Friday 12th July
Since we can’t get into Carnarvon Gorge until Saturday we decided to go to Rolleston, north of Carnarvon, and then come back again on Saturday. However, Pat discovered the Racecourse at Injune was a camping option and since it is south of Carnarvon we decided to go there. So, we only had a couple of hours drive today which meant we could settle in for morning tea at our new site.
The diesel heater is still a requirement on these cold nights, so I decided to remove the tank from the front of the caravan, flush it out and change the diesel. This took an hour or so but when I put it it back together again it still didn’t work properly. Over lunch I decided to take the pump apart as I was led to believe that there was a filter in the inlet. I was a bit in trepidation about this, as the pump is essential and a replacement would cost me around $140. As it happened it was easy to get at and when I managed to get the filter out it looked as though it could well be the problem as it was very clogged. No amount of soaking in kero or WD40 would clean it, so I put the pump back in without the filter. This time the heater worked fine! So we now have a heater again!
By this time I was ready for a shower and a glass or three of red. Too tired to write up the blog, watched telly and went to bed!
Saturday 13th July
Another short hop today (150ks) to Carnarvon Gorge (Takarakka in indigenous speak), it is well signposted, so a stop for morning tea is declared.
The drive into the gorge is mostly sealed, only the last 10 ks being gravel. Our first impressions are that it is very like the Blue mountains behind Sydney, it is clearly sandstone just the same.
On the way in we pass a memorial to the crew and passengers of an a USAF Dakota which crashed not far from here in WWII. The wreckage, along with a memorial plaque have been erected beside the road.
Once there we get ourselves sorted out, (the parking areas are a really good size). This is a National Park and the amenities and everything is in good order and well organised. One of the shorter bush walks is on the cards for the this afternoon and we choose to do the Riverside Walk which is a short loop round the Visitors Centre.
The Carnarvon Gorge is exactly that, a gorge carved out of the sandstone mountains by a river over thousands of years, the sandstone walls create the backdrop for many walks of various lengths.
We see lots of birds including some beautifully coloured correllas?. 
The rain forest is generally very quiet apart from the birds but this afternoon we’re in for a surprise. We can hear loud snuffling and rustling sounds to our left and immediately recognise them as being made by feral pigs. These guys can be very dangerous and we are not about to wind them up but a photo would be a bit of coup. A big boar decides to leave the scene but is reluctant to be photographed. If I was on the farm I’d say it was an Essex from the colouring but it could be anything and though we can here the other pig we can’t actually see it, so we move on. The rest of the walk is uneventful.
On the way back we decide we have time to look at Balloon Cave, a very small cave with some aboriginal stencil painting, which appears to consist entirely of hand shapes, entirely unlike anything we have seen before in terms of the quantity and consistency of the prints. We have to admit to being somewhat sceptical as to their provenance.
It feels like it’s going to be a cold night so a couple of glasses of red before dinner should provide some internal heating.
Sunday 13th July
This is a walking day today. The Gorge extends 11 ks from the visitors centre. The track follows the Gorge, criss-crossing the creek every so often by steeping stones have been set to making crossing easy.
There are several places of specific interest as we go up the gorge which branch off the Main Track. The first is called Moss Garden, where, as it name suggests, a large amount of moss and lichens are growing in a rock gully with a waterfall and pool but which gets very little sun.
Back on the Main Track, Lorraine thinks she’s probably reached PLE (prudent limit of endurance) because of her knee and Pat says that she’s happy to go back down the track from here with her. Pete and I decide to walk on to the next place of interest, the Amphitheatre and then the Art Gallery. When we get to the latter we feel that we have time to go up to Cathedral Cave, another 4 ks. Although the track is mostly pretty flat and relatively easy walking, the creek crossings become more frequent but there are fewer stepping stones so wet feet could be on the cards (none eventuated!). We also have to spend more time walking in the creek beds on boulders of all sizes, this is hard work and ankle stressing. The pay-back is the scenery which is stunning.
We make the Cathedral Cave in good time, lunch time in fact! Over lunch we take in the Cave? and the paintings? They aren’t really paintings as such but a repetitive series of ochre stencilled profiles, hands, boomerangs, etc., even a musket!
The cave is accessed by a wooden staircase, which provides viewing platforms.
We have to leave so that we are back down before dark, the walk is still OK but the creek crossings become more onerous.
On the way back we have time to visit the Art Gallery, which is accessed up several sets of steps, through a cleft in the rock and then more wooden staging.
Pete and I did about 20 ks today in very good walking conditions, bright sunshine but with a nice cool breeze, nevertheless, we were pleased to be back and sitting with a glass of red, discussing the experience.
Monday 14th July
Today we’re heading north into the Queensland ‘gemfields’, initially to Emerald a small city (pop. 12,895) and then to a little place called Anakie.
We decide to take a 40ks dirt road onto the main road. It’s quite good dirt road with a fair amount of livestock about, first there were cows and when we stopped for morning tea a mob of horses came charging across to the vans. We suspected that were usually fed from a vehicle hence their attempts to get into Pete and Loraine’s caravan!
When we join the main drag it is quite a good road with trees down to the verge so the scenery views are limited.
We need to do some shopping so we’re stopping in Emerald to hit the supermarket. Fully stocked we’re soon back on the road for the 120 or so ks to Anakie.
The camp site is easily found and we are soon settled in for the night.
Tuesday 15th July
Pat’s birthday today, she has a card but no present because she couldn’t give me any clues. However, we are visiting the gemfields today so we might find something there.
First you have to find your gems and so we go to ‘Pat’s Gems’ (where else!) in Sapphire to fossick, where we get our bucket of dirt, a sieve, a table space, some advice and we’re off. Having put some dirt in your sieve and dry screening it to get rid of the mud and organic matter, it’s off to the wash trough to clean it all up. The lady who is showing us how it’s done, promptly pulls two or three small bits of sapphire out of the wet dirt, that looks easy!
It’s all good fun and an hour or so later we do indeed have a meagre collection of sapphire bits, yellow, blue and green, none of them ‘cuttable’ of course, but then what did we expect for $10!
Pat decides to go next door to Sapphire Showcase, which is a bit more sophisticated, and finally finds a pendant with 3 sapphires that she likes and after negotiating on the basis of being a senior and the fact that it’s her birthday, we do a satisfactory deal. The bloke who runs the place does his own designing and manufacturing, whilst his brother does the digging and finds the stones. All in all a good morning.
We have been advised to go to Rubyvale, 10 ks up the road, for lunch and head off in that direction. Lunch at the pub is an experience, these country people demand proper portions! So it’s an hour or so before we feel able to move but only just across the street for a coffee!
The landscape is typical of these mining areas, with piles of tailings (the dirt that has been screened for stones) everywhere. This is a place where you must be careful where you walk (just like Coober Pedy), there are holes (some of them deep) everywhere. If you buy a licence (Miners Right) you can fossick anywhere on allocated land. If a hole is being worked, there will be a bucket at the bottom and you may not dig there. A simple security but apparently it is respected, probably because the ‘consequences’ of digging someone else’s pit are equally respected!
But if you do fall down a hole and things get loosened, you can always get them put right!
We also cross the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees S), going up to Rubyvale and back.
Back at Anakie the Apostle Birds are busy. They are supposed to go around in 12s, hence Apostle Bird. They certainly do go around in groups but I’m not sure how consistently the group numbers 12!
Wednesday 16th July
This morning we planned a 0900 start but on doing my morning walkround checks on the troopie I discovered that the fixings for the Steinbaur black box had worked loose. To fix it the utilities battery had to come out, no mean task, these things are pretty heavy and because of the bonnet you can’t get a straight lift. It is soon fixed but it’s nearly ten before we’re on the road and heading for the iconic town of Longreach, home of the Qantas museum (it originated in Winton really), the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the School of the Air.
The road west parallels the Tropic of Capricorn and so it’s no surprise that it is called the Capricorn Hwy. It is a good road through the ‘back blocks of QLD which, now we are through the Great Dividing Range (GDR), is pretty much flat plain country with big views and big skies.
On the horizon the Drummond Range gradually gets larger and after an hour or so we start to climb up into the range itself. The Drummond Range Lookout provides some pretty speccy views to accompany morning tea.
Once we’re down and out of the range we’re back onto the plains and we pass a sign proclaiming the Cooper’s Creek water catchment area. Cooper’s Creek is one of the river systems that flow inland from the western side of the GDR and were the features that convinced the early explorers that there was a sea in the middle of the continent. Several of these explorers actually took boats with them on their expeditions, notably Charles Sturt in 1844. There is water there in the form of Lake Eyre (see Sydney -and back 2012) but it has a very high salinity, which is only seriously diluted with fresh water on the occasions when there is heavy rain in QLD that fills the Diamantina and Cooper’s Creek.
We had been advised not to pass through the town of Alpha without going to the pie shop (meat pies are a universal Australian staple food) of which Pete and Lorraine are officianados.
The pie shop was successfully located and the experts bought pies, Pat and I declined, purely on diet grounds!
The next stop is Barcaldine, famous, or properly, infamous, as the birthplace of the Australian Labour Party. The birth of this political entity is marked by a tree (The Tree of Knowledge), which died in mysterious circumstances a few years ago. A massive wooden structure has been erected over / around it – no I don’t know why either? A book requests that you make comments about the tree, I thought “ a fitting memorial”, was appropriate!
Also in the main street of Barcaldine, a windmill and the railway station.
Time to make for our next campsite at Ilfracombe about 30 ks this side of Longreach. We are now well and truly on the flat with the scrub extending as far as the eye can see, this is mainly cattle country but the thing that we note is the amount of road kill, literally hundreds of roos get whacked, mostly by trucks at dawn and dusk.
We have also noticed since being in Queensland the number of bunches of mistletoe hanging in the trees – the mistletoe birds have been busy.
Alloveroz 