Day 30 to 34

Day 30 August 28 Thursday
Left Eungella NP in the fog and misty rain and headed down the mountain to Finch Hatton Gorge section of the park. The Araluen Cascade trail was open but the rest was closed because of floods. Very pretty cascade with a big pool at the bottom. Made lunch and a kookaburra swept out of the tree and took a bit. I had to sit in the van to finish eating. Little bugger. Drove towards Mackay but turned north on hwy 1 and then took the Seaforth turnoff which took me to Cape Hillsborough NP on the ocean. Spent the night a a small NP campground. With 10 sites called Smalley‘s Beach. Lucky one was open. Spent the evening until 7 and pitch black, talking with a German man who had been here for 20 years. While we were sitting talking a possum came wondering by. When the tide is out here it is mudflats but it has a sandy beach.

Smalley Beach

Day 31 August 29 Friday
Left Smalley’s beach and went on a couple of hikes in the park. One was on an elevated walkway through the mangrove forest. The other went through an area which showed the plants and trees that the aboriginal people used. Left the park and headed north an A1 again and took a side road to Airlie Beach which is suppose to be the’in place” for backbackers. Lots of them there and the place seemed like a tourist trap. Headed north again and stopped just south of Bowen for the night. Did some laundry, took and shower and had a nice dinner. It seemed hot today. Probably around 30 (86 deg) and humid. I am going to have this kind of weather for a while.

Day 32 August 30 Saturday
Left Bowen Palms Caravan park and headed north on A1. Stopped in Townsville and bought me a book called Camp 4 which list thousands of free and cheap places to camp. It was very helpful for tonight. Stopped at Jourama Falls NP which is very tiny. Nice falls and cascades which would be spactacular in the rainy season but then it might be closed due to road flooding. I had to cross the river twice to view the falls. Spend the night at a wayside park just before the town of Tully.

Day 33 August 31 Sunday.
Left the wayside park and headed north on hwy1 ti Innisfail where I headed west to Millaa Millaa on the Palmerston hughway. At Millaa Millaa there is a 15 k loop with three falls. Ellinjaa, Zillie and the more famous Millaa Millaa falls. They were very pretty. Just past Millaa Millaa took hwy 25 north to Malanda and then east a bit to the famous Curtain Fig Tree NP. This huge fig over the years grew roots down from the top of another tree. The other tree finally died leaving the fig on its own with hundreds of roots going to the ground. Went to Atheron and headed north hwy 1 to Granite Canyon Nature Park. There were some rock wallabies there amongst the bolders and a nice lake. Got back to hwy I and drove north to Mount Molloy where I spent the night in another free wayside park. Cold shower and water that needed to be boiled to drink. Hot and humid today but cooled down nicely after dinner.

Day 34 Sept 1 Monday.
Left the wayside park and headed north on highway 81, Mulligan Highway to Cooktown. It was all redone and repaved in 2001 so it was a very good road. Once in Cooktown, drove to the top of Grassy Hill where Cook once stood surveying the harbor and reefs. He spent months there rebuilding the Endeavour after running aground, then waiting several months for favorable tide and wind to escape. Visited the old convent, now museum, holding an original Endeavor anchor and cannon, and aboriginal and early Cooktown artifacts. Spend the night at Cooktown Caravan Park. Hot and humid and extremely windy (every day SE winds).

View from Grassy Hill

More Australian Birds

These top three were seen in Eungella NP in Queensland

Azure kingfisher


bush turkey

eastern robin

These three were seen in Rubyvale

kookaburra on my van tailgate waiting for a handout

willy wagtail

Galah

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• White winged chough in Girraween NP


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• Pale headed rosellas
  


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Pied currawong in Girreween NP

plumed duck

Day 28 and 29

Day 28 August 28 Tuesday
Left Rubydale and took the back road to A7. Along the way was Peak Range mountains NP. A very small park with only dirt roads. Nice peaks sticking up. Continued past Nebo to a rest area about 65 km from Mackay to spend the night. Stopped in Clermont for internet access and to get groceries and petrol. There are lots of huge coal miles along the road.

Day 29 August 29 Wednesday
Left the wayside park and headed towards Mackay on the coast on hwy 70. At Walkerston turned West onto the Makay Eungella highway. The last 5 km to Eungella were up a steep (12% grade) and windy road where I had to use second gear all the way. And it was very foggy near the top because Eungella means “where the clouds meet the land” in local aboriginal. Went for a few walks in the tropical rainforest and the fog cleared up. Spent the night at a RV park at the top of the mountain with a nice view down the valley towards the ocean. Ate my first real meal out instead of cooking. We had a little rain shower just before dark.

Tree with lots of vines growing on it.

This is a view from my campsite on the mountain. Pretty.

Day 21 to Day 27

Day 21 Sunday August 17.
Saw I misdated my last blog. Oh well. Left Lightning Ridge and headed south on Castlereagh Hwy to almost Walgett then headed east to Glen Innes. Saw emus and red foxes and dead ‘roo’s. This is real outback. Found the coolant problem, a small leak in the radiator. Will see about getting it fixed tomorrow or use stop leak. Spent the night at Blue Sapphire Caravan park. Did a load of laundry. Lots of parrots around, the owner called them king parrots.

Day 22 Monday August 18
No one in town knew about a radiator shop so I went to an auto store and bought some Stop Leak and put it in the radiator. Will see how it works. Left town and headed north on hwy 15 to Tenterfield . From there went to Boonoo Boonoo NP. Very pretty water falls and sights. Stopped at a picnic site along the river and saw a platypus. Real neat but picture is not good. I then went to Bald Mt. NP which has the largest exposed granite outcrop in the southern hemisphere. It is 1277 meters high (3700 ft above sea level). The long path up goes through boulder tunnels and is 2.2 km. On the way I saw a lyre bird but it did not stay put long enough to get a picture. Drat. It was very windy on the top and I had to take my hat off. Nice views all around. I then took the steep way down the face of the mountain. A 1km trail. Saw some red necked wallabies too. A good day. Spent the night at blue Sapphire Caravan Park in Tenterfield. Cold night again.

23 Tuesday August 19
Left Blue Sapphire Caravan Park and headed north on A15. Took the road to Girraween NP. Climbed the “Pyramid” and had some great views, especially of the big granite rock I climbed the day before. This climb was much steeper and lucky the footing was good. No lyre birds even though the guide book says lots of them. Continued north on A15 through Warwick, Toowoomba to Hamiltor where I turned right onto hwy 85 to Esk where I spent the night. Esk Carravan park space number 6. This is the first night I have been able to sit outside for dinner and feel reasonably comfortable. It is not windy or cold. Checked the coolant level and it look like none was used. Wheee! Will keep checking and hope it stays.

Day 24 Wednesday August 20
Left Esk on hwy 85and headed towards Beerwah on hwy 6. Australian (Crockodile Hunter) Zoo)was just a few km’s north. It was very nice there, clean with lots of staff showing off animals, that you can touch if you want. It costs $50A and includes all the shows. Spent 5 hours there. I got to the aviary just a morning feeding. Wow birds flying all over the place. The main stage show had elephants, snakes, birds and of course crocodiles. The birds (parrots, cockatoos, and jabiru) were neat in that they were allowed to fly free and they all came back. The wombat and the Tasmanian devil were very cute and cuddly critters. Spend the night at Landsborough PinesCaravan Park at which there are ponds with lots of birds. I think I got a little sun today even though I put on sunscreen. First day for shorts. Yea!! There was just a accident outside the park where a woman ran a stop sign and ran into a empty tour bus. No injuries.

Day 25 Thursday August 21
Left Landsborough and headed north on A1 until just past Gympie where I took the road to Kilkivan and then a side road to A3 North. The side road was only paved in the middle for much of it so with oncoming traffic I had to drive half on pavement and half on dirt. Spent the night at Biloela Caravan Park space 27. The road was scenic but as usual very bumpy and uneven. No dead ‘roos on the road and not much wild life. The rv park has a bunch of peacocks and guinea hens running around. Noisy buggers.

Day 24 Friday August 22
Stayed in Biloela until the bank opened and got some more money. Filled up the petrol tank and headed west on hwy 60 to Banana where I took A7 to Emerald. Spent the night at a place set aside at the local botanical gardens. No fee and no services. Warming up now. Should be plenty warm overnight.

Day 25 Saturday august 23
Left Emerald after a nice reasonably warm night and headed to Sapphire to look up some people Jim of the Shelton Rock club knows. After a few stops found one man who knew both couples and off I went. Met Lou and Trudy at their place which is on the way to Graves Hill fossicking area (rockhounding). Very nice couple. Lou has had the flu and invited me on Tuesday to watch him run his machine to separate sapphirs from junk. He showed me some of his gems he has cut and there are very nice. Lou said he will set me up with the equipment I need on Sunday afternoon. He is good friends with the other couple I was suppose to see. John and Toni live in town and ows a mine just outside of town. He and his wife both have real jobs outside the sapphire business. John gave me a piece of opal to bring back to Jim of the rock club. Spent some time touring the area. Spent the night in the local free camping area set aside by the local community.

Day 26 August 24 Sunday
Went to the local flee market after breakfast. This was not ordinary in that there were cut gems in the thousands of dollars worth each just sitting there waiting for someone to buy them. Wow. I had a fried egg and ham sandwich for a snack. Yum. Found out Lou was still not doing well so he may not work his mine equipment on Tues. Went and rented some gear and headed off to one of the site. Spent all day digging, screening and wet screen. No luck. Found out all the sites available for free have been dug commercially and have be dug by thousands of people over the years. I will try a new place tomorrow. Went back to the free camping place for the night.

Day 27 August 25 Monday
While having breakfast, two horsed slowly wandered up to the van and stuck there head in to see what I was eating. Gave each half a carrot, wrong thing to do as it was then hard to get rid of them. Note that cows, horses, and goats wander freely around town. Well, after horsing around, I went and spent more time digging, sieving and washing dirt trying to make my fortune. Unlucky today. So I am spending the night in Rubyvale, at the Bedford Gardens Caravan Park which is a few km north of Sapphire.. While I am cooking dinner some apostle birds came around, then a couple of rainbow lorikeets were here and a kookaburra landed on the raised tailgate. The owner of the park told me to put some bread in each hand and soon I had 8 to 10 lorikeets on my hands and arms eating. Cool. If I had gotten out a piece of chicken, the kookaburra would have taken it out of my hand too. Fun place, makes up for not finding a sapphire, that is for sure.

Day 17 to the 20th

Day 17 August 12 Wednesday
Left Gunnedah and headed west on the Oxley Highway to Coonabarabran. Tried the internet but would not read my text file for web site. Quit and went to Warrumbungle National Park. Hiked the White Gum Lookout trail. Nice views of the mountains. Paid my fee at the visitors center. Kangaroos, emus, and a koala bear were found there. Lots of ‘roos and emus. I hiked up the Fan’s Horizon lookout trail for some fantastic views. There were longer hikes but did not take them. Went back into town and tried internet again. Hooked into broadband but the blogsite would not let me send pictures. Why? May add later. Spend the night at John Oxley Caravan park, space 14.

Day 18 August 13 Thursday
From Coonabarabran, took hwy 39 to Narrabri. A cotton center. I then went to Mt. Kapatur Nationa Park and drove to the top of the mountain at around 1500 meters (4600 feet) The view was great. The literature said you could see one third of NSW from there and I believe it. Saw a small bit of fresh snow in a shady area. The road was narrow, steep and windy and mostly unpaved. The van did very well. Took a few walks to different view points. Cold and windy. Headed back to town and spent the night at Holiday Tourist Park, space 49. They had WiFi so I could send some emails and add pics to my blog.

My van

Sawn Rocks

Day 19 August 14 Friday
Left Narrabi and headed west on the Kilamaroi highway through Wee Waa to Walcott then north on Castlereagh highway to Lighting Ridge. This is the real outback, straight roads and not much of anything. Checked out the town a little then went to the information center to find out about looking for opals. They directed me to a place out of town where the mines dump tailing. Looked a bit and found some pretty rocks. Headed back to town and spent the night at Crocodile Caravan Park. Place was packed because this is the busy season. Hardly any one comes in the summer. Too hot. Ate dinner and had a fun chat with a whole bunch of travelers, all Australians. After dinner went to the Bore Bath just at the edge of town. Bore means a well. It is an artesian hot water bath built by the miners but managed by the city. Open 24 hours a day. Had a fun chat with a local miner and said it will be difficult to make my fortune finding opals. I told him I just wanted to find something to make a pair of earings or so.

Day 20 August 15 Saturday
After breakfast headed off to the opal mines southwest of town. Rummaged through the tailings and got a sandwich bag full of seam opal. Most were small pieces and not very thick After 5 hours came back to town and took the blue car door tour to an opal mine and saw some samples of opal similar to mine, rough and cut, and the famous nodule black opal. They used old car doors to mark the auto tour routes. It was a fun day even though I did not make my fortune in opals.

Opal mines where I got my opal

More Pics Aug 11-16

This aboriginal painting were found on Mt. Wilson in the Blue Mts. on the Bells Line of Road (Real name of road)

these marks and dark hole were made by aboriginal people. This is sandstone so maybe they were sharpening something?The RV park owner caught this blue tongue lizard to show me

Two Galah cockatoos smooching in a tree. There are flocks of these here.

This is Seal Rock beach.

Pretty!

Pictures from Day 11

These pics are from the Blue Mts. (Blue from eucalyptus oils)
Govetts Leap lookout. Leap falls.
Pulpit rock at the OZ Grand canyon
Leura Cascades

Three Sisters at Echo Rock (Aboriginal names)
And a pic of me there (It was cold)