Hughenden - Cloncurry - Karumba on the Gulf - Cloncurry

Monday 6.6.2011:    Temperature on waking 16 degrees getting up to close to 30 in the middle of the day.    Decided to stay another night and do the washing, to give Lloyd‘s back a chance to recover from the trip from Winton.  Went for a walk to the shops which was a few block away, it was very hot . Came back to the bus and had lunch then caught up with the trip diary.

In the two caravans beside us were Lorraine & her husband and Rita and her husband, very nice people, they were waiting for a part to be delivered for their four wheel drive, so they could continue on their way fossicking for zircons, and catching up with their lapidary club somewhere north west of Hughenden.  Lorraine showed me the jewellery her husband had made since joining the lapidary club, he had cut the gems and melted the gold to set the gems in, very nice.  They also told us the address of the place in Thailand where they cut the gems very reasonably and to look up Lambert on the internet and read about them.  She also advised me how to word the letter requesting they cut our garnets to Australian Standard Size.  They were very helpful.

Tuesday 7.6.2011:  18 degrees on waking in the van - temperature in the high 20s, sunny with a bit of cloud.  Lloyd noticed the Fiama awning had a broken rivet on the support bracket at the front end of the bus, so our first stop was at the garage to buy diesel and to find out where we could get the rivets replaced.  The guy was very close only a couple of hundred yards down the road, turn right and he was next to the Bakery, so I checked out the Bakery whilst the guy replaced the rivets with bolts, it only took him about ¾ of an hour to replace the rivets and he charged us $50.  We were both very pleased to secure the awning in place.

We drove around the corner, had a cuppa and something to eat, then went to the Flinders Discovery Centre where we saw the skeleton of the Muttaburrasaurus, as well as lots of other fossils and strange rocks they called dinosaur eggs.  We discovered that Porcupine George road has been updated and there was only 12 kilometers of dirt road to contend with in stead of the 65k it was last time we went there, however, we decided to leave that trip for another time as Lloyd’s back was not good after walking to the shops the day before.



Flinders river at Hughenden - almost dry



Drove west across to Richmond  - (112  kilometers)  the road is the same as the Winton to Hughenden road, flat with a bump every so often, however I think this was worse than the other road as Lloyd’s back was bad on arriving at Richmond Caravan Park and I was also grotty.   The park is on the edge of a man made lake and has a pathway which is lit at night, the length is 1.2 kilometers or 10,000 steps,  We had happy hour at 4 pm then walked around the lake, Lloyd was feeling his back again, so he had a rest and I read a book for a while.

Wednesday 8.6.2011:  Temperature in van 18 degrees - a bit of cloud about and sunny, up to high 20s.

Decided to stay another night to rest Lloyd’s back.  I did my knee exercises and Lloyd did some back exercises, then we walked around the lake again to get the inflammation down, had morning tea, caught up with the trip diary then lunch and walked about a block to the Kronosaurus Corner Museum.  Very interesting moon rocks and mostly underwater creatures, but too much standing and reading didn’t do Lloyd’s back any good.



Pliosaur

  

Kronosaurus



Thursday 9.6.2011:  Temperature in van 18 degrees, dark clouds and cold wind - temperature reached about 20 degrees.  Lloyd’s back still very acute, so we decided to book in to Lakeview Van Park another night and see how he goes.  We walked the 1.2 kilometers around the lake twice, we were doing the 20 minutes of walking to reduce the inflammation in his back, went back to the Coaster and had morning tea and hooked Lloyd up to the tens machine to further reduce the inflammation.  After lunch we walked to the shop for groceries, which we thought might continue to help his condition.

Friday 10.6.2011:   8 degrees overcast, windy and very, very cold, temperature only got up to 16 degrees.  Drove out of Richmond and the rain started, the countryside is very flat with Mitchell grass which is a straw colour and trees dotted here and there as well as cattle, the landscape gets pretty boring after a while, all you see in the distance is the straight road and the telegraph poles give a strange dark shadow effect, the rainfall in this area has been very low not the usual amount and the country is very dry.  Our excitement for the morning was the sight of a train coming, it had lots and lots of carriages from Mt. Isa direction so I guess it was carrying copper and zink ore.

Arrived in Julia Creek about lunch time, checked out the information centre and went through their new centre and learnt about the people of the town and the Dunnart which is a very small marsupial mammal, it can have two litters of eight babies in summer, the babies are born very, very small, then attach to one of the eight nipples in a pouch while they grow, then by the time the wet season starts, they can fend for themselves, as there are plenty of insects for them to feed on , they only exist within an area of 100km around Julia Creek.

As it is raining and cold, we decided to give the free camp by the river a miss, and go for a powered site in the McKinley Shire Council Caravan Park, so we can put the heater on and keep warm.

Saturday 11.6.2011:  12 degrees very chilly, overcast.   Took our time packing up and drove across to Cloncurry to go to the Chemist there as there is none in Julia Creek, just as well we did as there is also none in Normanton either, this was the only pharmacy for two hundred K‘s in any direction.  Made it to the chemist at 11.45 am just before it shut for the long weekend, We also wanted to get a wheel alignment done for the bus as the tyres are showing uneven wear, but will have to go to Mt. Isa after we have been up to Karumba.  Booked into the Cloncurry Caravan Park Oasis.  Had lunch, did the washing, went for a walk then got on with catching up with the trip diary.

Sunday 12.6.2011:  9 degrees - 22 degrees - sunny with southerly wind.   Woke early, packed up and went to Church to find the Anglican service would be at 6.30 pm, so we went looking for a Uniting Church, they were a very friendly family church, the couple taking the service and playing guitar were from Townsville,  the Pentecost Service was very interesting using fruit tingles to illustrate when the Holy Spirit is in us it‘s like having a tingle in our speech people recognize we belong to the Lord, the music was happy songs with a touch of country and western.   We met a couple who were in an Toyota Coaster and stayed at the same Caravan Park.

Continued on our way to Kurumba, staying at Bang Bang jump up bush camp, where we met up with the couple we had met in the Caravan park the day before, also the couple from Narrandera, whom we met at church and another couple we had met at Hughenden a few nights before,  it was a free camp spot, and we all felt comfortable we knew each other.

Monday 13.6.2011:  11 degrees - 23 degrees - sunny, southerly still blowing.  Left Bang Bang camp site at a leisurely pace,  and found Bang Bang jump up was a small hill and we were on top of it, there was water to our right and we heard lots of birds the evening before.  As we traveled north we passed lots of rodeo trucks with horses and a lot of equipment in them, it was OK when the road was normal two lanes, but we were not impressed with having to pull over and stop to allow all the trucks and cars to go by, we found it we didn’t pull off the road they would drive half on the bitumen and half on the dirt, which meant they tended to throw stones up at our windscreen, another broken windscreen is the last thing we need.

 

The countryside is extremely  flat, you can see how it floods, we saw lots of cattle, eagles, kites, road kill, and I even managed to spot a bustard bird which is light grey, bigger than a crane and shorter than an emu, and it’s distinguishing mark is a red top on its head.

Arrived at Sunset Caravan Park, Karumba Point about 3 pm, set ourselves up, had lunch and met a couple from the previous night walking around the camping ground.  Walked around Karumba Point stayed in the built up area to avoid meeting any crocodiles.  Lloyd’s back still playing up.

Tuesday 14.6.2011:  14 degrees - 22 degrees - sunny, southerly still blowing strong, but eased off by 2 pm. Lloyd did his back exercises and I washed and cleaned the Coaster.  Had lunch went for a walk down to the point to check things out, Lloyd decided to do some beach fishing, we feel this will be better than banging around in a boat which could send his back into spasm again.  Joy oh joy, Lloyd came back with a decent size bream, he couldn’t tell a lie, he did not catch it, one of the guys who was leaving in the morning couldn’t fit it in his freezer, so he gave it to Lloyd.  We had a lovely fish dinner baked in our little oven.

Wednesday 15.6.2011:  14 degrees - 22 degrees - southerly still blowing stronger up to 35 knots, wind chill factor made it feel so much cooler, went for a walk to the waters edge and it was very unpleasant, so we walked along the road to the airfield then walked along the beach  which was protected from the wind, the sand was normal sand colour, then it became grey like wet cement and along a long part of the beach it was like walking on cement rocks with shells embedded in them.  Lloyd told me he was standing in this yucky grey wet sand when he was fishing the day before and it took forever to clean it off his crocs and chair.  Walked back to the Sunset Caravan Park and ran into Heather and Alan Lee, whom we had met at the Oasis Caravan Park in Cloncurry, we told them we had booked to have dinner at the Sunset Hotel to watch the sunset, they said they would come over and have a drink.  They arrived and another couple whom we had been talking to so we invited them all to share our table and we all enjoyed the beautiful sunset, the colour for ½ to ¾ of an hour after is just beautiful brilliant red.  Had salt and pepper squid for dinner then walked back to the Sunset Caravan Park.

Thursday 16.6.2011:  14 degrees - 25 degrees -  Wind chilly from the south and still strong. No good for fishing. Packed up and headed for Normanton, saw the fruit & vegetable guy as we were leaving, with his big refrigerated truck and lovely fresh  produce at a reasonable price, so I stocked up the fridge.  Called in at Normanton to fill up with diesel, then took our time travelling down the Burke Developmental Road, there are a lot of one lane only parts of the road, so each time we pulled over to the side and completely stopped to allow the oncoming cars, trucks, caravans, campervans or road trains to stay in the middle of the bitumen and hopefully not throw rocks at our windscreen.  We saw lots of  large cattle with a big hump on the back of their necks, I think they are Brahman cattle.  We also saw, brolgas, magpie geese, eagles,  kites, crows and willy willys.  The countryside is very flat as far as the eye can see the scrub is lower and thinner towards Normanton and you have the impression you are traveling down, then you come to a small jump up and up then down again.  There are flood warnings all along the road and you can see where the land floods in the wet season. 

We pulled in at Bang Bang Jump up which is a free camp and stayed there, the people near us were Lyn and Laurie from Evans head, they used to have a Coaster which he had fitted out and he had a bad accident falling off his roof and had all sorts of complications and had to sell the bus, but has now bought a caravan which is easer or him to manage with his bad back etc.  They were lovely people and invited us to the campfire that night, so we met all the other happy campers and had a lovely night around the campfire, one of the guys even made a damper. 

Friday 17.6.2011:  13 degrees - 25 degrees, a slight breeze blowing.  Took our time leaving Bang Bang Jump up, traveled to Burke and Wills Roadhouse only to find six road trains full of cattle, so we had a quick morning tea and got on the road again before the road trains, traveled half an hour up the road and stopped for lunch only to have the road trains come in at the road stop and park right beside up, so we really took our time having lunch so we would not catch up to them.  Arrived in Cloncurry about 3.30 pm checked into the Discovery Holiday Park nice park full of caravans and a few motor homes.

Tomorrow we will visit the Cloncurry Rodeo then the next stop will be Mt. Isa to go to the dentist, get a front wheel alignment and possibly new shock absorbers fitted to the bus.