Hi Everyone,
Life is good. The house settled last week so we have no further worries on that score!
After leaving Charleville our adventure continued at
Mitchell. Lovely park just on the outskirts of town, where you pa
y for 2 nights and get 2 free! They also hand you heap of info on the District of things to see and do, and there were plenty! Mitchell is also one of the places for being famous for its Artesian spa’s. Beautifully laid out in “swimming pool” style and have both the hot pool and the cool pool beside it among lovely landscaping. They also had a deal for us caravanners where you paid for a three day pass and got the 4th day free. We spent most late afternoons there, not earlier as the daytime temperatures had been around the 30 degree mark! Mitchell is really quaint outback town on the Maranoa river. Like everywhere else the river was very low but the birdlife was still prolific. We even saw some “new” birds for us – Pale headed Rosellas.
We visited a funny little horse man and his horse called “Honey” who can perform on verbal command a huge array of tricks. Incredible relationship between the two of them.
We read about a property called
“Claravale” about 53kms from Mitchell that invited you to visit the property for a tour with them. This property of 130,000 ha has 600 acres dedicated to preservation of flora and fauna. The 2 refuges on the property are connected by wildlife corridors ensure the protection of a wide variety of eco systems and habitats and include some spectacular panoramic views of this pristine wilderness area. They have won a number of Queensland environment and tourism awards. They are a lovely couple who are passionate about their land and what they are protecting. The property has been in their family for 5 generations, originally coming from the Wilcannia area to settle here! We arrived and were greeted by “smoko” coffee and fresh pumpkin scones whilst Gil showed us aerial layouts of the property, gave a brief history etc. It is a 4WD tour and it was magnificent. We arrived at lunch time at the Long Gully bore to be greeted by his wife Eunice with a table set out next to the stockyards, laid with white tablecloth and all the trimmings, the campfire going and the Billy tea on! This was followed by more fresh scones – date this time. You can camp on the property too if you wish but we were happy just for the day excursion.
After the 4 nights, we packed up again (boy we are good at this now) and headed the 87kms to
Roma. This a bustling town of about 8000 people and was the seat of the first oil and gas exploration in Australia. We visited the Big Rig and went to the night show which explained how it all got started. The town has bottle trees everywhere and also has the largest in Queensland, with a girth of over 8 metres.
Carnarvon Gorge was our next stop and we were booked into
Takarakka Bush Resort. This is a lovely place just inside the park boundary, about 3kms from the National Park Visitor Centre. Wildlife everywhere including Whiptail wallabies, eastern gray kangaroos, echidnas and a huge variety of birds. They even have resident platypus and this time we saw them! (Take note John Gibson!)
We packed up our backpacks for next day and the hike into the gorge. We wanted an early start to catch the morning light and the cooler temperatures. We were at the head of the track at 6.50 am. On the 16th February this year they had over 3 inches of rain at the end of the gorge and they (the rangers) are not sure how much up higher! This caused a massive flash flood that destroyed all the vegetation along the Carnarvon Creek and the walking track. The rangers have done a great job and repaired most of the track (up to the Art Gallery anyway) bu
t further on the track is still closed to Cathedral Cave and Big Bend. The recommendation was go to the Art gallery (end of track) and then walk back going into all the side gorges on the return. The Art gallery is the best art we have ever seen and very extensive. Huge overhanging rock walls and the art extends to 62 metres of it. Throughout the gorge they have an incredible diversity of vegetation including Macrozamias, which are a genus of the cycad but these look like cycad trees! After the Art Gallery we did the climb up what seemed a zillion steps, past a lovely little waterfall to Ward’s Canyon. This was most definitely worth the climb, the tiny canyon was so tranquil and beautiful, full of the rare King Fern trees, running water (that headed to that little waterfall) very steep sandstone walls. So truly beautiful it is too difficult to describe.
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Back on track then to the next off shoot, this was the Amphitheatre. This has been closed for 4 ½ years and only opened the week before we arrived. Again a climb up into the gorge, steps and at the end a set of three ladders and you climbed through this tiny slit in the rock. When you were inside it opens out into an amazing rock grotto with the walls over 100 metres high completely surrounding you, with blue sky and trees just visible at the top. The acoustics were amazing, they tell you that you have to sing in there to really get the experience! Nature is truly spectacular! We ate our picnic lunch in here in awe of our surroundings.
Down again back to the main track, and onto the next gorge known as “Mossy Glen” . Again heaps of steps and climbing but you end up in this gorge, covered in moss, tree ferns, clear pool and waterfall. The walls surrounding it are dripping water like jeweled raindrops catching the sunlight all the time. The water has been filtering through the 300 metres of sandstone for 10,000 years! Now that’s a filter! The vegetation in here reminded me of Jurassic Park and we sort of expected dinosaurs to stick their heads out at any time!
In all, the trek covered 14 kms and we knew where every muscle was but we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. There is another lodge called Wilderness Lodge also just before the park and between the park and Takarakka that had a licensed bar and restaurant. We called in to check it out on the way back to camp, and booked a table for that night. A celebration of our hike and the settlement of the house! The menu blew us away, (we expected a steak & chips type menu). It had a young 21 yr old chef that has won the Apprentice of the Year award 2 years running! So we ate beautifully prepared food that also tasted fantastic and drank a bottle of champagne.
We undertook some smaller walks as well whilst there, kept checking out the platypus pool and the Rock pool which was the swimming hole, before packing up and leaving for Emerald.
We actually did not stay in Emerald but went to
Lake Maraboon about 17kms south from Emerald. Neither phone nor email service so now about 6 days since we caught up with anyone! Maraboon Park was full (we were lucky to have got the last site. Caravanners everywhere come from all over to here for what is known as “Red Claw”. They are a type of fresh water yabbie that has a red marking on the end of their claws (the male ones anyway). And they are BIG! We were so lucky as a couple of guys staying in the cabins opposite us that caught heaps and gave us a big bucket of them. They are like eating lobster! So yummy. The park also had a free sausage sizzle that first night, with an Irish duo providing free entertainment and then the Manager of the park playing country music. (John Denver, Johnny Cash etc.) All free except for a gold coin donation to Multiple Sclerosis. We drove into Emerald to shop and look around, yep saw the large easel and Van Gogh painting of the Sunflowers and the railway station Mum! We shopped there and topped up the groceries at Woolworths (hadn’t seen one of these for a while) and refueled.
Next stop
Clermont. Now this town has really surprised us. Such a lovely little town, based on agriculture (sunflowers, grain, coal and gold). We set up the van and just sat down for a cuppa when Walter noticed that one of the suspension springs on the caravan was snapped. Glad we found it the way we did and not after we had a problem on the road! Got a phone number of a local engineering shop, who came down and had a look and is ordering new ones for us. Parts have to come from Melbourne so we are here for a bit longer than we originally planned. Doesn’t worry us as we have plenty of time and we would much rather have it fixed and know it is all safe to travel again. So much to see and do here too!.
The first thing we did was hire a Metal detector from the park, got a fossickers license and the maps and headed out to find our fortune. Well, we found parts of rusty old shovels, billys etc in the old diggings but nothing gold. We had lots of fun and lots of giggles and may try again either tomorrow or Monday. The caravan park also runs free bus tours and we undertook this yesterday. It was fantastic and took in a tour of the large Rio Tinto open cut coal mine, Blair Athol, before going to the museum, the town including
Hood’s Lagoon and Copperfield. All that is left of this town of 2000 people is a large 130 metre chimney stack from the copper smelter and an old general store. There originally was 21 of these stacks but most were demolished during the war as it thought they may have provided a target. The General store actually was in operation until the mid 1990’s. The guy just walked out leaving everything as it was! It was amazing, the old labels, and the tins of biscuits with biscuits still in them.
At Hood’s Lagoon was the site of the original village, but there was a very bad flood in early 1900’s and 65 people died and the most of the town got washed away. They even found a piano up in a gum tree 32 ft off the ground! The remainder of the town was then moved to the current site. Hood’s Lagoon is now a lovely tranquil spot with lots of ducks, geese, and water hens, and filled with beautiful deep purple tropical waterlilies. It has walkways all the way around it, and a memorial walk for the memory of those lost in the wars. There is also a grotto dedicated to Mary MacKillop who spent time here in opening a catholic convent. Another monument is for the Northern Hairy Nose Wombat. There is a National Park outside of here called the Ewing Forest. It is closed to the public as it is the only habitat left in Australia where they are now found.
Today we will probably drive out to Theresa Creek dam to look around, have a picnic and a lazy day.
Our parts for the caravan should be here on Monday so probably we will head towards Charters Towers on either Tuesday or Wednesday. It is over 400kms so we plan to stop one night at a place called Belyando Crossing, about 160kms from here on the way.
We just love this lifestyle, you meet such great people, and you get to experience amazing things!
Love to All,
The Happy Travelers, Rob & Walter
y for 2 nights and get 2 free! They also hand you heap of info on the District of things to see and do, and there were plenty! Mitchell is also one of the places for being famous for its Artesian spa’s. Beautifully laid out in “swimming pool” style and have both the hot pool and the cool pool beside it among lovely landscaping. They also had a deal for us caravanners where you paid for a three day pass and got the 4th day free. We spent most late afternoons there, not earlier as the daytime temperatures had been around the 30 degree mark! Mitchell is really quaint outback town on the Maranoa river. Like everywhere else the river was very low but the birdlife was still prolific. We even saw some “new” birds for us – Pale headed Rosellas.
t further on the track is still closed to Cathedral Cave and Big Bend. The recommendation was go to the Art gallery (end of track) and then walk back going into all the side gorges on the return. The Art gallery is the best art we have ever seen and very extensive. Huge overhanging rock walls and the art extends to 62 metres of it. Throughout the gorge they have an incredible diversity of vegetation including Macrozamias, which are a genus of the cycad but these look like cycad trees! After the Art Gallery we did the climb up what seemed a zillion steps, past a lovely little waterfall to Ward’s Canyon. This was most definitely worth the climb, the tiny canyon was so tranquil and beautiful, full of the rare King Fern trees, running water (that headed to that little waterfall) very steep sandstone walls. So truly beautiful it is too difficult to describe. 
Hood’s Lagoon and Copperfield. All that is left of this town of 2000 people is a large 130 metre chimney stack from the copper smelter and an old general store. There originally was 21 of these stacks but most were demolished during the war as it thought they may have provided a target. The General store actually was in operation until the mid 1990’s. The guy just walked out leaving everything as it was! It was amazing, the old labels, and the tins of biscuits with biscuits still in them.
