Burdekin Falls Dam & onward 2nd to 16th April

3rd April
     Arrived at the Burdekin Falls Dam caravan park before lunch today, set up camp and spent the afternoon relaxing except for unloading the Jimny ready to have a look around tomorrow.

     Friday 4th
     Took a drive to the top of the dam spillway this morning, took this photo, it is absolutely spectacular!!
After admiring it for some time we drove to the boat ramp to check out fishing possies, found plenty of good looking places to put the red claw pots and to catch a fish or two, all happening tomorrow.

    Yeah! the fishing is good, Caught this beauty Grunter this morning before breakfast, after Jim put the Yabbie pots in to soak for a while, hopefully they will do as good.







     Next morning found 5 Yabbies in the traps, I caught a couple of sleepy cod, fantastic eh? Some of the red claw where giants, as the picture shows, with Jim doing his best to keep a grip on them,
(ha ha!!)

    

I was in for a treat, talking to the ranger about the dam spillway I  mentioned that I would like to go to the bottom of the dam wall (the road is closed because water is over the road) he said I could walk down if I wished, but offered to take me down in his Ute, well, I jumped at the chance.

It was AWESOME!! I never imagined the power of the water, but it's pretty Awesome all right. Got my photo taken beside the spillway to prove I'd been there and done that. Dan (the ranger) offered to take Jim down if he wanted, I said I was sure he would love to, so he is picking Jim up tomorrow.

 

Monday7th

     True to his word the ranger took Jim to the bottom of the spillway, only he was luckier than me, Dan took him inside the dam wall. Jim said it was very loud with the sound of the water rushing over the wall and he looked through a tunnel which runs the length of the wall and was showed some of the workings of the hydraulics and other stuff. He was very impressed and also said it was AWESOME! when he got back to camp.

 

     Another great day had by all, caught 5 more red claw and 3 grunter today. Bring it on!!

 

Tuesday 8th

     We may run out of beer! (oh no), have to take a trip into the nearest place to replenish the drinks and that place is Ravenswood, 80 km back up the road. Loaded the pup's in the Jimny and set off. Ravenswood is a mining town so not much there, this photo is of the only shop we could find and it was closed!! oh well, we had a drive around and a look at the mine site

which entailed a walk up a hill to overlook the hole in the ground filled with water,(looked like a good swimming hole but couldn't find the gate to get in and it never had a diving board). The town has 2 pub's, a post office and the little shop, that was all!. The post office had a few grocery items, of which I purchased some.

We went to one of the Pub's to procure the needed carton of beer and headed back to the dam and camp.

     On the way in we encounted  a mob of cattle being mustered, they were still there on the way back, a huge mob which we had to manoeuvre our way through, not hard really. They were a fine looking lot of cattle and would probably bring a nice price at the sales.  We took the rest of the day off relaxing (again).The next couple of days were spent fishing and walking, I even washed the Jimny of Thursday, badly needed it, he was coated in cow sh-- from the trip to Ravenswood. Anyway, the word is, there is a cyclone headed for the coast up by Cooktown, due to cross late Friday evening and we expect to experience flooding, not knowing how the local creeks and rivers react in flood times we have decided, (regrettably) to head west again on Friday.

 

Friday  11th

Back on the road. We stopped for breakfast at Macrossan, there is a free camp here but have decide to go to Charters Towers to restock the larder and everything before carrying on west. The rail bridge over the Burdekin dam very impressive and the river is running fairly fast at present (something to do with the rain we have had). We stayed over night at the

Gold City Roadhouse, treating ourselves to takeaway for dinner. On the way in to Charters Towers this old boat is sitting in a paddock beside the road, it is pretty funny and I can't resist taking photo's of strange and weird things, so that brings another day to close.

 

Saturday 12th

On the road to Corfield and eventually Winton, stopped at Campaspe rest area for breakfast and a nanny nap then on to Prairie overnight to catch up with the guy's at the Pub. Had to take time to have a chat with the guy's at the fruit stall in Pentland on the way through.

 

Sunday 13th

One month to the day since leaving Kooroorinya, we are on our way to explore more of this great land.  Heading for Winton (eventually) we paused in Hughenden to grab a bit of fresh fruit before  cruising down the Hughenden - Winton road. The country-side is pretty sparse with (notably), not much in the way of big trees, as this pic' shows which I took through the bus window.

Parked at Stamford for a rest stop, Stamford used to be a major rail link for the cattle industry but is deserted now.
     On to Corfield, home of the famous once a year Corfield Cup horse race day, the Pub is the only thing there, with 5 private residence and the free camp that we stayed at, and, of course, the race track, but I couldn't find it, must be here somewhere!! Oh well we had a lovely afternoon, Jim had a beer or two at the pub while I went mad with the camera again. Mother Nature was smiling on us with this beautiful rainbow over us, then later in the evening the sunset was superb.

 

 

Monday 14th

Carrying on to Winton today, I did a bit of the driving for a change, experienced some yukky road works on getting close to Winton and the under side of the bus is caked with sticky black soil mud. Did not much enjoy driving in the conditions and handed the driving back to Jim as soon as I got the opportunity. On to Winton where we discovered a flat tyre on the trailer, off to a Tyre repair shop to get it fixed, it had picked up a screw, Oh, the joys of travelling!, no drama, all in the fun of it.

Went to the Information centre to gather some literature about Winton, parked out the back of the information centre to have a cuppa, then to The Long Water Hole, a man made waterhole which is available for free camping, only a couple of km out of town. This photo of the water hole has some menacing looking storm cloud over the back.

 

It is a very beautiful place although there isn't much here except for the water, you need to be fully self contained to camp here. The ground is mostly dirt and the first night gave us a couple of showers of rain which turned it to sticky mud the next morning and caked the pup's feet(and mine) terribly, much to Yips disgust, she wasn't keen on it at all, but seemed to thoroughly enjoy the open area to run around in, as did Dot.

 

We will spend a few days here probably, unless the threat of rain becomes too great, but it doesn't look as though it will.

 Tuesday 15th

The day has dawned a great sight for my eyes, as the above photo's show. The reflections in the water are a beautiful way to start the day.

Been having a ball again, cooking on the camp fire, and all the good things in life. Haven't had much rain and we have had the whole place pretty much to ourselves, it is so peaceful and quiet, where else would we want to go. The weekend is coming up and we reckon it might get a bit crowded as it is the Easter long weekend public holiday, so we will be moving on again in a day or so.

That's it for now, see you later.