Atherton Tablelands and beyond - what special places

We stopped at Archer Creek which is 10km before Ravenshoe and went in to that town for supplies, the Tourist Info centre (well worth the visit), repairs (to Jane's finger) and a bit of a sticky beak look-around. 

John wandered into an art gallery whilst Jane was being patched up. The owner is an accomplished artist (Winsome Board) who sadly was closing the gallery that Sunday after 18 years of trading. John was the first person to walk in the door in over a week, which is a sign of how many folks are struggling financially at the moment and are not even window shopping. Win’s paintings are something special and will continue to be available via an on-line store (www.winsart.com) although many we saw in the gallery are not listed on the web site. If only money and wall space at home was unlimited, we would have bought the lot. We found her paintings/prints of Katherine Gorge and Chillagoe Creek particularly special.

After a couple of nights, we packed up and set our sights for one of the campgrounds around Tinaroo Lake. We settled ourselves in at Downfall Creek, with enough people around to make it comfortable and friendly, without being crowded . 

Jane also seemed to attract other friendly neighbours 

We  would have stayed here longer however school holidays were about to start and so we went and hid in one of the “old foggie haven” spots we enjoyed last year called Rocky Creek War Memorial on the road between Atherton and Mareeba. This year was just as good. Our immediate neighbours included, yet again, more Central Coaster’s. The husband (Ray) wanted to bring his entire shed with him, but settled for only all of the contents. I’ve never seen a ute so overloaded, however some running repairs we required on the van were made easy as he had every tool we could possibly want and, in most cases, two of them.

We had a full day with the family of one of our wonderful Brush Rd neighbours, cooking snags, devouring BBQ chicken and running out each time a relative flew over in his "sea plane" with one of the older family kids.

We finally got back "home" to Rocky Creek around 7.30pm, with those around us relieved as they were concerned we must have become lost as by 7.30pm, pretty well everyone at the camp is fed, washed and tucked up in bed! So we now have the reputation as being the "Rocky Creek Rager's.

With the area having had heaps of rain, the waterfalls were all successfully impressing us. Here's just a couple 

We decided to buy a "choofer" (wood fireplace made from a 9kg gas bottle) as our neighbours at Rocky Creek had bought one from a local and it was a beauty. After several days of him not turning up, John went stalking, found where he lived and picked up this beauty (the girl came for free, so all the more of a bargain huh).

So now we can have a Jane-friendly fire …. not a John “white man’s fire” where most of a forest is turned to ash in the one night. Fires are the number one way of getting folks together with a few drinks and tall stories in hand.

A visit to the Mareeba Wetlands was again an enjoyable half day.

and this quirky little discovery on the road in gave us a good giggle (a very patriotic and "cool" termite mound)

We had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of weeks re-exploring the Tablelands including markets, cafes etc before moving on to Chillagoe. 

Chillagoe is now known mainly for the limestone caves and they are pretty good. 

However we also very much wanted to see the old church. Not something we’d ordinarily care for, however Win Board (artist/gallery) told us about how her friend Sylvia fought to get the originally church replaced after it burnt down. She found everything from all over and through dogged determination and by bringing the spirit of the town to the fore, was successful in her quest. From the outside, it’s not very pretty. Go inside, it’s a true credit to all who contributed to it's reincarnation.

 We got the opportunity to meet Sylvia and what a gentle, humble and obviously determined lady she is. If you ever get to Chillagoe, seek her out at the library (only open 2 days pw). She also runs religious instruction and market days which are specifically to raise funds to support underprivileged members of the community and to bring the community together to raise spirits.     

There is also a “Ford museum” run by Tom Prior (must be mid 80’s). Whilst there was dust blowing all over, the cars gleamed and he walked John around all of them, starting many of these wonderful old contraptions including a 1928 A model Ford. All started instantly, are mostly in very good condition and a few are worth a mint. 

The “pride of place” was a totally restored XW GT Falcon which is kept in a pressurised “tent” to ensure it remains immaculate.

This collection was such a surprise. It's "no fuss", not advertised other than word-of-mouth and and the local town map. And yet it is quite a prized collection. Apparently Ford is paying to fly Tom over to the US this year in recognition of his contribution to Ford via his museum.

Back on the road and we decided to make it an easy one. We stopped at Eureka Creek (10km out of Dimbula) with only one other camper, a gentle German bloke who lives in the Blue Mountains when not travelling). Amazing that such a lovely spot was so quiet, with only a few other folks stopping for momentary rest breaks before continuing on their travels for the day. Also great that the local Council provides such areas for campers, if they didn't, we simply wouldn't be travelling. Therefore we re-stock supplies in the townships which helps to keep them open for their community.  

From here, we meandered back through Mareeba and on to the coastal region which will be the focus of our next blog. Hope you are enjoying this, as we're not getting much feedback (thanks to the wonderful few who have let us know they are reading it). 

Cheers,

J&J

It's been a while .... yes, we're still travelling


we’ve been a tad slow getting this edition out. Maybe we’re taking the cruzin’ a bit too seriously, cos we haven’t been doing a lot and yet we keep running out of time each day.

Since our stay at the amazing Carnarvon Gorge, there has been a lot of lazing around at some pretty decent campsites. They’ve included:-

Emerald – we stayed again at Higher Ground Home Stay, owned by our favourite eccentric, Kathy (the one with heaps and heaps of ride on mowers, most not working). 

John caught his first red claw for the season and was so excited.

It’s a tiddler which made the whole event rather pathetic, but he was happy! 

Bedford Weir – we’d heard about this place repeatedly, so headed there for a few days. Imagine our delight when we ran into one of our absolute favourite couples from last year as we walked around the area. Not only was it lovely to see them, they gave us more “secret spots” to check out on our way north.

Theresa Creek Dam – the photos are almost the views from our front door (well, to be accurate, from our only door).

Another few days socialising and generally being slovenly was just what we needed and we grasped it firmly before packing up and moving on from this little piece of paradise..

Blackwood National Park – a “nothing in the middle of nothing” with no one else around, and yet another great spot albeit only as an over-nighter. 

Charters Towers area - instead of staying with the herds of nomads at Fletcher Creek 40km north of Charters Towers, we stayed at an all-but deserted spot only 20km out which is 100 times nicer. 

The folks we ran into at Theresa Creek told us about this spot and why few others stay is beyond us. No risk of flooding, no crocs, no "feral locals", everything about the spot was perfect. We also had yet more delightful neighbours ... everywhere we've been truly lucky with camping nearby great people.  

Burdekin River – this was a chance find and what a gem. One of the true joys of travelling this way is is going wherever your wants take you and this is a great example. We nearly drove on by, deciding on the spur of the moment to stop and explore. Where we first pulled up was a quiet but unspectacular spot. We drove on a bit and what was going to be a one arvo/night stop turned into two and we could have stayed much longer.

We’ll also remember it as being just after the world’s longest cattle grid (a couple of hundred metres, they really don’t want the cattle from either side to mix). OK, so it was presumably because the river kept washing away the traditional-style bridges). Pretty exciting stuff overall, as we actually got to use 4WD to get in.

On the road again, we had the perfect opportunity to top up the fuel tank at Greenvale a few km’s later but did we? Having driven off the highway into the town, it would be an obvious thing to do but in all the excitement ...... the last 100km into Mount Garnett was not the most relaxed – cruise control off, 75km/hr on the flat, whatever up the hills, no braking downhill and A/C off. We rolled into the servo with less than a litre remaining in the fuel tank. Maybe the boy will learn some day!

Our next stop is Archer Creek at the start of one of our favourite places, the Atherton Tablelands which we will cover in the next blog when we can spare the time from our busy schedule.

Cheers for now,

J&J