5TH AUGUST 2013 – CENTRAL HIGHLANDS, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

Drove out from Carnarvon in brilliant sunshine at 8am surrounded by sheer white cliffs & tree covered ranges – makes one realise what a wonderful world it is & how lucky we are to be a part of it, not just here but in our own lovely country as well. I missed a photo opportunity of what I thought was a metal sculpture, but then realised it was a very mangled small passenger plane which went down in this area many years ago & has only been found in recent times.
 

Countryside leaving Carnarvon Gorge

There are cattle grazing contentedly on the hay-like paddocks & little wallabies with their heads just visible above the grasses. These are all unfenced cattle properties along here so it is essential to travel at a speed possible to stop quickly & safely. We did have a close call with some cattle coming out of the shadows of some roadside trees & though the adults stayed put, a young calf leapt out & became confused whether to go on or go back. Stu cleverly missed it by a smidgeon & was a bit shaken. Of course this is the time of day for kangaroos to be bouncing across unexpectantly  too, & even a large flock of white cockatoos having a breakfast of insects on the road just missed our windscreen & later a flock of pink & grey galahs. The paddocks turn to green with crops & newly ploughed fields with emus enjoying the bounty. I’m sure the farmers aren’t impressed by that.

 

Rural School at Rollerston

 

Mural completed a Week later

  We are backtracking to Rolleston where I saw the schoolchildren painting their mural on Friday, so am interested to see the progress. Am surprised & delighted to see that it is completed & really lovely so took another photo. Mid morning we travel through the hilly Expedition Range, really lovely country & again aglow with golden wattle roadside together with lime green grasses. It is very spring-like & a bonus is that there is little traffic on this stretch. We are puzzled at the sight of 100’s of acres of twiggy bushes with no leaves planted in rows. Made all sorts of guesses what they would be, but we did see that it was an organic cattle farm so I wondered if it was something they grew to feed them on. I felt very clever when we found out later that it was exactly for that purpose but I still don’t know what it was. Finished the day at the Dawson River freebie, just a few kms from the town of Moura where we remained for two nights. Again it was a nice spot, maintained by volunteers from the town. We repaid them by doing a little shopping there.

 

Flood levels at Dawson River

 Wed 7th – A terrible start to the day as we witnessed a truck in front of us run into a young kangaroo. It’s the first time we’ve seen it & it left me feeling sick & sad for quite some time afterwards. The driver can’t be blamed – there is absolutely nothing you can do without endangering yourself & others on the road, especially in a vehicle that size. Shortly after we passed through a little place called ‘Banana’ in the Shire of Banana. Apparently there was a bullock called Banana & for some reason the place was called after it. They have even erected statue of it – must have been some Bull! Next we arrive at Biloela (pronounced Bil o ee la), a large, busy town we wandered around looking for a couple of handyman bits for Stu. It all made us a bit later than usual, so when we got to our next freebie after driving for an hour over a rather narrow, uneven sealed road & three lots of massive roadworks, it looked pretty full. It was beside a weir & there was hardly a flat site to be seen, was windy in most parts & altogether became a hassle. So for the first time we had to drive away again & head somewhere else. Funnily enough neither of us felt comfortable there at all. Finally by two o’clock were had found another with one with nice flat sites & were able to have some lunch & relax for the rest of the afternoon. Beside the campsite was a huge area of trees which had obviously been flooded not too long ago, & many of them had died & fallen over or been pushed over by the floods. Again we were puzzled as to what they would be, so many acres of them planted in rows. We later found out they were Paulownia trees, which in NZ are a decorative tree with large heartshaped leaves & pink wisteria like flowers. I believe they may be grown for their timber? The following morning we were besieged by the sounds of blue winged kookaburras again before we left.

Thurs 8th – This morning we travel along the same highway through Abercorn & Eisvold, the latter a dear little town which reminded us of Paparoa. Their sign said ‘Black Stump’ – Gateway to Mundaburra – I always wondered where the Black Stump was. Citrus are a big crop in this area so we passed through the ‘Big Mandarin’ & the ‘Big Orange’ before finding our next campsite beside a weir, making sure we were good & early this time. That is where I am catching up with my rather late blog installments, mostly due to lack of internet of late. Only a few more days & we will back on the so called Sunshine Coast so hope it lives up to its name for a change.

Fri 9th - Gayndah is the next town we reach, Queensland's oldest town on the very large Burnett River.  A nice town with lots of character, which was flooded early this year, a surprise considering the small amount of water in the river at present.  The countryside is lovely too.   Our plan was to have stopped in the showgrounds here, but unfortunately on arrival there was a big horse event on for the weekend, so it wasn't possible.  We stopped at Ban Ban Springs for a morning cuppa in the sunshine, then continued into South Burnett.   The Jacaranda trees are really gorgeous here at present with their leaves a beautiful gold prior to dropping to make room for the wonderful lilac flowers.  There are so many &  it must be quite a stunning  when that eventuates.  Moving on we found a lovely little spot at Wooroolin in the town park between the highway & a very large wetland area.  There were only about 8 vans at the end of the day but room for lots more.  Once again it had good ablutions & a $2 coin in slot shower.  We stayed 2 nights.

Well here we are , our last day on the road en route to Landsborough via Kingaroy, the peanut & navy bean capital of Australia, as well as growing citrus & mining coal.     It is very like the Pukekohe area in NZ with it's market gardens of red soil & rolling hills in the background.  There follows on a few  small towns & we say farewell to the South Burnett region, climbing the Blackbutt Range to Yarramum with lots of Hoop Pine plantations,  then on through Kilcoy, which appears to be a dairying area with a large dairy company.  This appears to be a popular 'Sunday driver' area especially with motor bikes - lovely steepish bendy roads &  bushclad hills .    Finally it's on to Beerwah & Landsborough  where we will stay with my son & attempt to sell our little home on wheels  & vehicle.   So this is my last blog & a bit boring no doubt, but I hope you have enjoyed travelling along with us - it's been nice seeing how many of you have been doing so & that we haven't been entirely forgotten, even though I don't know who you all are.  So until we meet again - we will be back in NZ 23rd August. 

Jan's Summary:

We are both still sane & on speaking terms, feeling fit & refreshed by the day to day freedom from day to day chores & 'niggles' of so called 'real life'.  We have learnt much & made a few new friends & it is a wonderful life for those who live it permanently, but not for us who like a bit of dirt under our fingernails & the company of regular friends & family.  Thanks to modern technology it is so easy to keep touch but it doesn't compare with a face to face chat  sharing problems & highlights  a lovely warm hug.  So I'll just finish with a bit of poetic licence which I hope expresses my feelings at this time.

At The End of The Journey.

I shall miss the red dust earth and the rocky hills nearby,

I shall miss the roads to nowhere and those huge wide clear blue skies,

I shall miss the errant wildlife and yes, the gum trees too,

These many things I memorise,

Australia I love you.

But Kiwiland, my Kiwiland, my home, my Eden true

I'll live my life in your gentler land

Till my final sad adieu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 AUGUST 2013 – CARNARVON GORGE, CENTRAL HIGHLANDS, QUEENSLAND



Mickey Creek

It’s the day to do the ‘big walk’, so up bright & early on a cold morning armed with refreshments, camera & map. We soon warmed up with the sunshine shortly after starting the track. It is perfect weather for walking & it is not long before the track is quite busy. It is a well formed track 9.7km mostly flat with 6 side tracks additional to that, some of them with steep sections . Zamia palms & huge tall grey gums which look like massive power poles adorn the bush together with long grasses & other trees. There are apparently about 170 bird species present in the area & the cacophony of bird calls at this time of the day is incredible, most of them so high up it is difficult to identify them unless you know their calls. We do know there were lots of blue-winged kookaburras who incidentally do not laugh like the more common brown one. However they are certainly as noisy as are the Friar birds which are a bit ugly really.

One of the 32 crossings

The first side track we take is to the Moss Garden – a beautiful little Oasis with water contantly dripping from the steep sandstone walls & supporting a lush carpet of mosses, ferns & liverwort. Beneath the ferns struggling for sunlight is a small waterfall tumbling over a rock ledge into an icy pool. The dripping water has been proven to be over 1000 years old by the time it makes its way through the cliff walls. Truly amazing!

Moss Garden

Next we visit the Ampitheatre - Hidden inside the walls of the gorge is a 60m deep chamber gouged from the rock by running water. This is a place for quiet contemplation with towering stone walls which create an awe-inspiring atmosphere within.

Along the Gorge Track

Entrance to Amphitheatre
Find Stu

Third on the list is Ward’s Canyon – a small but beautiful side gorge which would be a wonderful place to be on a truly hot day. It is home to the world’s largest fern, the King fern. These impressive green ‘dinosaurs’ have strong links with the ancient flora of Gondwanan origin. It is a steep, thankfully short track through spotted gums & around a small waterfall. Wonderfully peaceful if you are lucky enough to be there alone.

Wards Canyon

Number 4 is the Art Gallery – Over 2000 engravings, ochre stencils & free-hand paintings adorn the 62m long sandstone walls of this significant Aboriginal site. It contains some of the best examples of Aboriginal stencil art in Australia.

Aboriginal stencil art in the Art Gallery

Cathedral Cave is the next one along the track & is a massive wind eroded overhang which sheltered Aboriginal people for thousands of years. A panorama of rock imagery across it’s wall reflects the rich cultural life of those who gathered here.

100 metres upstream we come to Boowinda Gorge which is a real rock-hop to access. There is 1.5kms of gorge but the first 1km is the most spectacular. It is boulder strewn & the walls are green with mossy growth, & the walls are sculpted by water & time.

Boowinda Gorge

Finally we come to Big Bend, where a natural pool in the Carnarvon Creek lies in an elbow beneath looming sandstone walls. There are apparently turtles & catfish in the waters here but we were not fortunate to see any. It is set up as a small camp site for those who wish to stay overnight or just stop for a picnic lunch as we did. Not too many seem to reach this last part of the gorge though we did meet two different couples with backpacks & camping equipment, set to do the 82km round trip. Obviously they were in the younger age group.

So now it was time to turn around & walk the main track back again, having set off at 8.45am & back at camp at 4.30pm, having rock-hopped the river 32 times (great fun) & walked 27kms in total. Tired but feeling satisfied that we had accomplished it, needless to say we slept very well that night. There was just one more walk to do which was 1000 rocky steps to the Bluff – a lookout over the surrounding landscape. Although I was keen to do it next morning, one knee was a bit sore so I opted out & left Stu to do it alone, so he set out at 7.30am & was back again in less than 2 hours, pleased as punch with himself. How did I manage without him? I had a later morning in bed reading, & gave the van a good cleanup without someone to walk in & out all the time. We spent the rest of the day relaxing & that night joined 8 others & a ranger in a ‘spotlighting’ tour of the area hoping to witness some nocturnal wildlife. There are 6 different varieties of ‘Gliders’ in this park & we managed to see 4 which was fantastic & quite exciting. They are possum-like creatures with long tails & wings like bats who spend their lives in the high canopies of the trees. Some are very tiny like the ‘feather-glider’, up to the Great Glider quite a lot larger like a baby possum. It was just wonderful to see them glide from tree to tree guided by their sonar & the calls of their family. A real magical & different experience though I had hoped to see another little creature like a wallaby but with shorter limbs. I’m having a senior moment & can’t remember it’s name???

Carnarvon Gorge from the Booolimba Cliff

29TH JULY 2013 – CENTRAL HIGHLANDS, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA.

We have arrived at Emerald, quite a large, modern country town established originally in 1879 as a base for the building of the western railway & named because of the green pastures. Quite co-incidentally it is in close proximity to the sapphire mining areas of Sapphire & Rubyvale. It is at the junction of three highways, Gregory, Inland & Capricorn so is an extremely busy place. Once a major sunflower producing area, Emerald is now home to the world’s largest Van Gogh sunflower painting located in the town park. It is 25mtrs high with approximately 13 tonnes of steel used in its structure. It also has a beautiful old Railway building. Once cattle country, due to the building of the Fairburn Dam in 1972, it now produces over 25% of QLD’s cotton crop. Our stopover in Emerald was a very noisy one between the railway track & the highway, though it wasn’t quite as bad as expected. It was situated by the Botanic Gardens which apart from providing toilets & water, was a pleasant place to stroll although it has seen better days. I would say it is kept open by volunteers. Across the road was a good shopping mall with supermarket etc, so certainly convenient for us all.
 

Railway Station Emerald
 

Next morning it was a short drive to Sapphire. It is a 48hr parking site here & provides again toilets & even a lovely new swimming complex, open only in the hotter months. There are horses, cattle & even camels wandering at will . On the second morning we were woken to a most unfamiliar noise , very loud & like a whole lot of creaky gates opening & closing. It proved to be a flock of about 15 quite lovely guinea fowl. We all had a good laugh at them as they go themselves into someones garden & couldn’t work out how to escape again although they were right next to the gap in the fence. There was very definitely a leader though & finally one of them jumped up onto the fence & jumped over & that gave them all the impetus to find the gap & they left at quite a speed in a big long line still creaking their heads off.

Although no real town, Sapphire it does have a general store & fuel, of course a pub & several cafes, & quite a number of gem shops selling gems alone or jewellery which I must say was rather tempting. some of the shops also organise fossicking tours. Everything is VERY rustic & full of character. This is one of the world’s most significant sapphire bearing grounds & covers 900 sq kms. As you can imagine it is a really ‘interesting’ place to say the least. There are lots of old caravans, hovels, sheds, machinery, old cars – you name it they are lying around somewhere, no doubt discarded by those who have left no richer than when they arrived. A lot of the vehicles we saw had no number plates on them so naturally no WOF either. People from all over the world come to seek their fortune here hoping for that lucky find, & although there are some who have, most don’t but never leave until they die. As a visitor there are several ways to experience the gemfields. Firstly the least adventurous & easiest is to buy a bucket of ‘wash’ (basically dirt & stones). We paid $8 but some others were $10. The system is to sieve the dry stuff, then wash in a trough of water after which you tip it out onto a hessian sack on a table & with plastic tweezers go through looking for a gem. Sounds easy & it is, but it is slow & a bit hard on the back. It took us about 2 hours to do a bucket full. Naturally we didn’t have high expectations – just a bit of fun & experience – but we did find small bits & one which is a Black Star Sapphire & worth about $100. Topoish it & set it would have cost about $30 & then the cost of the jewellery to place it in. Needless to say we didn’t bother - just a little memory of our trip.

 

Jan fossicking
 

 

Shed at Rubyvale
 

The second alternative is to go on a fossicking tour for the day with tools provided to dig your own wash out in the fields, permit provided. This would have cost $80 for the two of us. At Rubyvale just a couple of kms down the way, there are tow very nice hotels, one quite newish & built from local boulders, iron bark logs & locally crafted wrought iron. There is also a caravan park & store, community services & police station. It seemed to be slightly more organised & tidier than Sapphire.

Jan feeding Rainbow lorikeets

!st August – Well here we are in August & only 3 weeks from home. The weather has been just beautiful in this part of QLD, cold mornings (6deg this am) with gorgeous clear blue skies & sunshine. It’s such a treat to sit outside for brekkie – there is always something to catch your eye. We left Sapphire & Rubyvale behind to head further down the inland route towards Carnarvon National Park which has a reputation of being quite spectacular with lots of walks. Not being in a hurry we will have at least one stopover beforehand. By morning tea we have reached Lake Maraboon & the Fairburn Dam, a lovely peaceful spot with a caravan park right on the very large lake, another one which holds more water than Sydney Harbour. There is also a very large picnic

area. I imagine it is a popular place with locals from Emerald for weekends & holidays but no freebie here so we move on & find a very small parking area near Mt Zarmia & what is known as the ‘Virgin Mary’ rock, so named because it looks like a large effigy of the lady herself on the face of the rock. As luck would have it that evening it was subtly lit but I couldn’t get a shot. Naturally we had a very peaceful night being overlooked.

Virgin rock

 

Next morning we drove through Springsure to Rolleston & a beautiful drive it was. Lots of bush & hills to drive over for a change, & lovely views of the mountains on yet another glorious morning. Further along there are lovely golden grasses & miles of green crops – I know not what. There are lots of road kill, many of them quite young joeys. A brighter sight was to see an echidna crossing the road with all the traffic slowed to avoid it. At tiny Rolleston I took a shot of the local primary school children busily painting a very large mural on one of their buildings. On asking permission “could I take a photo of these very industrious children”, one little boy replied “No”. I then told him I wanted to take it home to show my grandchildren in NZ & that must have done the trick because he & the others were only too happy to oblige & smiled with their artists brushes in hand, some up ladders. So then it’s onwards to Carnarvon 106 kms away, all sealed but for the last 18kms of dusty gravel. Lovely setting for the caravan park which is $45 per night so quite a splash out for us! Of course they probably only get revenue in the winter as when the wet comes it would be closed. The sites are quite small, everyone packed in like sardines but we won’t be in camp much – lots of walking to do. We met up with the couple from Sydney we befriended some way back which was nice. Once settled in we drove to the park Info Centre to get a brochure & map of walks, & on the way back managed to do 3 small ones, one a lovely gorge. At 5pm a large number of campers assembled for a Ranger’s talk, but sadly he was delayed & we only got about 15 minutes before he had to go off on a night tour.