Friday, April 29, 2016

12th - 30th April Townsville to Cardwell

         Tuesday12th
   We are parked up at the Black River Stadium Van park about 20 km north of Townsville off the Hervey Range road and on to Black River road. We will be here for a week or two to catch up with friends and get some business attended to.
       
        Sunday 17th
Magnetic Island from Castle Hill - Townsville
 
     Townsville is a nice city, if we have to spend any time in a city this is the one we would choose.       We visited our lovely friends Gill and Steve in the south of the city today, great to catch up with them again. Later in the after noon on the way back to camp we went up Castle Hill to take some pictures. This one is looking north/east with Magnetic Island in the background.

        Saturday 23rd
    Departed Townsville today travelling to Balgal beach for a night camping at the free R.V. camp next to the Fisherman's Landing kiosk where we intend to have takeaways for dinner.
   A lovely spot, the beach is great and Dot and Yip had a ball playing in the surf. Had a try fishing from the pontoon by the kiosk, no luck, the only thing biting were the sand flies!!! (Mongrel things they are too!!)
Dawn at Balgal beach
     Sunday 24th
 
    Great walking the beach this morning the sunrise wasn't spectacular but beautiful in a cool crisp sort of way.




  We left early to spend tonight at Lucinda.
   




   This is the site of the Lucinda Sugar Terminal. The photo and captions on these two photos tell it all. A very interesting experience and heaps of fun.


            Monday 25th
    Anzac Day.  A public holiday.  It's raining too!!
  We made our way to Cardwell this morning to spend some time with another good friend, Gail, and catch up with a few others in the area.

             Wednesday 27th
    The weather is showery and overcast, as it has been since arriving in Cardwell, nothing much really, can't dampen our spirits, a little moisture has to be experienced now and again.
     We checked out an old haunt this morning, Bedford Creek, a little place to camp for a while to go fishing and crabbing and relaxing away from the madding crowd. We will head out there when the weather heals again.

     Another great month has come and gone, life is a blast. Keep smiling, catch you in May.




Tuesday, April 19, 2016

March 26-April 13 Richmond to Townsville

     The last few days of March we spent in Richmond. A visit from the owners of Essex Downs proved they were very pleased with the way we looked after the property, all is well. It was very hot, we had many swims in Lake Fred Tritton. Dilligaf has passed inspection for registration which meant we departed Richmond on 31st, making our way to Prairie for a couple of days via Hughenden to stock the larder on the way.
Sunset at Prairie
   
       Friday 1st April
     Parked up behind the pub at Prairie, the sunsets are magic, as this shows with our car in the fore.

Buffalo at Prairie enjoying
the evening
     The old buffalo is still there too, we gave her a few tit-bits to munch on and she loves an ear scratch.

     the publican set a few Yabbie traps in Prairie creek with a good result, giving us a dozen for dinner which was a lovely treat for us, I cooked them in ginger butter, Yummy!!
   
     Sunday 3rd
Torrens Creek ( is that water?)

   
 Getting away fairly early we only travelled as far as Pentland to spend the night in the van park.  Driving through Torrens Creek I spied water in the creek, I don't think I have ever seen the sight. Pentland is another small out back town with friendly locals struggling to survive. The creek behind the town had enough water in it to give the dogs a paddle. We are no longer in the dry desert outback, all is very green and we have a few mosquito's to contend with this night, haven't had them for some time.

               Monday 4th
Dot and Yip at Campaspe river
    A bit cool this morning, needed an extra T-shirt to keep out the cool air for a while.  We drove a long way today, all of 15km to Campaspe river rest area. There is a little water in this river too, enough for the pups to have a splash as this picture shows with Dot and Yip checking it out.
     A bit of drama while here, a fellow camper had a fire in his unit, turned out to be the battery terminals caught alight. Not a pleasant thing for any one, but made worse for this unlucky guy who was eventually taken to Charters Towers hospital with breathing problems. A reminder of how easy things can go wrong.

          Tuesday 5th
Made our way to Charters Towers this morning. Filled the water tank at the travellers dump point and camped up at the Puma roadhouse where we usually stay when in the Towers, dining on takeaway fish and chips and the best trifles we have ever tasted.

          Wednesday 6th
Rail bridge at Macrossan
     Off to Macrossan to the free camp on the banks of the mighty Burdekin river, will spend a few days here, there is water in the river and we went for a swim already. The photo is of the rail bridge over the river.

        Thursday and Friday
    Walking the pup's Thursday morning to discover plenty of wallaby around, making Yip, especially, wanting to have fun chasing them, BUT!! no longer allowed, bummer for them.
     Jim has found that one of the springs on the trailer is broken, buggar!!. Take the Jimny off and temporally fix it with a cobb and Co twitch with number 8 wire, ratted from a broken fence in the area!! Will get a new spring when we get to Townsville next week.

           Saturday 9th
     From Macrossan to Reid river rest area for tonight with an early departure planned in the morning to beat the traffic in to Townsville. I drove the Jimny, we didn't bother putting him back on the trailer as we will need it in Townsville.

             Sunday 10th
     Departed by 7am arriving at Bunnings warehouse at just after 8am to purchase a couple of new chairs and other stuff we need then on to Currajong to park outside Russel's Tyre place to get 2 new trailer Tyre's and 4 new Tyre's on the Jimny on Monday.

Parked up at Currajong Tyre and Auto
              Monday 11th
     Dot and Yip to the Vet this morning to have their annual check-up and vaccinations. All was good with them and Yip made us proud with her behaviour, as did Dot, but she is always good.
     Here we are parked at Currajong Tyre and Auto, awaiting for the Tyre's to arrive and be fitted. Jim got the new springs for the trailer and he will fit them when we settle at a van park later today.
    Our very good mate Marty is meeting us at the Black River van park where we will stay for a week or two while attending to all that needs to be done while in the BIG SMOKE!!.
      That's it for now.