Start of Cane Toad Country

With the result of State of Origin a safe time behind us, we ventured into Qld. First stop was Surat beside the river. Another really nice spot, although really packed in. We scored one of the only spacious areas and settled in to the roar of generators for the first time.

Funny how the simple things in life can bring such pleasure - a steaming hot shower at the Council buildings, simple food and pretty well nothing to do but prepare for happy hour. Big happy hour (10 couples), only interrupted by the important things in life (most wives heading into a palace on wheels ... 9 tonne rig & 5th wheeler) to cheer for their favourite contestant on "The Voice". Three of the couples are permanently on the road, so big rigs like this one are still small compared to what they were used to.

Given the numerous generators most of the day and well into the night, we decided to move on and made our way to Carnarvon Gorge (Takarakka Bush Resort), arriving just before dark. Takarakka is only 4km from the Visitor Info Centre (start of the Gorge walks) and is a very peaceful and relaxed place to stay. We attended the info session held by a Ranger (Simon Ling - extremely knowledgeable).

Next morning, we drove up to the Visitor Info Centre and did the 7km round trip walk to the Moss Garden. The walk through the gorge used to go along the creek however it was regularly washed away with floods. Serious volumes of water gush down these waterways at times. So the walk now goes through the bush and crosses the river every now and again.













The Moss Garden consists of a creek to a small waterfall and pond. The rocks forming the "amphitheatre" are covered in moss and constantly dripping water, so it would be a cool oasis in the heat of summer. We spent over an hour there and also stopped lots along the way to take in the bush and river.


Wish we could have done the more distant ones however 7km was as far as John figured he could limp along. So we headed back to camp and took a gentle stroll to the lookout above camp.

Day 2 and we did one of the walks between the camp and Visitor Centre (Mickey's Creek Gorge to Warrumbah Bluff). The Bluff was not signposted at the start of the walk but was the highlight. It started as rainforest and then became the narrow gorge, in parts so narrow that you can touch both sides at the one time. After such a hard adventure climbing over rocks and balancing on branches, we treated ourselves to coffee/ice cream at the up market lodge nearby before heading back for a hard afternoon's relaxing at Takarakka.

Day 3 and guess what, yes another (short) walk to The Rockpool and also to Buloon Cave. Then back to camp to have lunch, pack up and move along.

 

If you aim to get to one place inland other than Alice Springs/Kings Canyon/Uluru etc, Carnarvon Gorge should be high on the priority list.

 

We drove on to near Emerald to a campsite we'd seen in the Camps book which people we camped next to at Surat had also mentioned. It is a private property owned by a slightly eccentric and totally amazing lady (Cathie). At $6 per night for the campsite, we decided another couple of nights of peace and quite was on the menu. We set up camp and then realised the people from Surat (Rob & Di) were set up ~50m away although they were away from camp. They introduced us to red claw netting and we sat around the fire each night. After the first night/morning. we decided Cathie deserved a bonus for opening up her property to campers, so we paid her another $7 per night (ok, ok, it was so we could hook into power to have a heater without generator noise ... it was damned cold). Last night, we were treated to Red Claw for dinner by Rob and Di and we put on desert (Magnum ice creams).

After 3 days exploring the area (gem fields, Maraboon Dam, Emerald itself), we packed up and again hit the road. We're meeting Rob & Di and friends of theirs at Barcaldine on Wednesday and so decided to pull up stumps at Jerrico beside the river for one night. We went into town and sat in the pub for an hour with the owners and the one other patron. Not a busy gig for the owners it seems. Then it was back to "work" sitting around camp and reading before John put on a camp site display at the outdoor cold cold cold water shower .

Although a lot of campers (27 rigs) stayed overnight, the campsite was super quiet and the most amazing sunset (as usual, the camera doesn't do justice to what we saw), going from pink to blood red. We made an executive decision to laze around here for another day/night. One of the nice things is to have the choice to do whatever we wish. Everything done to extreme would become routine however for this break from our real lives, this is a fun way to live.

Lesson for the week:-

many of the best spots are off the beaten track