30th August to 8th September 2011

30^th August 2011

Merry has been off colour with a stomach bug for several days, but is feeling much better today so we packed a picnic lunch and headed into Charters Towers to visit the Venus Gold Battery to learnt some of the history of the area. 

The tour, and the fact that it was running late, took us up to lunch time which we had in Centenary Park and followed this with a walk around the park to collect photos of the statues, which also included some further down the road. 

We then drove up to the lookout for the overview of the town before driving out to the Burdekin weir (not to be confused with the Burdekin Falls Dam despite the similarities. 

This weir provides the drinking water for the town and supplies the mines and is a very pleasant picnic area that is only 14kms out of town.  The weir is unusual as it is V shaped rather than straight, which is the usual design, and as there is water coming over the wall it presents a pleasing sight. 

This water then heads off to the Dalrymple Lake and the Burdekin Falls Dam along with other tributary rivers and then out to sea north of Ayr.

31^st August 2011

We drove into Charters Towers again and visited the Cattle sales, which operates on Wednesdays to watch, listen and learn as the bulls were sold off.  

Some were a bit rough looking and we were informed that they are called ‘Mickey’s’ and are unbranded animals that have been brought in with the branded animals during the muster are sold off cheaply.  Apparently they are often bought purely for mincing to make Hamburgers at around $1 a kilo whereas the better animals fetched $1.80 of more per kilo, but can also be kept for several years to become respectable animals again.   The better animals will probably be fattened up and sold on the overseas market and the rough stuff kept for the home market. 

When we returned home Barry started making some shelves to house our set top boxes to give back the use of the cupboard they currently occupy.

2^nd September 2011

The last 2 days have been spent building the shelving unit which needed some modification from the original design but met with eventual success, and this was followed by a thorough check of the stereo/DVD player that only uses 3 out of 4 speakers.  This turned out to be one miserable connection within the plug unit on the back of the player which we can’t fix ourselves, so we have re-installed the original unit that came with the caravan.  Being a Friday the park has started filling up again with tents and camper trailers for their weekend away from home, so the noise level has risen with it.

3^rd September 2011

We drove into Charters Towers to do some necessary shopping as they don’t have Sunday trading in this town, and we also attempted to have a look at the equipment/vehicles in the old ambulance station but that only opens on Sunday and Wednesday, so we won’t be doing that as we leave here on Monday. 

In the afternoon we walked along the riverbed of the Fanning River as far as we could and then along the bank for a while until it became too ridiculous to fight your way through.  We then backtracked past our entry point and joined the Burdekin River and walked along the bank to a rocky outcrop, which was almost the end of the track, before returning to the camp.

4^th September 2011

Barry made and fitted a shelf under the table unit that he made some time ago whilst in Melbourne that also extends across the back of his seat for Foxy to lay on.  The extra shelf is a convenient place to house the numerous remote units we now possess.  In the late afternoon this campsite has a Vegie man come with his truck load of excellent vegies at excellent prices which adds to the beauty of the place.

5^th September 2011

We packed up our camp and headed into Charters Towers for some final shopping, top up the fuel tank and fill the cars 56 litre water tank plus the water jerry can and top up the vans water tanks with town water so that we can stop off at a few free campsites. 

We stopped at a free campsite by the Fletcher Creek for a late lunch and decided to stay for the rest of the day and night as it is a very pleasant spot.  The creek is very fast flowing with camping areas on both sides of the creek on one side of the main road and on the south side of the creek on the other side of the road with the option to stay for up to a month. 

We walked to the other side of the road and then to the other side of the river via a footbridge and walk along the river to the next footbridge and back on the original side of the river back to our campsite, taking photos of the creek and birds.

6^th September 2011

After a sudden very chilly night we headed off towards Greenvale which from here on has some single lane strips of road with 24 call point where the 3 trailer road trains call on their UHF radios informing their direction and the call point they are passing.  This gives other road uses the chance to get well off the road to let them have the bitumen which both avoids them hitting the dirt shoulder and throwing up stones, and keeps you clear of the third trailer which is capable of swinging a metre and a half.  We were lucky not to meet a road train or have one wanting to pass us, and the only other traffic was during the two lane areas, so our timing was good.  The road was built for the cattle industry to transport the cattle south so they have right of way over all other road users, ideally with UHF radio, however, many users don’t have this facility and have to take their chances on seeing them coming in time to take evasive action.  We do have UHF radio but in the final analysis didn’t need it but would not rely on that happening again. 

We treated ourselves to a chicken/cheese/tomato toasted sandwich for lunch at the Three Rivers Hotel which had a song written about it during the period they were building the railway to the local mines, which was later recorded by Slim Dusty.  The owners had a cat named Slim and a Corgi dog named Dusty but we only got to meet Dusty as Slim passed on a while ago.  The Hotel garden boasts a Sausage tree which is supposedly one of only three in the Australia, and apparently has no useful purpose other than to produce fruit that resembles sausages.  As there is nothing else in the very small township we moved on to The Lynd Oasis which is only a road house with accommodation and over priced camping facilities.  It used to be the outstation of the Lyndhurst Station which is now considerably smaller and off loaded the outstation where we will spend the night despite the ridiculous price as the next logical stopping point is several more hours driving away, and beyond the daily limit we set for ourselves.

7^th September 2011

We headed towards Ravenshoe but turn off a bit before we got there to go to Mount Surprise which was recommended to us by a couple at Bivouac Junction and proved to correct.  There are 3 caravan parks and we chose the one by the BP garage which has plenty of shade and is relatively cheap but nice. 

The township is small but offers quite a lot of tourist interest opportunities such as Topaz fossicking tours, train ride to Forsayth via Einasleigh which we will do in the car as it is cheaper and can possibly take in Cobbold and Copperfield Gorges and then return via Georgetown and the Savannah way.  It is also quite close to the Undara Lava Tubes which is to be tomorrow’s excursion.  The road here was better than the other side of The Lynd but had some single lane strips with a few more call points, but once again we had no problems

8^th September2011

As planned we did the 2.5hr tour of the Undara Lava Tubes rather than the expensive 8hr tour but will do the volcanic crater rim at a late date as the temperature has risen quite rapidly.  The rim is included in the 8hr tour but you can do it on your own, which we will do earlier in the day soon. 

The tour, whichever length or price you wish to pay, is worth it but involves quite a few steps.  The second tube we went into still has water in it from the heavy rains at the beginning of the year, so only those that wished to wade along the duckboards in water up to their knees ventured the extra 100 metres to the end platform.  Due to it being totally dark in there they don’t have any idea of what they may have seen with a torch until they check their cameras later. 

On the way home we stopped at Elizabeth creek, and also at the town entrance for a few photos.