Holiday Trip Year 2000
2000 Holiday Trip
Left Younghusband on the 12th May to go to Berri for Brodie to play in the Veterans tennis, Brodie had a good time, did not win any matches but enjoyed the exercise and the company of the other ladies, I spent the time transferring the Nourse Family from the book to the computer, a big job as there are probably about 2000 names to type in but by the time we get back home I will probably have it under control.
Pulled out of Berri at 1 o'clock on the 15th and headed to the Burra with the intentions of camping there the night but as we arrived there at 3.15 decided we would push on to Orroroo and we arrived there at 5 oclock and found a nice little freebie on the outskirts of the town,
Arrived in Hawker at 9 o'clock filled up with fuel and went around and met our friends the Barkas's at the C/Van Park, they were very surprised to see us so early. Left Hawker about 12 arriving out here at Wilpena Pound at 1 p.m. Sat around talking for a couple of hours and at 3 o'clock we decided that we would climb Mt Ohllsen Bagge, well we made it up to the top and arrived back at 5.30 fairly buggered believe me but well worth the effort, a beautiful sight when you arrive at the top.
Wed.16th Had good intentions of walking out to the Pound today but we seemed to have got tangled up talking so we packed the vehicles ready for our trip tomorrow which is now going to include the Simpson Desert, you can be lucky sometimes, they opened it up today so we will probably head up there on Sunday as we will spend tomorrow at Chambers Gorge and Thursday Friday and Sat at Arkaroola. The country is looking just magnificent the green tinge on the ranges just completes a perfect picture,
After we had got the Barkas's out of bed we went for a walk up to Hills homestead and then on to the Wongara Lookout to have a look at the Pound, a beautiful sight ,took us about 2 hours return my poor little legs were screaming trying to tell me to stop, yesterday's effort brought out muscles I did not know I had, daresay they will get used to it. Brodie came on this walk and much to her surprise she did not have a problem with the chest.
Left here at 2 oclock and headed for Chambers Gorge which is on the road from Wilpena to Arkaroola arriving about 4 p.m. and by the time we set up camp it was too late to do any sight seeing so we started our happy hour, we went on for a couple of hours, the Barkas's are full of fun and bullshit, you have to watch what you say because of the response you may receive.
Reorganized the packing of the vehicles this morning, I transferred as much as I could in to the inside of the Vehicle and left only the tyre on top which then left us with heaps of space for carrying some firewood, as we only have small tents we have to spend a fair bit of time outside of a night and it pays to grab some wood when you see some.
Went for a drive further in to the Gorge then walked for a couple of kms, the scenery is just beautiful, we were here in 1989 but we did not go right in to the Gorge proper and consequently missed out on seeing what the Gorge is all about, there is also some aboriginal rock carvings but we all agreed that it does not do much for us, I think that really the only significance of it is that it could possibly be 30000 years old.
After lunch we headed for Arkaroola arriving about 3 oclock set up camp and built a fire and then another very nice couple came over and sat around the fire with us, Jim and Vera Stewart from Allenby Gardens in Adelaide.
Left the camp at about 9.30 this morning and went on the Echo Camp tour, was supposed to be a tag a long but as they did not have enough bookings to have a tour they let us go on our own and what a trip it was, Alan cleared his back seat and we went in his car and it would be as good if not better than the Ridge Top Tour, took us about 4 and a half hours and only done 50 kms but it was real 4 WD country we went to Arkaroola waterhole Echo Camp waterhole, Barraranna Gorge the Paralana Hot Springs, Jacks Water hole and another couple of attractions, a terrific afternoon with heaps of laughs the Barkas's are a fantastic couple and a ball of fun,
Sunday 20th, left Arkaroola at about 9.30 and went to Copley via Umberatana and Yankanina Stations, a fairly slow track but new country to see and our friends really enjoyed it, the track comes on to the main Copley Arkaroola Road at Mt Serle and would you believe about 15 ks down the track I put a stone through one of my new tyres, changed it and went on to Copley then down to Leigh Creek and bought a few stores then back to Copley and then on to Farina to camp the night. There is a nice little campground there and you can have a hot shower and there are septic toilets as well and only $6 a night , mended the tyre but have not got much faith in it, it has a fracture about 3 inches long in the middle of the tyre.
Monday 21st , left at 9.30 and headed to Marree where we filled up with fuel and headed for Birdsville getting to Mungeranie at 4 oclock and as we could not find any decent spots to stay at so decided to stay at their campgrounds, had to repair the tyre again as it went flat about 30 kms from Mungeranie, not happy with it but will try and get to Birdsville.
Tuesday 22nd , Arrived in Birdsville at about 2 oclock and went to the Mobil S/Station and bought a new tyre and would you believe it was the same price as I paid in Mannum which was refreshing as you generally get ripped off in Birdsville, but at this service station even the price of petrol was the same as Leigh Creek, went out to the Diamontina and set up camp for the night after going to the pub and having a couple of drinks and buying some more wine to keep us going, everything going well to date with both vehicles.
Wed 23rd pulled out of Birdsville at about 9.30 and headed out in to the Simpson Desert, a very slow trip there are lots of detours around very boggy areas and we only made 150 kms today, the desert is looking terrific and we are very lucky to be able to have been able to do it this trip at the moment we are camped about 20 Kms from Poeppels Corner
Thursday 25th Into the Simpson desert proper now very slow going and averaging only about 20 kms an hour, only done about 110kms today by the time we stopped and talked to 3 groups who were travelling from West to East, met 1 couple travelling on their own from Waikerie and there only communication was a old ex army CB they are gamer than I. Our HF Radio is working beautifully have had near perfect reception from Both the Alice and Adelaide bases of the AN4WDRadio Network and have been able to talk to Graham Hammatt every two days and have also had a good reception with him at midday, pulled up at Erabena Junction for the night and it started to rain at 8 oclock so it was early to bed and wondering how much rain we were going to get and if we were going to be forced into staying here for a day or so.
Friday 26th, woke up to a wet tent but not enough rain to stop us so we had breakfast and then packed up as quick as we could as it appeared as though it was going to rain again. Had about 90 kms to go to get out of the slow travelling which we did by 1 oclock and we arrived here at Dalhousie Springs at 4.30 after a very slow trip along the Spring Creek Delta as it was very wet and slippery still from 1the rains in April and last nights rain did not help at all, when we arrived we found t1hat the ranger had closed off 1the track but we were not to know so he could not cut crook.
Sat 27th Lay day at Dalhousie Springs today, the girls done some washing and Alan and I repaired my fridge base that took a bit of a pounding and needed a bit of work, the Engel that our friends in Bendigo sold to us is a beauty works exceptionally well and appears t1o be very economical on the power. </font>
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Sunday 28th Left Dalhousie Springs at about 9.30 and spent a bit of time at Dalhousie Ruins and arrived in Oodnadatta about 1.30, the roads are very good apart for the sections which have had a lot of water lying in puddles for a long time and these are very slushy and the vehicles now look awful with mud everywhere.
Left Oodna about 3.30 and headed for the Painted Desert which is about 80 kms on the Cadney Park road saw one section of them and then set up camp down in a gully out of the wind , the days have been very warm out of the wind but the nights have been bloody cold and it is not easy to get out of the bed early next morning, have always managed to pick up wood on the road and we have had some good fires and enjoyed a happy hour for an hour or 3.\, the stars are a sight up here with the skies so clear.
Monday 29th Packed up about 8.30 and went and found the rest of the painted desert, it is in a word spectacular and there appears to be miles and miles of it and if one was in to the trekking you could fill in a day or two there. We left the area about 10.30 and headed for Coober Pedy, pulled up at 12 oclock to talk to Graham Hammatt as we have done every second day at 12 oclock using the HF radio, we have had near perfect conditions each day and he has been relaying messages from Diane, just like having a satellite phone when Graham selcalls me the radio rings like a normal phone and all In have to do is answer it, the only difference is that the whole world hears your conversation but that really is not a great problem because you would hardly talk about really personal things.
Arrived in Coober Pedy at 12.30 and took Brode out for lunch!! A pizza and a cappuccino God I'm good to her! The Barkas's our travelling companions have never been there before so they done all the touristy things and we then left about 4 oclock and went out on the William Creek road about 50 Kms and found a camping spot.
Tuesday 30th on the road again about 9 and arrived in William Creek at 11 spent about an hour here and then went out to Lake Eyre, very disappointing it is a 60km trip out to the lake and you see nothing only a broad expanse of salt pan but at least you can say that you have been to Lake Eyre North!, arrived back on the main road about 3 .30 and headed down the Oodnadatta track about 80 kms to the Margaret creek and found a terrific spot in the creek bed for a camp. Had problems with the blow up mattresses and had to get up during the night and put the compressor on it and put more air in it. ,
Wed 31st broke camp about 9 and headed for Parachilna Gorge, our run of tyre problems are continuing, fractured another tyre about 5 kms from Marree, on the way we dropped in on Talc Alf at Lyndhurst, he is a real character he gets the talc from out at Mt Fitton and sculpts characters out of it and gives a talk on what he creates and then gives his interpretation on the meaning of the alphabet, a real character.
Dropped in to Leigh Creek and bought a few more provisions and then headed for Parachilna Gorge and set up camp before it was dark and then had a few drinks as we have done for the last fortnight. Tonight was a disaster in regards to sleeping, our blow up mattress sprung a leak and we spent nearly all the night sleeping on the ground, Brodie was not impressed! And incidentally neither was I.
Thursday 1st Left our camp at 9am and headed in to Blinman, lots of history attached to Blinman and the Barkas's really enjoyed it, even though Brodie and I have been here quite a few times it is great to be able to show others our little bit of paradise, spent about 1 1/2 hours here and arrived back at our caravans at Wilpena at 11.30, spent all the rest of the day cleaning up the Pajero and reorganizing the van, must say even though I really enjoy the camping out scene it will be nice to spend tonight in the van and know that tomorrow morning we do not have to get up and pack up the tent etc.
Friday 2nd Spent all the morning repairing our camping chairs which took a battering on the trip and then after lunch we took the Barkas's up through the Bunyeroo Valley Brachina Gorge and Aroona Valley, a beautiful day to see these areas as the sun was out and there is nothing to compare with the Flinders Ranges in the Autumn and spring time. Arrived back at the camp at 3.45 and decided we would use up a freebie down the road 20 kms so we packed up and moved out, had a great night around the fire with another couple who came over to our fire for a chat.
Sat 3rd Awoke to a glorious day so we went and gathered up some firewood to do some cooking and will just have a lay day where we are and go to Pt Augusta to meet up with Tom and Norma Hastings tomorrow.
Sunday 4th Another glorious morning although it appears as though there may be some rain coming, spent most of the morning doing things on the computer and showing Alan a few things that I have learnt and at 1 o' clock we left them at our little freebie and headed for Hawker, down the road a few kms we had mobile phone coverage and a message from Tom and Norma that they had broken down at Clare, tried to ring them back but could not get a connection , anyway after about 2 hours they rang again and were mobile again so we arranged to meet them at Wilmington which we did at 3.45 and as you can imagine after not seeing them for 8 months we had a good old natter and drank a little bit as well and at the moment we are camped in a nice little area alongside the Bowling Green in Wilmington. Was quite sad to leave the Barkas's after 3 weeks, they are a great couple and I hope that we do not lose contact with them in the future. Tried to send this at Hawker but had problems with the computer so will try again in Pt Augusta tomorrow, will send you a further report as time goes on.
Monday 5<sup>th</sup>, left our freebie at 9.15 and headed for Pt Augusta, rained a bit on the way but cleared by the time we reached the Port. Tried to send this but still having problems do not know why but will work it out when we get to Alice Springs. Kym rang and left a message on the mobile, had tried to ring him while we were in Hawker but the phone was engaged, probably those girls talking to their boyfriends!! Left the Port about 11 and we are now in a freebie about 40 Kms north of Glendambo.
Tuesday 6<sup>th</sup> On the road again at 9.30 this morning, Tom and Norma are very slow off the mark in the mornings but as there is no hurry there is no problem, will probably do me the world of good to slow down a bit anyway. Arrived in Coober Pedy at 12.30 and as there was a mobile phone reception I set up Normas mail box for her, she has no idea of how to use it but hopefully by the time we leave them they will understand it a bit more. Tried to send the emails and this time we had a bit more luck so hope everybody received it ok. Kept going until we were 20 kms past Cadney Park and made camp for the day had a few drinks, Tom is drinking a few stubbies of light beer hope he does not drink too many and makes himself crook again, diabetes is something he does not need flaring up again.
Wednesday 7<sup>th </sup> mobile again at 9.30 this morning and pulled up at 4 oclock about 120 kms south of Alice Springs at a nice little rest area on the banks of the Palmer river, there has been a lot of water come down these rivers this year the Finke especially broke its banks and there were trees and probably thousands of cubic metres of sand dozed off of the main Stuart Highway where the river crosses the highway, the country looks just unbelievable it is a picture, in all the years that we have been coming up here we have never seen the country looking so good. Had a round table conference and have decided that we will spend a day here tomorrow and do the washing.
Thursday 8<sup>th </sup>done the washing and sawed up some firewood for tonight, plenty of firewood in the river and also pools of clean water for the washing, apart from that done nothing except had a few wines at the happy hour.
Friday 9<sup>th</sup> arrived in Alice Springs at 11.30 and on the way in received a message on message bank that the Coventrys were at the GDay Mate C/Van Park so we went there and booked in for 2 days, the fees have risen considerably in the last 3 years since we were last here it is now $18.50 for a powered site now and thanks to little Johnny Howard it will $20.50 in 3 weeks time Went up in to the shopping centre and stocked up on food and also bought some canvas to repair a chair which we thought we had fixed but had not
Sat 10<sup>th</sup> Tom and I went out to the Transport Hall of Fame and spent two hours while the girls!! went shopping again and after lunch I repaired the chair, hopefully it will last this time, was going to buy a new one but they are exactly $20 more than Tom paid in Naracoorte so gave that a miss. Fuel in the Alice is $1.04 was $1.12 at Erldunda motoring is very dear in the Territory
Sunday 11<sup>th</sup> left Alice Springs at 10.00 and had a slow trip up to the Devils Marbles where we are camped at the moment, the country is still looking the best we have ever seen it and I doubt that we will see it again as good as it is this year, unless you have seen the Territory at its worst and at its best you would not understand what I am saying and I can only hope that you will be able to see it as it is this year.
Monday 12<sup>th </sup>Arrived in Tennant Creek at 10.30,bought some bread and headed out to the Mary Ann Dam which is only about 3 kms as the crow flies, not allowed to camp on the dam proper but Alan and Lee ( our Simpson travelling companions) told us that the Ranger showed them a spot that you are allowed to spend as long as you like about 300 metres from the dam itself so we will probably stay here at least until the wind drops, it has been really strong from the South East and the it is unbelievably cold for this time of the year up here. We have a mobile phone reception and also TV so all in all it is a good freebie Tuesday Wed Thurs 13 14 15
Still sitting here at the Mary Ann Dam waiting for the wind to abate, still blowing quite strongly and as we have all we require here we will stay until the Easterly drops. Our old travelling companions from Sydney the Coventrys came and stayed the night with us they were travelling with 3 other couples (wonder how long that will last) ,still waiting for the refrigeration people in Tennants Creek to ring us with when they can fit a 12 volt Danfross Compressor to Toms motorhome fridge at the moment it is giving all sorts of problems with lack of power for other applications like as in TV and lights because it is a 240 volt fridge working from a 12 volt battery via a inverter it is dragging more power than Tom can produce with 2 solar panels so he has been advised that a 12 volt compressor is the way to go.
Friday 16<sup>th</sup> ,went in to town this morning and done a bit of shopping and Brode and Norma done the rounds of all the shops but were not impressed with the dress shops wonder why!!. The refrigeration people said they will fit the compressor tomorrow morning so we will have to hope that it is the answer. Have to shift camp in the morning, the caretaker came around and told us that we are camped in the wrong place and told us where to go which is OK
Sat 17<sup>th</sup> , Tom took the motorhome in this morning to have the compressor fitted and after they had removed the existing one found that the fridge was unsuitable; it has heaters fitted for the frost free application which therefore meant that they had to put the old one back, looks like Tom will have to put up with running the genny until he gets back to Jacobs Well.
Sunday 18<sup>th</sup> Went for a ride on the bike this morning the first time since we left Wilpena, other than that nothing very exciting happened.
Monday 19<sup>th</sup> Left camp this morning at 9 oclock and headed for Camooweal arriving at 4.30 after approx 480 kms, the country looks absolutely magnificent as Tom said you would swear that we were in the South East there is so much feed around although around here (Camooweal) it is not quite as good. Have found another really nice freebie about 1 km from the town on the river by a billabong and we have good TV and no phone so will not be able to send or receive emails, certainly no drama.
Tuesday 20<sup>th</sup> went in to Camooweal this morning to fill up all our water containers so that we can do all our washing without using up our tank water, also bought bread etc, absolutely nothing to see here in Camooweal there is only 300 people live here and as you can imagine apart from a pub, post office, 3 service stations a butcher shop, and 2 grocery shops and a few houses there is nothing.
Wed 21<sup>st</sup> another day doing nothing but sit around and reading.
Thursday 22<sup>nd</sup> ,another beautiful day the wind is starting to rise again, does not seem as though we can have any more than 3 days without it, the temp has been around the 27 degrees every day so at least we have warm weather.
Friday 23<sup>rd, </sup>went into the big city this morning to get some more water for washing and also some bread, the price is exorbitant up here,$3.20 a loaf, think about the GST on the cost of living in the bush, the govt. only considered the prices in capital cities when they done their calculations, I wonder how the battlers are going to be able to go away for their annual caravan trip in the future with only an increase of $6 a week in their pension.
Sat 24<sup>th</sup> , departed from Camooweal this morning at 8.30 and arrived in Mt Isa at 11 am booked in to the Lake Moondarra C/van Pk had some lunch and went to the Mt Isa Show, well what a disappointment that was, arrived at 1.45 and after 3 circles around all the attractions we left and went in to the town centre and done our food shopping. Will be staying here until Monday morning when we will head over to Corella Dam which is in between Mt Isa and Cloncurry and see it is as good as we have been told it is as a nice little freebie.
Monday 26<sup>th</sup> left Mt Isa at 11 oclock after doing the shopping and arrived at Corella Dam which is now called the Bruce Walton Park at about 1.30 and a beautiful little spot it is too the only minus is that it has a bit of blue green algae in it but as we both have plenty of water this is not a problem. It is nestled in a valley with really rugged ranges all the way around it and when the sun is setting and first thing in the morning it is
Tue and Wed Corella Dam
Thursday 29<sup>th</sup>, broke camp at 8.30 and have just arrived at Prairie(4.30pm) which is 45 kms from Hughenden on the eastern side, a really nice little freebie that we found 5 years ago and filed it away for future reference and tonight it has come in handy, done about 500 kms today and the first 60 from the dam in to Cloncurry was really beautiful, the ranges are quite spectacular along this section of road.
Friday 30<sup>th</sup> Now at Macrossan Park which is a very nice freebie 20kms on the Townsville side of Charters Towers on the banks of the Burdekin River. Had a good trip in this morning the only criticism would be the roads up here are atrocious, of the last 1000 kms we have travelled 700 of them the roads need rebuilding, the road trains have certainly buggered them up. Will probably stay here for a week or so.
July 16<sup>th</sup>, well seem to have forgotten to do the diary for a couple of weeks so best I catch up on
We stayed at Macrossan Park (Charters Towers) for 1 day short of 2 weeks, did not intend to move when we did for another day but Brodie found out that the Davis Cup was on telly on Friday morning so we left our camp at 9.45 on the 13<sup>th</sup> went to Townsville and bought ourselves a 14AC/DC Orion Colour TV, we have a 10 AC/DC TV but thought we would spoil ourselves a little with a bigger screen,we are very happy
On the 12 we went for a drive down to the Burdekin Dam which is one of the biggest dams in Qld, it drains some 7.5% of Queensland so as you can imagine there has been a lot of water pour in to it this year, Some of the statistics of the dam are;
Length of dam wall…..876 metres </font>
Length of spillway……504 metres </font>
Spillway height above river bed…..40 metres </font>
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Storage capacity……..1,860,000 ML </font>
Reservoir Area….22,400 hectares </font>
Catchment area 114.220 square Kilometres.
On the way down which was 150 kms from the camp we went through a little town called Ravenswood which is an old gold mining town and what an interesting little place it is, they have some beautiful buildings still standing including 2 two story hotels in great condition.
There is a very nice caravan park at the Dam and at the moment it is a freebie, the lessee just up and walked out about 2 months ago and the Govt have just opened the park up as a freebie, power included,beautiful lawns very modern toilet block washing machines etc, we did not stay as we had intended to leave the area.
Stayed at Bluewater on Thursday Friday and Sat night and moved over to the beach at Toolakea which is only 7 kms from Bluewater which in turn is 25 kms from Townsville, there are heaps of very nice free camping areas just north of Townsville so we will be in the area for a couple of weeks before heading south.
At this stage we do not intend to return to Younghusband until early Sept.
, Left Toolakea on Thursday and we are now at Rollingstone which is 50kms north of Townsville, have stayed here many times over the years and will probably stay here until Wed or Thursday and then move on down south
Moved from Rollingstone on Thursday and went into Townsville to do some shopping and then came back out to Bluewater and stayed until Monday 31<sup>st</sup> and then we came through to where we are now which is a little camping ground 20 kms north of Proserpine and only $5 a night including power
Stayed here for 5 days, the weather turned really sour when we arrived on Monday so we decided to stay put until Friday and then move down to the Whitsunday Tourist Park which is 22 kms south of Proserpine, need to be where Tom and Norma can get the AFL otherwise there will be no living with them
Left the Park, which incidentally is only $11 a night with power, they have a free Sausage sizzle every Sat night and the amentities are excellent, on Monday morning we left and went on down to Carmilla Beach which is 100 kms from Mackay and at this stage there is no limit as to how long you stay here, they have a 3 day limit sign posted but no one comes and checksbur it is only a matter of time before they close it down completel
Stayed here for 4 days and moved on Friday down to the Calliope River where there is only 48 Hours, but they allow you to stay for 96
From Calliope we moved on down to Gin Gin for a couple of days then on to Maryborough for 1 day then to Gympie for 2 days and at the present we are at Bowenville which is about 70 kms from Toowoomba. Sat we are going to the Jondaryn Heritage Festival which is held every year and which goes for a week and is all about the old old way of farming complete with working exhibits of ALL the old machinery, horse teams, steam engines driving chaff cutters, thrashers, saw benches shearing plants you name it it is there , went to it in 1994 and was so impressed that we decided to go back again
A good day was had yesterday although a strong wind affected some of the displays some were limited as in binding the hay with an old binder, the Grand Parade had some 60 trucks, tractors, horse drawn vehicles, traction steam engines and bullock teams, one traction steam engine has just finished a complete restoration costing $38000 and it looks a million dollars
Left Jondaryn and Tom and Norma at 8 oclock and started our trek home to SA, done some food shopping in Goondawindi and watched the Gympie Muster on T V before we pushed on to Moree where we spent the night
Aug 28<sup>th</sup>, left Moree at 8 oclock and at the moment we are camped at a rest area 6 kms from Dubbo, very cold tonight guess we will have to get used to it.
From here we travelled down through Dubbo, West Wyalong, Jerildrie, Kerang, Ouyen, Pinnaroo and home to Younghusband
