Most of the first couple of weeks of March were spent getting ready to depart Kooroorinya and taking it easy, walking the dogs, watching the water in the creek, (seeing as how there is water in the creek now).
We left on Thursday 13th only going as far as Prairie for a couple of nights, to farewell all we have met since being in this part of the country. Took a walk to Prairie creek one hot afternoon and found this great old tree, it's a Grey Box, I was impressed with the trunk being so gnarly looking I had to photograph it for prosperity (or something)
Saturday morning (early) we headed to Charters Towers to replenish the larder, Fuel and drinks. Stayed one night, not big on big centres and one night is enough.
On Sunday morning we filled the water tanks at this nice park here and headed to Fletcher Creek which is a free campsite that one can stay for up to a month at a time.
Anyway I am excited! I haven't tried red claw yet, so I put our 2 traps in to have a go.
Monday morning after walking the Pup's I checked the traps with a bountiful ONE (only) red claw, which I cooked on the fire that evening, not greatly impressed with the taste, but nice enough. On Tuesday Morning I got 6 good size keepers, 1 throw-back and a fish(also throw-back) I boiled these this time and Jim had them for dinner. The creek is very pretty and the water was not too cold when I ventured in for a swim with the dogs. On Wednesday morning I got another 3 which I put in the fridge as we are leaving today, 'cause it looks like it may rain and we would get bogged very quick in this country.
We took our time packing up and headed for Stockyard Creek which is on the Hervey Range Road on the way down to Townsville, only trouble is we couldn't find the camping area where it is supposed to be, passed what may have been the area but not enough room for us anyhow. Continuing on we stopped for drink break mid morning and carried on down the Range road.
This photo is from the top of the Range looking down on Townsville.
We spent some time admiring the view and continued on to Saunders Beach, on the northern side of Townsville.
It's a small camp area but nice and close to beach. In between showers I walked the pups, threw in a line in the hope of catching something and just took it easy, (I never caught anything either) no one minded the wet at all, certainly not the bird life. We spent 2 nights here the decided that with the weather the way it is showery and 
overcast, it wasn't doing anything for the solar, so went to the Black River caravan park to spend maybe a week or so. I have to get a check-up on my knee's on Thursday and we will get the bus registered for another 12 months, take the pups into the vets for their vaccinations, etc.
The van park is above the Black River, which the photo shows.
The track down to it was pretty treacherous but I decided to take a chance and made my way down this very steep and slippery track to give the pups a swim. Well the last 15 odd metres I slid down in all fours - backwards!! That was an experience and a half, now I had to figure a way of getting back up again. O.K. ,- I made it, but took a different route.
It is very pleasant here and plenty of places to walk the pups, one of those places is the Paint-ball shooting range where this funny old-time western town is set up, I'm probably not supposed to be wandering around here, but nobody is here, so no worries about getting shot at.(I hope!!)
That's another month gone, it's good to be back in our bus and taking a look around again. Not sure where our travels will take us next month, have a bit of a plan, but all plans subject to change at short notice. Check in next month to find out where we went. Hooroo.
