Fletcher Creek - Charters Towers

Passed through Home Hill where they have on street parking for campers with a complete  kitchen and showers and then Ayre home of the big python!

Twisted my ankle again at the same time as stubbing my toe on the other foot- no fun here.- Camped at Alligator Creek south of Townsville but very small camp spots and it was raining and I was in pain. not a place I wanted to stay at. After checking out Charters Towers and its history at the lookout we stocked up on supplies and headed off to Fletchers Creek 40kms Nth. I have never seen so many gray nomads, travellers, campervans, caravans in one spot. Free camping will do it though. Our spot was great down the end of the camping area with lots of bushes and shade on either side. Met some lovely people, befriended some dumped roosters, caught very small redclaw and explored the area on our pushies.

 Found Dalrymple NP and an awesome spot on the side of the Burdekin River. Off we go! Got truck bogged in sand trying to get to the water and after  much digging and letting down of tyres on our way again. An amazing river and camping area - so much to see and a lot of history from around this area. Leichardt the explorer had left his L in a tree near there, the old township of Dalrymple and its cemetary. Also they had started a catholic school out in the bush when the Americans came to Charters Towers to help defend Australia in the battle of the Coral Sea and needed the school building.

Funny Dunny - Inkerman ( sth of Bowen)

 Inkerman - Township of Wunjuna-Funny Dunny park -  Refuge Bay

Found another great campsite near Inkerman - the campsite is only on about 1 acre and everyone is crammed into this small space - unbelievable - so... we went up the track a bit and and had our own little piece of paradise. Lots of kids ( school hols) and quads  which was entertaining, but very windy still. Saw heaps of willife including brolgas or very similar. Lost my optus broadband stick couldn't find it anywhere but it never wored anywhere anyway ! Hence our new gmail account.

June at Zamia Ridge

After all the excitement of the last couple of weeks time out at Zamia Ridge - Dad & Caroline's retirement home. Beautiful views from the balcony, plenty of fresh pineapples and enormous avocados from Trevor,  a bit more R & R  to be had. Watched  a great show at Seaforth Bowlo - Johnny Cash Tribute show - heaps of fun and a great act. Various maintenance duties performed around the property, firewood cutting and leaf raking and some maintenance on the Hiluxury. Cleaned out Dad's trailer sailer to see if she is still seaworthy and after a bit of elbow grease she came up pretty good. Going to take her out to the Whitsundays for a couple of weeks but this was delayed due to the bad weather. Will change plans and return when it all settles down again. Visited Kitchener Dam to see if it would be a good spot to camp and test run the boat but decided to take it out to Seaforth Harbour instead. Great day sailing in the harbour and all went well. Time to leave and start our travels again.

Zamia Ridge, Seaforth and the Girls and Gary come to visit.

After much fun on the boats we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of both Melanie & Hayley  to Zamia Ridge.
Gary, my brother arrived on the Tuesday morning by a very late train. It was great to see him again. The girls arrived on the Wednesday and we spent the next couple of days relaxing at Dad's and catching up with them. Dad generously offered to shout us a trip to the Whitsundays with them so off we went again out to the Islands! What a great holiday !

This time on an Ocean Raft and what a change from the leisurely Catamarans, 2 x 250 hp Yamaha motors on the back of a very large Zodiac ex rescue boats. A fun and action filled day with the most amazing weather and an awesome crew. Smorgasbord lunch on the boat at Whitesands after walking up Hill Inlet and admiring the vast view. Best day ever ! Back to Smalley's Beach - (cause its such a great place to camp) with the girls for a couple more days of R & R in the Qld sunshine.

The Boat Trip - at last

Camped at Smalleys Beach at Seaforth and then finally arrived at Dad & Caroliines place Zamia Ridge, Seaforth, Mackay, Qld.

Getting ready to head up to Airlie to begin our week of sailing. So much grog to buy, glad we had the ute empty and ready. Filled it completely with grog and food. Girls shopped for groceries ($1100) and the boys did the boat briefing.aboard Sea Window and Fusion Magic.( More realistically known as seamen on the windows and confusion tragic)   And then we were off with our sailing buddy, Peter. Our first stop was Daydream Island to unload our buddy and then over to Cid Harbour for the night whilst we waited for Sea Window to collect Mooose & Herclouise ( who missed their plane) from Hamilton Island.

Second night spent at Cid harbour- Saw Mill Bay,  but this time we were all together. Party time ! Took a great walk over the hill to dugong beach which was beautiful and scenic with all the hoop pines on the side of the cliff. Next day sailed over to Hook Island but it was very windy and the "bullets" gave us a restless night with all the buffetting.! Nice and sunny next day as we headed over to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. Great snorkelling with plenty of fish - awesome . A walk to the top of the island and overlooking the deserted Hayman Island Resort . Forgot my shoes, so lovely Deb shared hers with me.  A lot of other boats mooring here but we held our ground (?) and managed to secure a spot for the night. The Solway Lass moored near us (with not a white person onboard- all Jamacan- and no one could speak english) and they were having a ball climbing the rigging and jumping from the top on ropes. Frank and Glen decided to have a go too-talked them into-  it no mean feat in itself -  what a sight, Frank's fluro limbs flying through the air!

Our turn to cook dinner - Atlantic Salmon ( not caught locally, obviously !) and then our washing up party - too much fun!!

Next day we sailed to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island - more snorkelling but not as good. Decided to go back to Stonehaven and lost Brett overboard on the way! Good time to practise our man overboard drill! Got to 9.2 knots sailing speed - pretty good for us amateurs. Back to Cid Harbour via Black Island. This is where Libby, Top Shelf Sondra, Brett and I managed to circumnavigate the whole island. Very good adventure indeed. Next day over to Hamilton Island to drop everyone back at the airport and motor back to Airlie following Sea Window skippered by the Charter Yatchs crew.

Theresa Creek Dam - Clermont

A very big dam fed by Theresa Creek (of course) - Some spectacular views.    

So many redclaw, some of the hardened fishermen were catching up to 200 per day! So we had redclaw in tomato chutney with olives, redclaw in light batter, redclaw in honey and soy ( not good) redclaw in cheese sauce. Had enough redclaw!

Met some lovely people ( more Bobs) had a sing around the campfire with most of the people in the park for a mothers day get together - have now been promised free accomodation forever due to John's expertise in the guitar field. Spent 5 days here.

Barcaldine,Alpha,Clermont

Leaving Longreach after a great free camp headed along to Barcaldine - 5 pubs in the main st of town  - The Tree of Knowledge - so called as it was the founding place of the ALP due to the fact it was the headquarters of the 1891 shearers strike! They had all met under this tree. An amazing structure surrounds the now dead tree ( it was poisoned) which apparently cost $5 million !!! Looks like a lot of timber chimes.

On to Alpha a mining town, now and set to be very big in the future with Rio Tinto. Came the back way along a 4wd only track ( most definetly 4wd only) and reached Clermont.