Townsville to Croydon

 August 25:
A rest day today which is nice for a change. Distance today 0Km's. Total distance 2915Km's.

August 26:
Today we drove the forty Km's into Townsville to replenish our food supplies. Distance today 95km's Total distance 3010Km's.

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 de-commissioned 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 on our walk:

Distance today 0Km's Total distance 3010Km's.

 

 August 28:

Last minute shopping in Townsville to attend to before we leave tomorrow to head off to Fletcher Creek. Distance today 141Km's Total distance 3151Km's.

 

August 29:

Today we have a relatively short drive to Fletcher Creek. It's 90 Km's to the Gregory Development Road where we turned south for the 50 odd Km's to Fletcher Creek. We left Hervey Range just after 10am after a late breakfast of Swedish pancakes with bacon fried bananas and authentic Canadian maple syrup that Pieter's brother sends him from Canada. Distance today 148Km's. Total distance 3299Km's

 

August 30:

We left Fletcher Creek early on our way to Charters Towers before stopping at Pentland for morning tea and lunching and fueling up 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's to Porcupine Gorge National Park. Several days ago we had made our bookings over the internet to secure site 1, but on arrival someone was already camped on our spot. After some heated exchanges where I was informed that they were not moving from the site they eventually packed up and headed south to Hughenden. Distance today 370 Km's Total distance 3669Km's.

 

August 31:

We left the campground at 9am and it took 20 minutes to negotiate our way the 1.1Km track to the bottom of the gorge. We spent a couple of hours taking photos and chatting with fellow campers before returning to the campground which took us a further 25 minutes. Distance today 0Km's Total distance 3669Km's.

 

September 1:

Today's drive is a relatively short one. The Kennedy Development Road, north of the National Park turnoff to the Lynd is now a mixture of stretches of dirt and bitumen. Our camp for tonight is not any of the camp books and is a real gem. It's on the Einasleigh River about 1 Km north of Carpentaria Downs Station. The waterhole stretches for over 1Km but the property fences both sides of the crossing limit the amount of area for camping. The western side was already occupied by 4 groups so we camped on the eastern side by ourselves until we were joined later in the afternoon by 2 Kedron vans. Today's distance 240 Km's Total distance 3909Km's.

 

September 2:

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

 

September 3:

We enjoyed the Cobbold Gorge tour which takes just over 3 hours. We took the 10am tour which included a walk to the gorge rim and along the way we were shown many examples of bush tucker and sampled some of these. Then it was onto the boat for the gorge trip with the sides of the gorge towering some 20 metres above us. Distance today 0Km Total distance 4066 Km's.

 

September 4:

After leaving Cobbold Gorge we turned north at Forsyath heading to Georgetown. Their 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 1st in over 3 weeks since leaving home. My Great Grandfather was born in Croydon in the 1800's.

Distance today 247Km's Total distance 4313Km's.