so drove to the Charters Towers Indian restaurant.

I had intended to eat there but when I entered it was one of those places designed for takeaway only – absolutely no atmosphere, flouro lighting, plastic tablecloths, bare tables, hard chairs etc so ordered take away. When it arrived (20 mins later) drove back to my site, got out the paper plates and had a delicious Rogan Josh with Nan bread – far more than I could eat. Had to throw half away but for $22.20 who cares?

Moving on tomorrow. This is really the start of the dash for home, I expect to be there by Thursday or Friday – crossing NSW will only take a couple of days I hope because it will be too cold to hang about.

16th June 2017–Undara to Charters Towers

Distance: 408 km
Fuel: 57 L

At 8am I was at the Undara Lodge buying ice having all ready packed up to leave, by quarter past I was on the road.

The road has improved a lot since I was last on it over 5 years ago then it was mostly single lane whereas now is is mostly two lanes with probably less that 10 km of single lane road.

There were very few parking areas on the road other than trucks bays adjacent to the road. The rare parking areas seemed crowded so I didn’t stop, even the roadhouses were a detour off the main road so I just kept going.

Because of this I arrived at the caravan park just before 1pm, checked in and found my site. The lady in the office gave me a map of the town and pointed out the Tourist Information Office and Towers Hill which she said should not be missed.

There was also some shopping I had to do so once settled in I was off first to the tourist office to get a self guided walk of the town centre most of which I saw while I parked and had a quick look round.

I then drove to the Towers Hill which over looks the town. Not only is it a lookout it also has a lot of historical significance it is where gold was first discovered which lead to the town becoming one of the richest in the country even having its own stock market. This wealth is reflected in some of its old buildings seen above.

During WWII Charters Towers was the base for US and Australian bombers taking part in the Battle of the Coral Sea just off nearby Townsville. The flight path for the heavily laden bombers taking off was over Towers Hill which necessitated the demolition of the tall chimney of the Pyrites Works on the hill. The rubble is still there, as are many bunkers used to store armaments.

15th June 2017–Undara Lava Tubes

I was booked on the 8am trip to the lava tubes and was ready in plenty of time after shower, breakfast, laundry etc. to meet the guide outside the lodge reception.

There was a big crowd but it turned out they had two parties so in fact when we left my bus was not even full. As we neared the tubes you could see the Savannah grassland which stretches across northern Queensland interspersed with patches of remnant rainforest.

Plus examples of the Queensland Bottle Tree (not to be confused with the Boab).

The rainforest was clinging on in the cooler spots where the lava tube roofs had collapsed providing shelter and moisture.

The lava tubes are the result of a ‘shield’ volcano which oozed lava over the landscape 190million years ago to form the lave tubes. The tubes only exist about 30km from the Undara Volcano because only there were conditions right. The lava field stretches for something like 140km from the volcano and is the largest of its type in the world though the lava tubes are not unique they are some of the biggest. (That’s how I remember the guide’s tale anyway).

The roof is a mass of colour from the many minerals in the rock, brown – iron, white – calcium, dark brown – basalt. There were others but I forget them.

The local aborigines have no stories about the lava tubes and there are no rock paintings in any of them. The theory is that because the last eruption of a volcano in the area was less than 20000 years ago aboriginal history regards them as something bad and to be feared so they kept away from them.

They are truly spectacular only exposed because millions of years ago the roof collapsed in places where it was too thin to support its own weight.

Because of the early start I was back at my caravan by about 11am when I was able to upload yesterday’s blog. I tried last night but the internet wasn’t working even at its best Telstra only has one or two bars signal strength even though I can see the tower. There is no Optus signal at all.

Decided to go on another of the signposted walks; a 4km one called the Pioneer Walk which followed the route of the early telegraph line to an old slab hut. I think with my two visits I have now done all the walks except the very long all day ones (well, 6hr).

See the original Telegraph Pole? Made of Cypress Pine which termites don’t like and is resistant to bush fires. It has been there since the 1890s.

When I returned I was buggered, even worse my feet hurt! To ease the pain I ordered an Undara Burger and a beer at the bistro for lunch; both of which went down very well.

The Kookaburras wait for someone to leave their food unattended.

However I think that is enough food for the day and also the end of my outings – an afternoon of rest!

Actually the afternoon proved to be quite busy with people arriving and setting up near me – not busy for me obviously, I just watched. Last night there was just me and a mobile home in this set of seven sites, today I have people either side of me and the place is filling up.

14th June 2017–Georgetown to Undara

Distance: 178 km

With only about 140km to travel to reach Undara today there was definitely no rush. The only fly in the ointment was the intermittent closure of the bridge but even that seemed unlikely.

Once again the road was a mixture of single and two lane carriageway with no particular problems until I caught up with two identical caravans who at stayed in Georgetown overnight next to me, the first one I passed with no problem but his mate suddenly sped up at every passing opportunity to block me from getting past. When I eventually did get past he tailgated me for a few km before dropping back to his original speed of about 80 to 90kph. Unbelievable!

When I arrived at Undara it was too early to check in (their checkout time is later than normal at 10.30am) so I made use of their free coffee and wandered around the site and read up on the lava tubes. Actually only had to wait about 25 minutes but finally was given my site and I also paid for tomorrow’s tour that I had booked over the phone.

Once I was settled in I went for a drive to Kalkani Crater a trip I couldn’t do when I was here 5 years ago in my little car. At that time the road was in an appalling state and I was forced to turn back, ironically that car would have easily coped with it today because the road must have been recently graded because it was as smooth as.

The crater looks more impressive from the air so I will include an on line photo here (see above). I climbed the path to the crater rim and looked inside it was just a bowl filled with normal bush vegetation. I took some photos but frankly you can hardly see that it is a crater. Walked around the rim for a while but it didn’t get more exciting so strolled back down to the car park.

Returned to the Undara Caravan Park had another coffee and then took the Atkinson’s Lookout Walk it is only about a 4 km round trip but over rocky terrain so takes about an hour an a half. There must have been bushfires through the area recently (or burning off) because quite large swathes were blackened however in places regrowth had just started.

It was getting to late afternoon by now and I decided to have dinner in the bistro so I booked (you have to) then went for a shower.

Went to the bistro a bit early so I could have a beer first, by the time I was ready for my second beer (bottled only) it was time to order the meal. Spoilt for choice I fell back on my old favourite beer battered fish, even managed to refuse the salad or veggies. It was ready surprisingly quickly and I ate it in one of the old railway carriages (they’re not that old I travelled in them in the mid/late 60s – the fine for pulling the communication cord was in dollars).

13th June 2017–Normanton to Georgetown

Distance: 307 km
Fuel: 36 L

The caravan park office doesn’t open until 9am so walked down to the local ‘Supermarket’. It is one of these country stores that sells fuel, burgers, milk, bait, tools and just about anything including ice which was what I wanted.

Headed south toward Cloncurry to get to the turn off toward Cairns on the Gulf Developmental Road. These developmental highways are usually part of the price mining companies pay to develop their mine. (BTW the road from Cloncurry to Normanton is the Burke Developmental Road.)

At one point was held up for 20 minutes where they were resurfacing the road by covering it with tar then pouring small stones on top and following this up with modern equivalent of a team of steam rollers.

Stopped for a while at Croydon basically because it is the only town between Normanton and Georgetown where I will stop tonight. It was the third largest town in Queensland during its gold rush but it’s glory days are behind it and now it is just another pleasant, small, outback town.

From Croydon the road was a mix of single and two lanes of varying quality but nothing to slow down for (except the occasional single lane bridge). Georgetown is not a big place, you can stroll from one end of town to the other in a few minutes.

As I neared Georgetown I saw one of those big solar battery powered signs which said something about the Etheridge River Bridge being closed on the 13th and 14th June however it was not clear. I enquired at the caravan park to be told it was possibly being closed between 9am and 5pm each day so at the worst I have to be out of here before 9am. However when I went for a walk the traffic controllers unloading their gear at the bridge told me it was not being totally closed. It is the only route east.

Am not particularly worried because it is a rare occasion that I am not on the move before 9am. Notice why this is called the ‘dry’ season?

By about 5pm I was starving so I had the $10 special of Chicken Burger and Chips – not bad once I removed the beetroot.