No Rainbows but Big Holes

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

Our previous trip to the Center was impacted by rain. One of the casualties was Rainbow Valley, so it was a must this time. We took advantage of the weekend prior to spending a couple of business days in Alice Springs to make good this omission. For good measure we included the Henbury Meteorite Craters and a one night stay at Stuarts Well Roadhouse.

We had been warned that the access road was rough so expected the 22 km trip in to be fairly slow but the grader had been at work so instead of a rough ride we enjoyed highway comfort.

Rainbow Valley – with sunset approaching

I had envisaged Rainbow Valley as being tucked in between rocky hills of sufficient colour to resemble, in some way, a rainbow. But it isn’t. While admittedly there are valleys behind the main attraction, they are not accessible to visitors. The main attraction is, in fact, a single hill. But it is a spectacular hill.

Like Uluru (Ayers Rock), much is made of the effect of sunrise and

Mushroom Rock

sunset light on the surface of the rock, so we spent the night in the small camping area to allow us to see both. We did the walk to Mushroom Rock, is so doing passing a clay pan and entering the only small valley accessible to us. We returned via the path that leads to the highest vantage point. We joined a group of observers, including a photographer, taking a time lapse series of photos.

Edge of main rock and neighboring mountain

Places like Rainbow Valley require a reasonable level of imagination. Perhaps I don’t have enough because I did not see anything that remotely resembled a rainbow. The rock face is multi coloured but the shades of colour are subdued and didn’t change much as the sun set. They just got darker, as you would expect. The photographer said that the light was not particularly good and that the best light seemed to occur when conditions were very cold. Still, it was interesting to watch.

Last shot at night

The rock formation faces west so at sunset is in direct light. At this time of year, from the official observation point, the sun rises a little to the north of the rock face. At first the face of the rock is in shadow, but as the sun rises it’s rays start to pick out the most prominent features until ultimately the entire edifice is bathed in morning sunlight. I found this aspect a more interesting

Before sunrise

spectacle.

I am not sure how cold it needed to be to get good colours. The morning was quite cold. I dressed in my warmest woollies but it took the brisk walk to the viewing point to get some warmth into my system. But then it all quickly dissipated in the cool breeze that accompanied the sunrise.

After sunrise

But it was worth the effort to go there. It is a beautiful place.

We took the short drive back to the highway and a bit further south, to the Stuarts Well Roadhouse and parked the van for an overnight stop. They have power and showers. Then, as an afternoon activity, we drove a bit further south to inspect the Henbury Meteorite Craters. Many thousands of years ago a meteorite, travelling towards earth at great speed, broke into several pieces and hit the earth on what is now Henbury Station. The result was three large holes in the ground, two of which have weathered into one larger hole. There is no record of the number of dinosaurs killed.

Two craters became one

Over time the elements of wind and rain have softened the damage and changed jagged to round. Soil produced by erosion and seeds, probably transported on the wind and by birds, has generated trees and grass. The smaller depression has captured the flow of a small intermittent stream to produce quite lush vegetation for such an arid area.

The green crater has a creek flowing into it

The meteorite produced some smaller fragments that lost momentum and fell short. They are far enough distant to not be part of the main exhibit, which involves a pleasant stroll of about 1.5 km. As is usual, the Northern Territory authorities have provided picnic facilities, a toilet and designated spaces for caravans and tents. But the area is exposed to the four winds and there is no shade other

The National Parks camping area

than in the picnic gazebos.

And there are no souvenirs in the form of meteorite fragments. They are all long gone.

A Drive on Binns Track

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

A flock of feeding galahs

After spending the morning doing general maintenance on van and car, we decided on a drive. Gemtree Caravan Park provides mud maps for local drives. We were given a choice of two drives but one was a bit long for the time available so we set out on the shorter alternative. Both included part of the Bins Track, a favorite with the hairy chested 4WD set. It starts near the western side of the Simpson Desert, finally joining the Stuart Highway south of Tennant Creek. The folk who helped winch our travelling companion from the bog on our way to Windorah said they intended to use Binns Track to get as far north as possible.

Strange diggings near the fossicking area

This section of Bins Track turns south just 8 km east of Gemtree and, like most gravel roads, was corrugated, but not badly so. The first thing for us to look out for was a fossicking area where garnet and zircon can be found and the bush camping area nearby. There were no obvious diggings, but the ground was littered with sparkling stones, quartz and the like. The camping area is in a lightly treed paddock with no facilities. But people come in significant numbers and stay for long periods, such is the lure of gemstones.

The mountains that were our destination

Back on the Bins Track we passed through several closed gates (that had to be closed agin after our passing through) and some Indigenous land where to leave the road required a permit. The road was basically a single lane track but that didn’t mean we had it to

Typical hill in this area

ourselves. As we climbed a small hill and entered bush, on a very narrow section we met a large shiny black 4WD towing an even larger black and grey off road van. It looked a bit out of place. I pulled off the single lane track to make way and wound down my window to offer a greeting, but these luxuriously equipped adventurers just passed by with barely a glance.

Old mining equipment

Tailings from the copper mine

The hole in the hill was probably the old mine

Collapsed bore head tripod

At the end of our journey we found relics of an early copper mine. The trip had a title of “The Mad German’s Mine” but that was not really the objective. We were out for a drive through sweeping semi desert lands dotted with those rocky topped mountains so typical of this part of Australia.

Back at camp, between four vans we provided enough fire wood for a magnificent camp fire. I don’t know about the stars, though. I was too busy cooking the steak on the Barbie plate over the fire to notice.

Keeping the camp fire warm

A Changed Itinerary – Part 2

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

When I walked into the office at Tobermorey, two young people were standing near the counter, but there was no vehicle outside. It turned out that the couple had stayed at Tobermorey the previous night and had left that morning bound for Alice Springs, but 53 km along the way had rolled their car. They were both uninjured but were worried about their belongings that they had been forced to leave beside the road, when they accepted a ride back to Tobermorey in a road train. Except for the lady in the office all station staff were out mustering.

Tobermorey Homestead

In remote Australia you expect help and you give help. So we unloaded our car to make as much room as possible and the young German student and I set off to collect their possessions. That’s how I know that the accident took place 53 km along the road. The car, an aging Toyota Prado, had rolled once and landed on its wheels. Their belongings had remained in the back and two surf boards on the roof rack were undamaged. How does that work?

The wrecked Prado

The young man’s English wasn’t perfect so I had not understood about the surf boards. Surf boards heading for the Red Centre? He told me later that they were going to Cairns via Darwin. Surf boards don’t make much sense in Cairns either, but he didn’t know that.

We were scratching our heads about attaching two long surfboards to my roof rack when three 4WD vehicles pulled up. They were camping road side before Tobermorey, but would be happy to drop the surfboards off the next morning. We spent the evening with the couple, Germans studying in Sydney, trying to keep our selves warm on a rather cold night by a camp fire.

If I ever accuse anyone of speaking bull dust I will now do so with greater authority. We encountered much of it on our way to Jervois Station, our destination for the second day of our off road trip. We left Tobermorey at about 9 am after saying our goodbyes to our young friends and almost immediately met the folk delivering the surfboards.

Plenty Highway Corrugations. There were plenty of them.

We stopped at the side of the road for morning tea. A station hand, driving a utility with all manner of equipment on the back, stopped to make sure we were OK. He was on for a chat and knew about the accident, as it happened on the station for which he worked. Roads go through and not around out here.

On a deteriorating road we passed the derelict Prado and soon started to come across bull dust patches. They had hardened with the rain so were not too much of a problem. For substantial distances half the road was corrugated gravel and the other half bull dust with heavy tyre marks embedded in it. Driving through it threw us around a bit but with reduced speed the bull dust gave a better ride than the corrugated gravel.

Ruth with ants nest

A little further on, after passing huge roadside ants’ nests, we reached the point where graders were working on a highway upgrade. Two graders, working in tandem were grading long stretches and

Jervois Station on the banks of the Marshall River

producing long sections of super highway. With the improved road we reached Jervois Station earlier than expected and settled in as the sole tenant in the red dirt camping area. Jervois Station takes its name from the

Our van viewed from the bed of the river

Jervois Range to its north. The camping area and homestead are on the banks of a wide, sandy and very dry Marshall River, which flows, when it contains water in sufficient volume, south to the Hay River which in turn flows into the Simpson Desert and disappears. Jervois is best known to Simpson Desertophiles who use it as a refueling point after completing a south to north crossing.

The dry sandy bed of the Marshall River

The final leg of this first long trip over unsealed roads was 220 km to Gemtree in the Harts Range. The name of our destination suggests gem stones, a commodity for which the area is world famous. Gemtree is a caravan park that specialises as a holidays location for gem hunters. But we will not be gem hunting. After five solid days of driving the time had come for a break.

The leg to Gemtree was a relatively easy drive. The early part of the trip was, like late the previous day, freshly graded, but as we progressed onto previously graded road the more previous it got the rougher it got, to the point where I was not unhappy to reach the sealed road just before Gemtree.

The administration building at Gemtree Caravan Park

So tomorrow we may ask for one of the park’s mud maps and do a bit of a tour of the local area. Or perhaps not! But we probably will go out to find some wood to feed the fire place beside our site so that we can spend the last night of the Donohue /Plenty crossing under the incredible array of stars that are visable when there are few lights to interfere with the view.

We have produced a video that covers this segment of the trip and the segment that precedes it.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=czHbkrloHVc

A Changed Itinerary – Part 1

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

As we listened to the patter of the rain on the roof of our van, we were aware that it was washing away our immediate plans. We have been caught before by the inability of the Department of Meteorology to predict conditions west of Toowoomba. Its predicted 5 mm of rain became 25 mm a couple of years ago and we were left wallowing in the mud of the Dowling Track. History was repeating its self.

Graeme and his motor home

The next day, on our way to Windorah, we experienced again firsthand what an inch of rain can do in this area. We had made the acquaintance by two way radio of another traveler, this one in a Winnebago motor home and had agreed to stop for lunch at the same place so that we could have a face to face chat. I chose the site of yesterday’s afternoon tea stop, but when I turned in to the proposed stopping place our wheels started to sink in the mud that had, two days earlier, been a firm parking area. New acquaintance saw what was happening and pulled off to the other side of the road and sank to his axles in even worse mud. A quick selection of 4WD had saved us. He didn’t have that option.

But we were lucky. A couple headed for the Simpson Desert, equipped with a winch, came along, so with them winching and me in the Suzuki that he was towing, giving a push, we got the motor home back into the black top. We moved a bit further along to firm ground and discovered that Graeme is travelling alone while his wife is in England. He asked if he could tag along and he stayed behind us until our paths diverged at lunch time the following day.

From the information center at Windorah and from talking to passing motorists on the two way radio, we learned that the Birdsville Developmental Road was a mess and would not be suitable for us to drive on for several days, so we turned north, spending the night in the caravan park at the Jundah Hotel, and then on to Winton. Graeme left us at Longreach.

Farmed camels near Winton

The drive from Winton to Boulia is along the first part of the Min Min Byway. Boulia has built a tourist industry on the phenomenon of the Min Min Lights, unexplained lights that some people claim to have seen at night as they have travelled the road. But since most people travel the road by day, reported sightings are rare.

Our rig beside the long road just west of Winton

To travel this road at night would be a grave mistake as it is one of the prettiest outback drives in Australia. The first part is fairly ordinary with open grass country on the higher ground and scrubby trees in the gullies, but after crossing the extensive flood plains of the Diamantina River, the road plunges into a series of mountain ranges of the “jump up” or mesa variety.

One of the many channels of the Diamintina

These are the hills that are capped with mini precipices of red sandstone from which the slopes covered with rough green grass or stunted vegetation, descend to tree clad lower slopes and gullies. The

A typical jump up or mesa

sandstone caps weather into some interesting shapes such as the one that stands above the Castle Hill Rest Area. At the western end of the series of ranges a picnic shelter has been built on hill top that provides panoramic views along the valley through which the road passes.

The isolated Middleton Hotel

There are other things of interest along the way. About half way stands the Middleton Hotel, not so named because it is half way but after an explorer who passed the spot many years before this rather elderly building was built. It is a favorite lunch stop. Perhaps that explains the Min Min Lights.

Brolgas by the road

Not far out of Boulia we stopped at a rest stop that marks the site of the long demolished Hamilton Hotel. There we received a tip to look out for brolgas at a creek beside the road. There were dozens of them in clear view. As I walked towards them for a picture they moved away, many of them performing the sort of flying dance for which they are noted.

The start of the Donohue Highway

After a night in Boulia we took on the Donohue Highway that runs west to the Northern Territory border and there becomes the Plenty Highway. These highways are our first long run on dirt roads.

Wheel tracks from recent rain

Combined they extend a about 750 km across the southern end of the Barkley Tableland. We knew that the road had been affected by the rain and were warned to watch for wheel tracks. The road was quite badly damaged on the west bound side but surprisingly good on the east bound side. So we pretended to be driving in the USA, returning to the correct side for approaching traffic, when we reached crests or when the consensus tracks changed sides.

A waterhole in the Georgia River

The main feature of this drive through far western Queensland is crossing the Georgia River. When the wet season, often augmented by a cyclone, dumps large quantities of rain south of the Gulf of Carpentaria a large proportion of the water flows down both the Georgia and Diamantina Rivers. In a wet year the flood waters reach, not directly but by various means, the vast expanse of salt pans that is Lake Eyre. The flood plains associated with these rivers are vast. It is probably not possible to visualise the sight of them in full flood without actually having seen them.

The Qld/NT border

Our destination for the day was Tobermorey Station. It is located 250 km west of Boulia and just 4 km past the Queensland /NT border. We parked the van on grass in a camping area that we almost had to ourselves. We wound our watches back by 30 minutes and I prepared myself for a restful couple of hours, but I was wrong!

Here is the video. It covers this post and the next one too.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=czHbkrloHVc

Quilpie Number 1 Mail Route

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

Our tour vehicle at Alaric Station

In the early 1860’s Patrick “Patsy” Durack, with his brother-in-law John Costello, travelled north in search of land to claim for a cattle station. They found a group of Aborigines camped by a water hole. Somehow they found that the water hole never dried out and chose the site to build their station. They named the water hole Thylungra from the Aboriginal word for permanent water and named their venture Thylungra Station, the name that it retains to this day. This land acquisition was the real beginning of the “Kings in Grass Castles” legend and the grazing industry in the Channel Country.

During our trip around Australia in 2009 we spent a couple of nights at the caravan park at the resort at Lake Argyle, the mega sized lake on the Ord River in Western Australia’s Kimberly Region. One of the attractions was the relocated house from the Durack property, now flooded by the dam, which has been rebuilt below the wall of the dam, as a museum and memorial to the pioneers of the Northern Australian cattle industry.

A very old fridge as a mail box

We had seen the mail run tour advertised when we were in Quilpie previously, so decided to extend our stay in the town to provide time to include it in our itinerary. The tour departs on Tuesdays and Thursdays on a 430 km mail delivery route making deliveries to 10 stations to the north of Quilpie. The delivery vehicle is a 4WD 12 seater bus with a freight compartment at the rear and a trailer in tow if needed.

Alaric Station – now a veteran’s retreat

We were picked up at the caravan park at 6.45 am, collected the mail that had just arrived from the east and headed for the Adavale “black” road: black because it crosses the black soil pains of the Bullo River. A little to the east is the “red” road, so named for the soil that it crosses. The Red Road is less affected by rain, but today that was not a problem.

A tapestry on the wall of a room at Alaric Station

The first couple of stations were simply mail box drops, a drum and an ancient refrigerator, but the third was our morning tea stop. Alaric Station has become a sort of retreat for war veterans. The homestead was to be demolished but a request was made for the alternative use. Interested parties made renovations and they were open for business. Hospitality is available to veterans, their families and friends.

Modern station communications tower

There are dormitory rooms at reasonable prices and provision for caravan parking. Veterans come from all over Australia, some staying for considerable periods. The house is decorated with war time memorabilia including many historic pictures. An old windmill is decorated with the names of theaters of war and crowded with the red rooster symbol from Vietnam operations. There is a thriving vegetable garden, watered from the permanent billabong onto which the home-stead faces.

We made a quick toilet stop at Trinidad Station, to be our lunch stop, but then went further north to our most northern delivery to Budgerygar Station. To

Transferring freight from bus to shed

get there we passed through Durack Gap, a flat passage between red rock capped mountains, through which Patsy Durack drove his herd of cattle when he moved his operation to the Kimberly region.

Grazing plains with a rocky mountain backdrop

Budgerygar Station (correct spelling) is very remote with its northerly border not far south of the Welford National Park near the tiny town of Jundah, where I am writing this post. But we were met by a well dressed lady of the station, probably in her early thirties, with a young family who she is home schooling. She made easy work of tossing the large bags of animal feed that we had delivered, onto a quad bike for storage in a shed.

After examining samples of bolder opal found in the area, brought out by a young daughter of the household, we returned to Trinidad Station for lunch. On the way our driver pointed out two places where extensive excavation had taken place on mountain sides in search of bolder opals.

We were greeted by roses at Trinidad Station

Trinidad Station was operated by Margaret Pegler and her now late husband. The station is now managed by children, a common situation in the rural scene. Despite the many reports of young people leaving for the cities, a great number of properties are handed on to children. Margaret was away, returning from Brisbane that day, but we were hosted by a daughter who was visiting, from Brisbane, with her husband.

Garden at Trinidad Station.

Similar to other homesteads that we saw, Trinidad is enveloped by shady trees. Margaret is a keen gardener. We were greeted by vivid reds and yellows of perfect roses at the front gate. At the rear an extensive orchard provided evidence of the productivity of this land, when you add a little water.

And water was the common theme of much of the conversation. The drought is really hurting and the desire for relief is palpable. As we sat in our van the next day, listening to the rain on the roof, we could not help but be glad for these brave people, despite the damage that we knew the rain was doing to the dirt road to Birdsville that we had planned to travel over the next couple of days.

A home at Thylungra Station

After our lunch stop we were on our way home. There were a couple of deliveries to make but we were now on the main council road that these stations use to get to Quilpie. But there were two remaining agenda items, a visit to Thylungra Station and afternoon tea beside Thylungra waterhole.

Thylungra wool shed

At its peak about 80 people lived on Thylungra. Now the permanent residents are much fewer but the place has a certain stateliness about it. The remaining houses, including

Sheep pens inside the wool shed

the homestead, are spaced along the creek. We had access to the shearing shed, which is huge, but no longer used, as this station, like so many others, now concentrates on cattle production. But the scope of past operations is obvious.

The never dry Thylungra waterhole

Afternoon tea was served by Dave, the mailman, in the picnic shelter of the Main Roads provided rest area by Thylungra billabong. A range of beverages were on offer plus care and biscuits. It was a fitting last activity for a very pleasant and interesting day. The final leg of the journey was on the highway that links Quilpie with Windorah, so the distance sped by bringing us back to Quilpie at just after 4.30 pm. As we walked back to our van the grey clouds of tomorrow’s rain were drifting in from the west.

Here is a link to a video of this story.

www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=pXc_cD2OFos

Mount Moffatt National Park

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

On the trek into Mount Moffatt, the first real point of interest is the Slab Hut, a relic of earlier days of cattle grazing in the area. But it failed to grab our attention when our six vehicle convoy stopped to inspect this example of pioneering residential stamina. Ruth opened the caravan door to find the contents of our refrigerator on the floor with the fridge door underneath. Our consternation was quickly shared by our travelling companions with the Slab Hut fading to insignificance. Some perishables were quickly moved to spare capacity in other refrigerators while we considered what to do.

The Information Center at the Ranger Station

Our group leader quickly spied the problem. The door is hinged on a fixed pin at the bottom and a threaded pin at the top. The top pin had worked loose, allowing the door to fall off. Not a very good design in my view. Another member of the group produced a gleaming set of spanners and very soon the door was back in place and the food replaced. Then, following an inspection of the hut we continued on our way to our destination at the Dargonally Rock Pool camping area, within the Park.

The sandstone column known as Lot’s Wife.

The area of Central Queensland west of the Great Dividing Range hosts a series of sandstone mountain ranges. A substantial proportion of them are enclosed within the borders of the four areas that make up the Carnarvon Gorge National Park. The best known is the Carnarvon Gorge itself but, although more difficult to access, the Mount Moffat section runs a close second. The area is a plateau at around 700 meters with mountain peaks to more than 1,200 meters. The weather was quite cool at this time of the year.

Suspension bridge on path to the Great Walk

Vegetation is open bush land with some areas of denser growth and open grass land. In the north of the park, near the top of Carnarvon Gorge and the source of the Carnarvon Creek, there is an impressive stand of Mahogany trees that brought back memories of my roots in the timber areas of the Central Coast of New South Wales and my timber cutting father. I could almost hear the sound of the fall of the axe and the rasp of the crosscut saw. The Maranoa River also rises in this area.

Marlong Arch

The Dargonally Rock Pool camping ground is, unsurprisingly, beside a stream that would have had rock pools with more rain, but only provided a few puddles. Fortunately the National Park authorities had provided a tap and although the water was untreated it was clean and provided a valuable backup for our drinking supply. We set up our vans, camper trailers and one tent in a rough circle around the all important camp fire.

The Chimneys

The camp fire was the center of social activity, as well as the main cooking medium for some. An experienced camper brought a spike that, when driven into the ground, supported a barbecue plate and a hook from which a camp fire kettle hung over the flames. The fireplace was surrounded by logs sawn in half length wise to provide seating, to which we added comfortable chairs and tables for

Viewing area at the Toombs

meals. Food preparation included use of camp ovens for those with the required skills. Dishes prepared for community consumption in these handy devices included delicious dampers and a huge apple pie.

Aboriginal Art

The park attracts visitors because of its remoteness, its physical attractions and its history. There are two areas of significant Aboriginal art and historic sites associated with bush ranger activity.

In the late Nineteenth Century the Kenniff Brothers, the last of Queensland’s bush rangers, frequented the area, pursuing their trade of cattle stealing . An offended

Memorial to the murdered police officer

station owner and a police officer went into the hills to arrest them and were murdered by the brothers. To conceal the crime the Kenniff Brothers attempted to cremate the bodies. The bush rangers were ultimately brought to justice. The murder and cremation sites are marked on the map but we could only find the latter. The site, on flat rocks in the bed or a Creek, is marked by a memorial to the fallen police officer.

The Looking Glass

A six kilometer morning walk included the best of the Aboriginal art, which was similar to the art we had seen several years ago in the Carnarvon Gorge section of the park, possibly done by the same group. This walk included The Chimneys, a triple column of rock, a sort of mini Three Sisters and The Looking Glass, a rock formation high on a cliff top and where the center has weathered away forming a mirror like appearance and The Tombs, an Aboriginal burial site decorated with typical art work.

Marlong Plains

Lot’s Wife, a solitary pillar of sandstone and Marlong Arch, a narrow bridge of rock spanning a gap between two large rock outcrops were deeper into the park and we had checked them out the day before. On the final day we drove to the high country at the back of the park and while there walked 850 meters to Kookaburra Cave, the other Aboriginal art site.

The very top of Carnarvon Gorge

On the final night we all gathered around the camp fire, discussing all manner of things while we waited for an apple pie to cook in a camp oven. Then with custard and cream provided by others, we finished our meal with a slice of the very delicious pie.

On Monday morning, the Queen’s Birthday holiday, we packed and, now a convoy of seven vehicles, headed out of the Park towards Mitchell, where we said our farewells over a late lunch before going our separate ways. Most turned east towards home, but Ruth and I and a lone traveler have headed west for Birdsville and parts beyond. Or at least that was the intention.

Mount Moffatt is accessed from Injune on the Carnarvon Highway or Mitchell on the Warrego Highway. Both roads are via Womblebank Station that is located where the roads meet. The distance from Injune is about 150 km and it is about 200 km from Mitchell. The last 80 km or so from either starting point is unsealed and a mixture of sand, dirt and gravel.

You ave read the story, now watch the movie.

Days 29 to 32 – 14th & 17th February – Coffs Harbour, Brooms Head. Kingscliff & Home

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

We had planned to spend the last three nights at Kingscliff where our friends Jim & Frances Weir are currently ensconced, along with three other couples who we have got to know during our visits there. But it was not to be. The Surf Lifesaving folk had decided to hold a Nippers carnival at the Kingscliff SLC so the caravan park was booked out.

Ruth’s younger sister Kathy and her husband Barry have recently settled in the small town of Townsend which is located to the east of the highway adjacent to Maclean. We had arranged to call and had received an invitation to lunch.

We had packed up in rain at Coffs Harbour but the weather had improved to overcast at Townsend. If it had still been raining we probably would have, after lunch, kept on directly to home. We decided to continue along the road through Townsend to the coastal settlement of Brooms Head where we knew there was a caravan park.

Lower area at Brooms head Caravan Park.

Caravan parks are frequently in towns. Brooms Head is almost a town in a caravan park. The park stretches 1.5 km along the beach and includes part of a hill on which there are van sights with excellent views. The remainder of the town is comprised of houses, mostly holiday rental and the Brooms head general store.

The day area at Brooms head beach

High winds were forecast so we acquired a site in the lower area, in behind the sand dune that runs the length of the beach. As it turned out the winds did not reach predicted strength so we have had a comfortable stay.

The attractions here are the beach and fishing. The other points of interest are Sandon River to the south and Red Cliff to the north.

The mouth of the Sandon River

Both are fishing locations with camping facilities within the Yuraygir National Park. Surprisingly both camping areas were almost full of caravans and tents.

Sandon has a private enclave within the national park, with a few old fishing shacks. The river is quite broad, has good boat access

A lone fisherman at Sandon River

and was the sight of much fishing activity. The vegetation is typical of the low coastal areas on this part of the coast. It is about 10 km from Brooms Head.

Red Cliff headland

Red Cliff is, as its name suggests, a red cliff in the form of a headland that stands above the beach just north of Brooms Head. A National Parks provided camping area stretches along the hills behind the headland. The area is partly open and partly vegetated with camp sites cut back into the scrub to provide semi private accommodation. The area is

A group camping at Red Cliff

popular with kangaroos as well as with people. Several tame specimens were quietly grazing, mostly ignoring the humans.

Roos grazing at Red Cliff

Buzzed from above!

In the cool of the evening we walked along the beach to the other part of the caravan park. On the hill above the beach we could see a group of young blokes all looking down at the beach. We could hear a buzzing noise and looked up to see ourselves being buzzed by a radio controlled drone. We waved it its camera and the group waved back. We are

Brooms Head at low tide

always happy to help with the entertainment!

The following morning we travelled to Kingscliff near Tweed Heads where we spent the last night of the trip. With the Nippers carnival complete we were able to find a site for one night.. This is familiar ground so no need for photos.

After spending the night at Kingscliff, we arrived home at about midday on 17^th February. On 18^th Ruth saw her orthopaedic surgeon, who has given her clean bill on her knee. Her next visit is in 9 months time. On 19th, Eldest daughter Karen arrived from her stay in Tasmania to spend a month with us before returning to India. After a short stay at her India home she is off to USA for several weeks in conjunction with her work in India.

So here ends the current series of blog posts. We will keep you advised about future travel.

Until then Ruth joins me in extending our best wishes to all readers.

Kevin

Sydney 2014 – Days 26 to 28 – 11th to 13th February – Coffs Harbour

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

The headland at Coffs Harbour

There is not much to report from Coffs Harbour. The two day stop was for mostly commercial reasons as there was work to be done. But we did have time for sightseeing on the second afternoon, so we did a round trip through Nana Glen, a small town on the back road from Coffs Harbour to Grafton and a station on the north coast railway line.

Both road and railway line follow the Orara River. The road is known as the Orara Way. This small town received much publicity some years ago when actor Russell Crowe bought a rural retreat near the town. Singer Wendy Matthews did likewise a bit later. Both events received a fair amount of coverage in capital city media.

Café on the main road to Grafton

Nana Glen is really two towns, one on the railway and the other on the road. It is all quite old looking but there are signs of benefit from the Coffs harbour tourist boom. A small restaurant operates on the main road and a little further from town another restaurant/bar was promoting live music, no doubt to attract tourists from the coast. Coastal holiday makers seem to like to include a hinterland experience in their holiday.

The town has facilities including a pub and fuel supplies.

The drive that we did would be ideal for a diversion from sun and sand. We drove north, through the extensive road works that seem to have been going on for ever, for about 10 km and turned into Bucca Road. A further 20 km brought us to Nana Glen. We then turned south to travel through the small rural towns of Coramba and Karangi and back into the centre of Coffs Harbour, a round trip of a little over 60 km.

Coffs Harbour is the home of the Big Banana, but perhaps not for long. Banana production is moving away. We passed some plantations as we approached Coffs Harbour from Nana Glen but there do not seem to be many more around. And we saw no bananas at Nana Glen!

Sydney 2014 – Day 25 – 10th February – Around Harrington

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

The main Harrington training wall

Harrington was a special place to our family. Dad was born and raised in the Lansdowne area, just west of the mouth of the Manning, and had fished the training walls along the river since his youth. Holidays there were always about fishing and I have fond memories of helping to eat Dad’s catch.

There are two hills that are part of

Harrington town and lagoon

the town. They rise from the flat river plain like a giant had emptied two huge buckets of dirt by the river. One has a water tower and houses. The other has a lookout and houses. I believe the hill with the lookout is Flagstaff Hill.

A pilot station was built on this hill in 1856 but was closed in 1861 after the death of one William

Manning River mouth and Manning Point

Whitmore. One of Dad’s sisters was named Whitmore, so I am wondering if there is a family connection.

The views over the Manning Estuary are excellent, particularly of the paved training wall from which Dad did most of his fishing. Late in the day Ruth and I walked along the wall, following the

Harrington in the evening light

setting sun and walked back as the daylight faded. We noted several plaques attached to some of the rocks on top of the wall, obviously in memory of departed fisher folk to who this wall must have been a special place.

Manning River Sunset

The main jetty at Crowdy Harbour

We then drove the 8 km to Crowdy Head, the sight if a lighthouse and a harbour which is mainly used by professional fishermen but also provides access to the open sea for hobby anglers.

A story attaches to this place as well. I mentioned a couple of posts back ferrying a yacht from Sydney to Brisbane. Having sailed through the night passing Port Stephens,

Fishing jetty at Crowdy Head

we were rather tired by the end of the next day, so decided to spend the night in a port. We were trying for the Camden Haven River but when it became clear that darkness would beat us we settled on Crowdy Head as an alternative.

One of my crew, the previous owner, was a New South Welshman and the other a Queenslander and that night was

Crowdy Head Lighthouse

a State of Origin league football match between Queensland and NSW. My intention was to buy them a pub meal where they would be able to watch the match. But Crowdy Head doesn’t have a pub or any other eating establishment. I had to settle for buying fresh fish fillets at the cooperative and serve them a meal of yacht cooked fish and chips while we listened to the match on the radio.

Crowdy Head still does not have much of a commercial centre but there is a cafe at the surf club but that would have been too far to walk. The headland is crowned by the heritage lighthouse and its slopes adorned with very expensive houses. They are probably owned by successful folk from Taree.

Diamond Head

We then drove north through the Crowdy Bay National park to Diamond Head and then on to the triplet towns of Laurieton, Dunbogan and North Haven on the Camden Haven River. We found a pleasant place for lunch overlooking the river.

To the south of Laurieton lie the Brother Mountains. There are

Training walls at the mouth of the Camden Haven River

three of them, North Brother, South Brother and Middle Brother. They are prominent mountains and can be seen from a great distance. I recall using North Brother for a compass bearing during the yacht passage. Prominent mountains usually provide great platforms for lookouts and such is certainly the case with North Brother.

Lunch completed we drove the

The Camden Haven Estuary from North Brother Lookout

steep 5 km ascent to the North Brother summit. We had been there before, but the view is one that can be enjoyed time and again. The view of the mouth of the Camden Haven River and the three towns is spectacular as the accompanying photo attests. Looking south the Watson Taylor Lake, skirted on the west by the Pacific Highway, is no less impressive, particularly the long

The river flows through a long neck of land into the Watson Taylor Lake near Laurieton.

neck of land through the river runs before it discharges into the lake.

Middle Brother is clearly visible from its northern brother. We decided to drive to its summit where a tall communications tower is located. But I made a navigational error and ended up on a dead end road. As the day was quickly getting away we decided to leave Middle Brother as unfinished business to be addressed at another time. As we followed the Pacific Highway south to return to Harrington we passed a road boldly sign posted “Middle Brother Road”, so now we know where to start out drive next time.

Sydney 2014 – Day 24 – 9th February – Myall Lakes to Harrington

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Kevin & Ruth Sheather

Early ripples on a calm lake

Bulahdelah Court House is now a museum

We awoke to reflected sunshine from the surface of the lake peeping in at our windows. There was no wind and the surface of the lake was like a sheet of glass. We watched it develop its first ripples as we sat over an early cup of coffee.

The route today took us through the town of Bulahdelah which is the nearest thing that we have to a home town when I lived in this area. I went to high school here and we visited the town to shop and to church twice on most Sundays. Mum was the church organist.

Bulahdelah has recently been bypassed by the Pacific Highway after a protracted environmental battle delayed it for several years. Knowing the effect that such a change can have on a country town I was half expecting a town sliding towards ghost town status. But not so!

The river down stream from the bridge

In the Lions Park

On Sunday morning, those shops of interest to tourists, were open and seemed to be trading well. There were people in the streets and cars in the driveways of the two service stations that stand on either side of what was the highway.

Something called the Bass Bash Challenge was in progress. The park was almost overflowing with camps, boats and people. Perhaps it was an unusual day, but it was heartening to see.We took our morning tea break at a park with all required facilities for tourists. Other vans and the crowd from the classic cars were occupying all of the picnic tables so we had our coffee at the van. We were about finished when a local, female and pushy, came around the rear of the van to tell me that I was parked too close to the corner.

Lions Park from the town

She had a point but not by much more than half a meter or so. My response apparently didn’t satisfy her as she accused me of taking her to be a fool. It would not have been a very great leap of intuition to reach that conclusion. She had double parked beside the van in her haste to point out to me the error of my ways in what was really a very dangerous place. Of such events are memorable trips made!

The Plough Inn. It must be near to 100 years old.

There were no coffee shops on my time there

Bulahdelah main street

I remember this building as Wades Grocery Store

The School of Arts was the scene of many remembered activities.

Cars in the visiting classic car club

The commercial centre of Bungwahl

We left the Pacific Highway just north of Bulahdelah to follow The Lakes Way. This road took us through “nostalgia central”. Many of my childhood holidays took place at seaside locations along this road, not to mention the odd Sunday school picnic, and the long gone Boolambayte School, to which I walked across country to commence my education at the age of around six.

: Smiths Lake

We called at a couple of places that prompted memories before we reached Forster on Wallace Lake and its twin town, Tuncurry. We lunched in the shade of a large pine tree by the water at the latter town before bypassing Taree and soon after, left the highway for Harrington, another old Sheather holiday and fishing location.

We have decided to remain here for two days so will tell you something of it in tomorrow’s blog.

Looking across Forster Beach

The Forster Tuncurry Bridge. A ferry powered by a motor launch that could navigate the sand islands used to carry vehicles over the lake.

The entrance to Wallace Lake

Kevin & Ruth Sheather

The Mobilesheathers – exploring Australia

Category Archives: Major Journeys