Townsville to Croydon

 August 25:

Today is a rest day, which is a nice change. Distance today: 0 km. Total distance: 2,915 km.

 

August 26:

Today we drove the forty km into Townsville to replenish our food supplies. Distance today: 95 km. Total distance: 3,010 km.

 

August 27:

We set off early this morning on a 12 km return walk at the back of my sister's and Pieter's property to view three of the five tunnels created for the building of the Greensvale to Townsville railway line. The line work commenced in 1969 and was decommissioned in 1998 after the nickel deposit at Greenvale was exhausted. The ore was refined just north of Townsville. Clive Palmer owns the refinery, which now processes nickel ore from Indonesia.

Resident bats:

The third tunnel has caved in:

A view of the Pinnacles during our walk:

Distance today: 0 km; Total distance: 3010 km.

 

 August 28: Last-minute shopping in Townsville before we leave tomorrow to head to Fletcher Creek. Distance today 141 km. Total distance 3,151 km.
 
August 29: Today we have a relatively short drive to Fletcher Creek. It's 90 km to the Gregory Development Road, where we turned south for the approximately 50 km to Fletcher Creek. We left Hervey Range just after 10 am, following a late breakfast of Swedish pancakes with bacon, fried bananas, and authentic Canadian maple syrup that Pieter's brother had sent him from Canada. Distance today 148 km. Total distance 3,299 km.

 

August 30:
We left Fletcher Creek early on our way to Charters Towers before stopping at Pentland for morning tea, lunch, and refuelling at Hughenden. Met another BT owner who is returning home to Cairns after 12 months away. Their handle is the "blue heelers". From Hughenden, we drove north another 60-odd km to Porcupine Gorge National Park. Several days ago, we had made our bookings online to secure site 1, but on arrival, someone was already camped on our spot. After some heated exchanges, during which I was told they would not move from the site, they eventually packed up and headed south to Hughenden. Distance today 370 km. Total distance 3669 km.

 

August 31:

We left the campsite at 9am, and it took 20 minutes to navigate the 1.1 km track down to the bottom of the gorge. We spent a couple of hours taking photos and chatting with fellow campers before returning to the campsite, which took us a further 25 minutes. Distance today 0 km. Total distance 3669 km.

 

September 1:

Today's drive is relatively short. The Kennedy Development Road, north of the National Park turnoff to the Lynd, is now a mix of dirt and bitumen stretches. Our camp for the night isn't listed in any guidebooks and is a real gem. It's on the Einasleigh River about 1 km north of Carpentaria Downs Station. The waterhole extends for over 1 km, but the property fences on both sides of the crossing limit the camping area. The western side was already occupied by four groups, so we camped on the eastern side alone until we were later joined in the afternoon by two Kedron vans. Today's distance: 240 km. Total distance: 3,909 km.

 

The 43 km from September to Einasleigh was stony with corrugations and had one long stretch of bitumen through a hilly section. We stopped for a coffee break at Forsyth in the local park. Max, who owns the caravan park and is in his 70s, also comes from Sawtell, where we live. He also delivers mail and goods around the region. The final 50-odd kilometres into Cobbold Gorge, located near Robin Hood Station, were through rolling, hilly country with many steep creek crossings to negotiate. The road was quite stony and corrugated. We spent the first several hours after arrival doing some washing before heading off to the pool for the rest of the afternoon. The pool overlooks the dam. Distance today: 157 km. Total distance: 4066 km.

 

September 3:
We enjoyed the Cobbold Gorge tour, which lasts just over 3 hours. We took the 10am tour, which included a walk to the gorge rim, and along the way, we saw many examples of bush tucker and sampled some of them. Afterwards, it was onto the boat for the gorge trip, with the sides of the gorge towering about 20 metres above us. Distance today 0 km. Total distance 4066 km.

 

September 4:
After leaving Cobbold Gorge, we turned north at Forsyath, heading for Georgetown. There is bitumen at both ends of the road with a large dirt section in the middle. We had morning tea here before stopping to look at the Cumberland Chimney on our way to Croydon. It's 1996 since we last passed this way, and then most of the road was dirt. We are camped in the caravan park, our first in over three weeks since leaving home. My Great Grandfather was born in Croydon in the 1800s.
Distance today 247 km, total distance 4313 km.