29th September - 5th October

Monday 29th

Off again pretty early this morning and went sightseeing around Cape Tribulation - Cow Bay, etc. We knew that Fred and Jude needed to get to Townsville to get Troopy fixed (problems with the gearbox), and we wanted to go and see Mossman Gorge, so we parted ways and will meet up again in Ayr in a few days time. We went on to Mossman Gorge and it was just fantastic. No charge and there are heaps of different walking tracks, bridges, lookouts, swimming, etc. We just loved it. Took a million photos and went on the big walk. We were going to go swimming but were running out of time to get to tonights campsite (Lake Tinaroo), so we moved on. I put the coordinates in the GPS, (according to the Camps 3 book), but they were wrong, so we ended up in the middle of nowhere. We finally arrived at our destinatin and it is just beautiful! This is our first night alone in a long time and we are savouring it. We put on the camp oven to cook a great stew and just kicked back and relaxed.

Tuesday 30th

When I chose the campsite we ended up staying at, I chose one at random – and got it right!! The other campsite at Lake Tinaroo (Platypus), which we could see across the lake, had a massive party going on all night which we could hear clear across the other side of the lake – so glad we didn’t camp there – I would have been quite upset I think! Started working at medical transcription again this morning and didn’t take off until about 10:30, aiming to head for Ravenshoe and Innot Hot Springs and then inland from there. We got to Ravenshoe and saw the huge wind turbines – they are ENORMOUS! We were about to head inland when we noticed that our kilometers had ticked over to the point where we were due for a service (we bought this big extended warranty thing when we bought the car and they are very strict about when it needs servicing). So, instead of heading inland and putting more Ks on it, we decided that, being so close to Ayr that we should head back and pick up the caravan and get it serviced at Ayr. We arrived at about 5:30 after a big day’s drive. Once we got there we spoke to Carole’s neighbour, Les, who let us into the unit and also told us that Fred and Jude had Troopy on a tilt tray and were heading to Townsville!! We knew they were having problems with the gearbox, but didn’t know it was that bad! We are not sure of details but I’m sure they will come back here as soon as it is fixed.

Did heaps of loads of washing and went to bed – big day!

Wednesday 1st

I got up and did some work this morning and Ross took the Disco to the mechanics for a service. I was listening to the TV while I was working and heard something about a crocodile killing someone. When I looked further into it, it was “Charley”, the croc at Endeavour River Escape that Terry told us about, and the guy was at the same place we were standing when it happened only a few days ago! Freaky!

Mostly spent the day cleaning and organising. We even gave the poor old Disco a well-deserved wash!

Thursday 2nd

What a mess! We spent most of the day trying to get things back into some semblance of order so we can take off tomorrow.

Friday 3rd

We left Ayr at about 11 am and said goodbye to our travelling companions. We had a great trip but are looking forward to striking out on our own. We didn’t want to do too big a drive today so we drove to Charters Towers for a look around. It’s a lovely little town – heaps of history and historic buildings – well worth a look around and the Information Centre is great too. The lady we spoke to there was extremely helpful and helped us make up our mind which direction we would go from here, as we hadn’t made a firm decision as yet. We did originally intend to keep going west and then eventually make our way down to Longreach, but it is just so dry around here at the moment that we didn’t think we would enjoy it all that much and thought we should come back at a different time of year when its not so dry. Every creek we cross is dry and there is nowhere to fish!!

So we camped at a little roadside stop an hour east of Charters Towers (in hindsight we should have just stayed at the Mobil service station which offered free showers too). It was a pretty good spot – really close to the road, but there was very little traffic so it didn’t worry us, and also really close to the railway line, but trains were few and far between and I never heard any until I woke up in the morning after I got to sleep. It was right on a river, but not a drop of water in it L. We met a great bunch of people there – all travelling separate but great to talk to so we swapped stories and information. One couple had a Disco exactly the same as ours and Ross enlightened him about the joys of getting a computer upgrade and new exhaust system – another one corrupted!! His caravan weighed 3.5 tonne compared to our 1.5 tonne and he was having a little trouble with towing considering the Disco’s tow capacity is 3.5 tonne.

Saturday 4th

I got up and worked this morning and Ross was busy trying to fix an oil leak caused by the guys who serviced the Disco in Ayr – not happy Jan!! He was also happily gossiping with the neighbours so we didn’t get going until about 11 am.

We headed back towards Charters Towers then down the Gregory Developmental Road towards Emerald. We stopped and filled up with fuel at the Mobil and had free showers while we were at it – nice!!

We stopped for lunch at about 2:30 pm at a roadhouse at Belyando Crossing – now there is a hole in the middle of nowhere!! Stinking hot, no loo paper in the loos, brown water for washing your hands – yeeeuk!! Moved on from there pretty quick. There is nothing much out here so we are going to push through to either Capella or Emerald – depending on what campsites we can find.

The country is looking lusher and lusher and hopefully we will be able to start finding places we can fish again soon – we have the boat and the fishing gear but no water!!

We got to Capella which looks like a very interesting little town but it is definitely not friendly towards free campers, so we pushed onto Emerald and camped under the bridge at the Botanical Gardens. It was a bit noisy and very well lit (bit hard to sleep), but not a bad spot and you get to wander around the Botanical Gardens when you get up of a morning.

Sunday 5th

We decide to try our hands at fossicking today and headed off to Sapphire and Rubyvale. It was a stinking hot day and we pulled up for a break and lunch at Sapphire and were chatting to some fellow travelers when a car pulling an old caravan drove past and the wheel fell off the caravan!! Poor bugger – middle of nowhere and the wheel falls off your caravan!! We went over to see if he needed help, but some other people had already pulled up and given him a hand.

The people we were chatting to told us to go to Wills Wash (around the back of the pub) in Rubyvale, so we toddled off to find our fortune. It was an interesting afternoon and we had a great time sifting through all the stones looking for sapphires and zircons and we did find a few, but not our fortunes – oh well!! We can say we have done it now – I don’t think I would be in a hurry to do it again, but we had fun.

We headed back to the same campsite in Emerald for the night and will go and check out Fairbairn Dam (Ross’ dad helped build it in the early 70’s), and then on to Bedford Weir near Blacktown.