Day 24 - Granite Gorge

It is a sanctuary for rock wallabies that scamper round the site at night. The owner also keeps caged birds to allow people to see wild birds. We were in two minds about keeping wild birds in cages which do not have enough room for a wing stretch or exercise. We noticed that when the rainbow lorikeet cage door was left open the birds stayed inside eating.

The caravan park owner sells food for the rock wallabies and they certainly expect to be fed by anybody walking past their sanctuary. One of the males got quite aggressive with other wallabies getting too close when he was testing for free food.

The gorge is made up from granite boulders. We followed a well marked path through the gorge hopping from big boulder to big boulder wondering some of the time whether the park owner had a good public liability insurance policy.

The gorge ended in a deep ‘swimming’ pool. We bottled out and took the track back to the reception centre.

During the walk we had a call from Jeff Hall from Dell’s Malawi days and who was living in Yungaburra. We took up his invitation to stay for the night in a beautifully appointed ensuite under his raised house. We spent a lovely evening with Jeff and Charlotte chatting about old times and happy memories of Malawi.  Jeff called up his brothers, Peter (in Perth) and Michael (in Sydney) for Dell who was delighted to “catch up” after so many years. Sadly, we were not able to contact Jeff’s father John, who was away for his birthday and out of telephone contact. Jeff’s house is really lovely and the garden is so green and lush.  All the pictures and objects around the house made Dell feel like she was back in Ngabu – a place in Dell’s life which has meant so much to her.

Day 23 - Paluma to Granite Gorge

The drive from Paluma to Ingham was just spectacular. We saw stands of trees that looked quite mature so we assumed they had escaped the loggers’ axes. The roads were unsealed and there were few sign posts. We did ask a local for directions at one point and he finished by saying with a grin “Don’t get lost now!”

When we reached the coast we had rain all the way to Atherton. We checked with the Granite Gorge Campsite who reported dry weather. Sure enough as we turned off from the Mareeba road we started to see dust behind the car. We never thought we would be pleased to see dust. The camp site is beautifully secluded and apart from some young people playing music it was quiet.

Day 22 - Wonderful walks in the rain forest

It was about time we had some exercise so we walked the 7 to 8 km of trails from McClelland’s Lookout to Witt’s Lookout to Cloudy Creek falls and back. The rain forest was quiet peaceful and empty of people. The views from the lookouts were spectacular which is, unfortunately, hard to capture with our pictures.

Day 21 - Paluma and tranquility

We had the windscreen replaced in the morning by a mobile van who came to the house. This made the exercise very easy.  In the afternoon, just after leaving Peter and Helen, we received a stone chip right in the middle of the screen. It must have been the shortest time between repair and damage on record!

We headed off to Peter and Helen’s house in the village of Paluma. The road to Paluma wound slowly up through steep wooded slopes. The township was delightful and so quiet, 3000 feet above sea level. It was first settled when tin was discovered in the region about 1875. The village was used as a holiday area from the 1930’s with an interruption for WWII when the area was a centre for jungle training and as a radar station.

The house has a bit of history. We so enjoyed staying in the house and it was a luxury to cook our supper on a stove in a kitchen and watch the news on TV!

The tennis court had a surface that would help to even the odds in a game against Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

Day 19 - Pentland, Day 20 Townsville 32 years on

Day 19
Caravan Parks that are away from roads and railways are a lot quieter. At one time during the night we were sure that a road train was about to pass over our tent. We didn’t quite appreciate the level of week-end road and rail traffic. There was also a group of ‘twenty somethings’ who seemed intent on sharing their music and giggles. Unlike some of the other caravan parks, the caravan park owner did not seem to have any inclination to ensure all parties enjoyed their stays. Whilst the basics are there, quite a few things were broken and there was a lot of fat on the camp kitchen floor. This site is not on our return list.

During our afternoon walk we stumbled upon a quilt making group. They invited us in to their hall and proudly showed what they were doing. The instructor had come in from Townsville with her mother for the week-end.  It was quite something to see so many ladies at work – all using the same machines and producing wonderful work.  The class was so well organised and the patchwork quilts displayed were truly works of art.  There was one very beautiful one made completely of silk.

Day 20

We headed for Townsville. How it had changed since Richard was there in 1978! Laverack Barracks was at least in the same place but so expanded and rebuilt that it was hard to recognise.

We stayed with relations Peter and Helen Granata and family. It was the first visit to them in Townsville and we were so pleased to have a little time to talk and see the great works they have been doing to their house.  The floors are beautiful – wide wooden and so highly polished. We tasted delicious paw paws and passionfruit from their garden and had time to get to know Brendon, Nathan and Bernadette a little better.

Day 18 - Richmond - Hughenden - Pentland

Stopped at Richmond and Hughenden on the way to Pentland. Richmond is a charming town. We enjoyed reading about the different businesses on the excellent historical plaques up and down the main street. It was interesting to note that nearly all the buildings of note had burned down not once but two or three times over their life. We noted that the hotels in other towns had burned down several times but put that down to boisterous ringers and jackaroos getting a bit drunk and careless. Still, it probably helped to keep them warm during the cold winters. The town council had invested in a long term development plan and were implementing it well. The central strip in the main street had many beautiful brightly coloured bougainvillea that had been trained into small shrub shapes.

We lunched on the banks of the Flinders River at Hughenden and learned how a couple of brown snakes had taken up residence in and round the tourist information centre. It was quite entertaining to listen to the tourist officer recounting how she tried to call the depot for help but could not get an answer. Meanwhile the snake was twining itself round the stem of her desk chair. She had vacated the chair earlier so it must have been after a warm seat! The town did not have the same feel as Richmond and the map simply stated the names of the different buildings so it was hard to imagine the history.

We passed the Anglican Church with a very ‘friendly’ sign on the front gate of the rectory. The sign reads “This is a PRIVATE residence. Welfare assistance is not available here”. It made an interesting contrast to the AIM and the passion of John Flynn.

On the way through Prairie we stopped to look at a 35’ (10.7M) Comet Windmill. We were told by a passing council official that it was one of about 31 to have been made. He also said that they were going to connect it to a pump so people could see it working. They had all the parts they were just waiting for the old bloke to connect it. “Should happen some time.” he said with a knowing shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders.

Day 17 - Julia Creek

After a tasty lunch at Gannon’s Hotel we enjoyed reading about the history, countryside and people of McKinlay Shire. The information complex was cleverly designed and provided individual air conditioned display cabins with well composed and informative static displays. There were also many excellent videos featuring the local people and their life. It seems that the council is proficient at building new facilities but are not so proficient when it comes to maintenance. There were more things broken with faded notices and waiting repair in the council facilities than we had seen anywhere else.

We started on the nature trail about 30 mins before sundown. It looked short on the town plan and the lady in the information centre said it only took her 15 mins to travel a similar distance in the town. She added that she had not walked the trail but to be watchful for snakes as they were getting active especially round dusk. She said that the Death Adders and Western Browns were fairly numerous. The town plan was missing three vital letters NTS (Not To Scale). The sun was well and truly down by the time the track turned to head back to town. We spent a fair bit of time looking at the path ahead. When we did look up we saw wallabies, eagles, plovers and other small birds. The eagles seemed to be enjoying a good diet of the prolific grass hoppers.

Day 16 - Mt Isa to Julia Creek

We seem to be getting slicker at striking camp. Everything packed away in under an hour. We didn’t have the usual vacant stares and discussions and wondering why it would not quite fit this time round.

The countryside between Mt Isa and Cloncurry was very picturesque with hills and vegetation. Quite the prettiest we had seen in contrast to Mitchell Grasslands which are flat as far as the eye can see. We came across a tribute to the Mitakoodi and Kalkadoon people. Some clown had been using it for target practice. The words felt quite moving.

For the Mitakoodi People

For the Kalkadoon People

Whilst we were looking at the tribute a bicycle rider, Dave McLaughlin, stopped for a blow. He and his brother were retired and they were riding from Townsville to Mt Isa and back as a warm up for the coast to coast (Cairns to Karumba) cycle ride we are supporting at the end of June. Small world.

Next stop was the ghost town of Mary Kathleen.

All that is left is a town layout. Some sites have been marked with spray paint. We found the library, the wet canteen, the ANZ Bank, Post Office, Town Office, Medical Centre and Pottery club. It is hard to imagine that this picture would have included all those buildings and more.

The Cloncurry information centre had a book about the area in which there was an excellent map of the town plan as it was when the mine was working. We were surprised just what a large community it was and the facilities which were available to the residents.

The wildflowers and trees around the area were so interesting and pretty.  The barks on the gums and the trunks were truly beautiful.  It was such a peaceful place with nature having reclaimed the area.

We spent a couple of happy hours at Cloncurry in the John Flynn Place delving into more history of the RFDS, Alf Traeger’s generations of radio and admiring paintings by local artists in the Fred McKinley Gallery. The work continued by the Australian Inland Mission seems so practical and effective.

We stopped at the Julia Creek Caravan Park. Again, very different in character from other parks. It is provided by the council and the caretaker was very welcoming and kept the place clean. Whilst it has good quality fitments it does not display the passion and care of some of the commercial parks.

Day 14 & 15 Relax

Up early to take the Prado in for its 20,000 Km service at the local Toyota agent, Bell & Moir. I was outside the service centre about half an hour before opening to make sure we got the car back early. The service agent, Erin Jones, arrived early to open up and without bothering for opening time beckoned me in with a cheery wave and a smile. For overall customer service Bell & Moir are very good. Much to Dell’s delight they even washed the car.

We spent the rest of the day writing cards, catching up with emails and finally getting the blog to work.

15 June Tuesday

Another R and R day. We had some interesting conversations with the grey nomads about their equipment and the things they did to make life on the road pleasant. We also learned something of the local cattle properties from two retired farmers.

Stocked up on provisions and replenished the ice in the cool box. Although we have been using the fridges in the camp kitchen for some of our food, the ice we bought in Windorah lasted for 6 days. Glad we bought a good quality cool box.

Day 13 - A better place to be.

We left AAOK Moondarra as soon as we could and travelled out to Lake Moondarra where we had our usual breakfast with hot plunger coffee. We found an excellent camp site, Argylla, on the Cloncurry road. Great facilities, trees, shade – the works.

Each campsite seems to have a different character in both the management and the people. Argylla had two groups of retirees who were travelling to remote places where they would stay entirely self-supported for a couple of months. One group was setting up for their customary gourmet evening meal. They had an array of cob ovens and camp kitchens from which they produced three different roast meats with vegetables. The meal was rounded off with a good selection of desserts.

Whilst the camp kitchen was crowded everybody worked well together and it made for an enjoyable evening of good humoured banter.

Day 12 - A long run into Mt Isa

Off to Mt Isa in one! It seemed like a good idea to get the travelling over with and then enjoy a couple of days to relax. We had to be in Mt Isa on Tuesday to service the car.

Out of Birdsville we drove past a sign post to Alice Springs which was strewn with boots. It looked as if someone had picked up all the random boots that had fallen from travelling vehicles and decided to decorate the road sign. At the next junction someone had set up an old sofa, a TV, a table, a fridge and a microwave as an outdoor room.

Most interesting of all was a set of parallel drag marks in the road dust. We assumed something had come loose from a car or a caravan and was dragging in the dirt. Either that or some jolly big snakes were using the road. They turned out to be made by a French couple, Sebastien Guesney and Lara Jaillon, who were following the Burke and Wills route on foot. They had left Melbourne in November. Sebastien had designed two carts with aluminium frames and a pair of cross-country bicycle wheels. They aimed to walk 25 Km per day so they had to carry sufficient water and food to survive the long distances between watering holes. They are recording their journey on their web site www.terraincognitatrek.com. After checking they had enough water and no other needs we left them to their walk and continued in our air conditioned comfort.

At one point along the road there were a large number of paddy melons growing wild. Thinking they might be tasty and ever one for a free feed, Richard sampled one and decided they were probably best served as a relish or heavily disguised in some other way.

We arrived in Mt Isa at 7:30pm having picked up three stone chips in the windscreen from a passing truck. We were quite watchful during the last two hours of our journey. It was dusk and would be hard to see any kangaroos or cattle straying onto the road. We passed a small pack of four wild dogs tucking into a meal of road kill at the side of the road

We had selected the AAOK Moondarra Camp Site because it was out of town and advertised as quiet and in the bush. The owners had decided to major in providing accommodation to the various temporary tradespeople and other workers that the town hosts. Being dark we could not make out the site. The first place the manager offered was a patch of grass behind the facilities – well within earshot of a group enjoying some noisy jokes. We upgraded to a cabin just to so we did not have to erect the tent.

Being hungry, we asked a couple where we might find some food and they gave us a card for a courtesy bus to the Buffs Club or Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. The food was good and we had a bottle of merlot to help us sleep.

Day 11 - Big Red (but not quite)

Off to Big Red. Unfortunately a lake had taken up residence across the road just before Little Red so some of the people in the store advised that there was a track round the lake. We were told it needed a good 4WD and it was a bit ‘up and down’. It was virtually all ‘up and down’. It took us an hour to travel the 15 Km round the edge of the lake. We could see where previous explorers had become impatient with the length of the route and had set off across the low flats. We could track their progress by the deep wheel ruts that stopped abruptly without continuing.

As we neared Little Red a voice came over the radio “White vehicle on the far side of the lake.” We wondered if it was the land owner about to admonish us and felt like saying “Who wants to know?” It was two other sets of travellers thinking about doing what we had done. We had quite a chat before we prepared for the ascent. Richard decided not to bother reducing the tyre pressures and as we powered up the dune through the sand our companion started saying “I think I can. I think I can. I’m sure I can. I’m sure I can, I know I can. I know I can.” And we did. There was a spectacular view as a reward. The other side looked much steeper with deeper sand tracks. We had no backup or sand anchors with winch so we chose discretion as the better part of valour.

The birds were spectacular; quite a few big eagles, flocks of small green budgerigars, galahs, corellas and various ducks.

Back at Birdsville we had a late lunch at the Bakery. True to form Richard had to sample a curried camel meat pie. He said it tasted similar to beef.

We found some wood that had not been washed away in the flood so that night we enjoyed a camp fire roasting potatoes for supper.

Day 10 - Next stop Birdsville

Last leg to Birdsville – 480 Km. The landscape went through a few changes from mulga to Mitchell Grasslands. We also saw a well that the Mithaka people had dug. It was on a mound and how they knew to dig for water on what appeared to be a featureless piece of land is a bit of a mystery.

The main road to Birdsville is unsealed after the turn off from the Bedourie road. The surface was good, if loose in places. We saw lots of raptors, a pair of brolgas, emus and a wild pig with two piglets

The Birdsville Caravan Park was clean with good facilities although quite dusty. We found a secluded spot down from the main area and overlooking the lake.

We decided to end the day with a meal at the Birdsville hotel. The obvious choice of meal for Richard was kangaroo. It is an agreeable meat similar to beef and very lean. Dell had chicken! We washed the meal down with a house red aptly named Big Red.

Day 9 - Off to Windorah

An early start to cover the ground to Windorah. The road from Charleville to Quilpie is a long straight thing with only a handful of turns over its 213 Km length. Just before we arrived at Quilpie we turned off to look at Lake Houdraman which has a reputation for bird life. Most of the birds were elsewhere because it was midday. We did meet a lovely couple camped by the lake who showed us proudly round their off road camper trailer. We climbed Baldy Top just outside Quilpie and enjoyed a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding countryside.

The road from Quilpie to Windorah was more interesting with much more bird life including several different types of eagle.

We booked into one of Cooper Cabins to avoid having to set up the tent for one night only. The owners, Ross (Chumpy) and Di Ward run a really clean and well cared for site. The cabins were eleven years old but look like they were put up yesterday.

Day 8 - Round Charleville

First stop was the Distance Learning Centre. This amazing service delivers schooling to children in remote areas who cannot commute to school. Surprisingly, parents living in urban areas who choose not to send their children to school also use it. We watched a teacher at work with a Year 1 class. It takes a special skill to interact with children through a web conference.

Next stop was the Royal Flying Doctor Service exhibition. On the way we encountered a horse running free down the centre of the street.

It felt quite emotional to see the work and the passion of the doctors, nurses and air crew along with the gratefulness of those being treated. It was staggering to see Rev John Flynn’s vision in practise; an emergency health service for people living remotely that is free at the point of consumption. Equally impressive was Alf Traeger’s ingenuity in providing radio communications with the pedal powered radio emitting only 1 watt in signal power. The low power meant that the senders on the remote stations could only transmit Morse code. The base station transmitting with 200 watts could send back clear voice messages. Traeger devised a Morse typewriter so remote station hands did not have to become proficient in Morse code. The remote station sent a Morse code message which the base station read back in clear and the station simply confirmed. We hope the RFDS is able to continue such a wonderful service for some time to come.

After lunch we followed the Charleville Outback Native Timber Walk in Graham Andews Parkland. The track takes in 18 Australian trees giving information about their use by indigenous Australians and the European settlers. It was a great concept but sadly marred by vandalism. At one BBQ point an old Crown wood burning stove with three ovens had been systematically trashed. One or two of the plaques about the trees had been removed. There was also a considerable number of drink cartons and fast food wrappers.

Next we visited the Historical House Museum run by the local Historical Society. It is crammed full of local artefacts and some of the labelling is obviously work in progress.

Last port of call was the Anglican church where Dell’s younger brother Rob was Rector early in his career.

Day 7 - Some mods and a walk

We lay in until the sun had started to warm the day and our spirits. It was make and mend; clothes washing, repacking and a couple of small mods. We couldn’t get our Elemental Folding toaster to do more than warm sliced bread mildly. I decided to use the base as a diffuser and attach a wire gauze from a Coleman toaster. Now we get evenly browned toast.

We also had got tired of everything in the cool box getting wet. We had some eggs in a cardboard carton. They had somehow found their way to the bottom of the box so we had eggs wrapped in damp wood pulp. We went in search of a plastic container that would fit neatly inside the cool box and keep the food above the ice. I know ice is best above the food as cold goes down but so too does the melt water and you have to remove the ice to get at anything. The only container we found in Crazy Clarks was a store basket. The girl serving found a basket minus handles that she gave us. We put lose ice in the bottom of the cool box with the basket on top and this has kept our perishables chilly.

The camp site advertised a 9 Km bush walk. It was pretty much 9 Km of straight track through the bush. At the end you turned round and came back. The owners do offer air conditioned guided tours of the Thurby station that sound more interesting.

We wanted to travel through the Strzeleki Desert past Cordillo Downs, with the largest shearing shed in Australia, to Birdsville. Unfortunately when we checked with the Diamatina Shire office they told us the track was not yet passable because of the rains. We decided to stay for another day in Charleville and have a better look round the town.

Day 6 - Off to Charleville

First stop was Sunday service at St Paul’s, Roma. It was the first time in fifty years that Dell had been back to the church where she had been confirmed. Old friends, Fr. Ross and Laurel Burnett had travelled from the Gold Coast to preside over the Deb’s Ball on the Saturday evening. He stayed to deliver the sermon at the 9am service and had a surprise seeing us in the congregation.

We struck camp reasonably fast, stowed the kit in the car and headed for Mitchell. The hot artesian spa was not enough to keep us there so we carried on through Morvan to Charleville.

We passed through Amby where a store-cum-eatery had two seats outside the entrance. One is designated the ‘Seat of Knowledge’ and the other the ‘Seat of Bullshit’. They looked quite interchangeable.

At Charleville we chose to stay out of town at the Evening Star Tourist site on the33,000 acre Thurby Station. The sites in town had a higher density of caravans and tents than we felt comfortable with. The Evening Star site was very well set up with combined shower and toilet cabins, plenty of space, a common fire pit, a camp kitchen and a laundry. The temperature dropped to 2 degrees overnight so it was a bit cold. We might have been better setting off from Brisbane in May!

Day 5 - Mt Abundance

Don and Pat gave us a guided tour of the Mount Abundance Homestead which they are renovating. The place was badly infested by termites which had caused a lot of the structure to sag significantly. They replaced timbers and slowly jacked the structure back into shape over three months. The gradual jacking meant that the timbers could ease their way back to shape with reduced risk of cracking. The inside cladding is cypress pine which fortunately termites do not like and therefore is almost all original.

It also had an impressive weir on the driveway in.

Dell’s brother and sister-in-law, Rob and Jan Nolan, called to arrange a meeting as they travelled through Roma on their way to Charleville. As we discussed routes to the West he told us that the distances between the main towns such as Roma, Mitchell, Moree and Charleville was about 87 kms for each gap corresponded to a day’s coach ride. The bigger towns were overnight towns. The lesser towns in between were set at the distance between changes of horse teams.

Day 4 - Down memory lane for Dell

It was a cold and moisty start to the day! A heavy morning dew hid the sun for a couple of hours. Everything outside was dripping.

Dell had a trip down memory lane. We drove out to Roma Downs to have a look at the property where she spent the first fourteen years of her life. The property has since left the Nolan family and is run by the MacAlisters. The house where Dell’s family lived was empty and in disrepair. Sadly there was no sign of the vegetable garden or fruit trees so lovingly cared for by Dell’s mother and coaxed through droughts.

We visited homes of her grandmother and Aunty Min (Wilhemine) and Aunty Phyllis in Roma. They were as well cared for as Dell remembered.

The rest of the day we explored Roma and walked the well documented Heritage Walk.

The Coleman dual fuel light and stove are proving to be good choices. The stove is very hot and boils our two litre kettle in less than 10 minutes. The light is very bright. We coat the fragile mantles with hair lacquer and keep the lamp in an insulated bag on some bubble wrap. It will be interesting to see how the mantles stand up to the two month journey.

Day 3 - Through to Roma

It took us rather longer than we imagined to strike camp. The site had a lot of dust which we were trying not to import into the car. We had also left the chairs out over night and we had to wait until the dew had dried off. Today we headed for Roma.

First stop was Wallumbilla where we were trying to find the house where Dell’s mother lived and went to school. We pieced fragments of her stories together about walking over the railway bridge when the creek was flooded. We found a candidate bridge, creek and houses. As we finished taking photos, an elderly lady came out of the end house to sit on her veranda. Against Dell’s inclination, I approached her to ask if she knew Dell’s mother. Yes, she knew Vera Haase well and had been to school with her. The house, which we had not seen, was just round the corner.

We then looked for the church where Dell’s parents were married. We found a building that looked like a church. On closer inspection we realised it was a Masonic hall. Fortunately, Lynette, in Wallumbilla Information Centre was able to confirm with her father-in-law that the building was originally the Anglican Church building. It was amazing luck to find two people with the information we needed.

Our camp site for this stop was Meadowbank 12 Km west of Roma. It is run by Don and Pat Tite. The site is next to their museum farm. The showers and toilets were clean, if a little basic, with a good supply of hot water. Don and Pat have a delightful tradition of ‘Smoko at 4’ when they bring tea and Pat’s baking to the shelter in the centre of the site and invite all their visitors to join them.

We were a lot slicker at setting up camp this time. The slowest part was driving pegs into the stony ground. I was glad I had bought a selection of extra strong tent pegs. Some of those supplied with the tent were too light for this ground. So far we really like our Bedarra tent. It is easy to erect, has plenty of height and lots of well thought out features.

As with Possum Park other campers were very friendly and we joined them round a warm fire for a chat to end the evening.

Day 2 - finding relations in the bush

We visited relations who have a cattle property near Wandoan. Well, we thought it was near but it was a few kilometres out of Wandoan. At one point the telephoned directions seemed very Australian… “Go down a hill and round a few bends…” After lunch, we were directed back to Possum Park by a cross country route. It was much more interesting than boring metalled roads. The track followed a creek for a while and we could see the effect of the recent flood waters.

That evening we had a more interesting supper after which we built a fire and had a much more enjoyable evening.

Day 1 - "Any damn fool can be uncomfortable"

So said my wise old uncle Harry when I was 14 years old. We were setting up our sleeping arrangements in the garage of a holiday home in Kerry and I was trying to skimp. I have kept renewing my acquaintance with that saying ever since.

Dell and I started planning our series of holidays round Australia about five years ago. The only barrier to setting out had been renovating our house, learning how to rejuvenate our bush and a couple of hundred year floods that destroyed part of our dam.

We finally set of on 1 June 2010 about three hours after our planned time. Loading the car for real took a whole lot longer that we anticipated. The battery terminals for our second battery were not a matching pair. The one I tested was a tight fit. The second terminal was so sloppy it would not stay on. Therefore leave nothing to an assumption. Test everything you will use. Too late to find a fault when you are on the Birdsville track.

First stop was at Possum Park eighteen km north of Miles. It is an old WWII magazine or munitions dump. The static accommodation included underground bunkers and railway carriages. The owner, Julie, was very welcoming and friendly. We were able to camp at the edge of the grounds in an area of bush. Arriving late in the day as the light was fading we discovered the car was not as conveniently packed as we had imagined. We finally got everything erected and most of our comforts to hand. We were glad we had included a leaf rake in our kit because there were lots of small branches to clear before we erected our tent.

We felt a bit tired so used the central bbq to cook sausage with slices of potato and carrot. We probably won’t repeat that particular recipe. The other campers were very friendly. Probably interested to see what the new arrivals with new kit would do next. I think we will put some wear marks on our kit for the next trip. The shower and toilet block were clean and there was always lots of hot water. The site also supplied rain water or bore water.

It was a cool night but our jumbo Lawson bags with liners, 10cm mattresses and stretcher bed setup was warm and comfortable. We had an excellent night’s sleep.