Well after a short but pleasant stay in Birdsville we headed off back towards Boulia where we thought we would be saying goodbye to Rob and Vickie. As we hadn’t seen much off Boulia when we first passed through we thought we would stay for two nights while Rob and Vickie were only staying for one.
Boulia is a vey neat little town and is home to the Min MIn Lights. These are supposedly mysterious lights that can appear in paddocks around the area and were seen by stockmen many years ago. They put on quite a good display at the tourist information centre and it is worth going to see. Boulia is a good place for a stop over with good facilities and a vey tidy appearance.
From Boulia we headed up the road a couple of hundred kilometres to a small place called Middleton. Before arriving in Middleton we stopped off at Cawnpore Lookout. This offers you some fantastic views of the surrounding landscape. With all the recent rains they have had the views were extra special. Middleton really only consists of a pub with a big paddock opposite where you can free camp. When we pulled up who did we see, Rob, Vickie, Jack and Wendy. They had all decided to stay and extra night at Middleton. There was an entertainer playing at the pub that night and they decided to stay on and have a look so it was a nice surprise to have some good company again. Rob and Jack had also set some yabby nets in the dam near the camp area and really hit the jackpot. This made Kaye very happy to have a big feed of yabbies.
If you want to see a real outback pub with a bit of character the I would recommend having a stopover at the Middleton Hotel. Forget Birdsville and all the others, this place was the real deal. The meals were very generous as well and with some entertainment at night we had a great time on this stop over.
Next day we were all off and heading towards Winton. From Winton we were separating from Rob and Vickie as they were heading towards Julia Creek and we were going towards Townsville. As we had all been to Winton previously it was only going to be a one night stop over with some shopping for supplies and fuel.
Next morning and saying our goodbyes to Rob, Vickie, Jack and Wendy we headed off towards Hughenden for a stop over. Hughenden is a very neat place and good for a short stay. They also had reasonably priced fuel which was good to see the prices starting to come down a bit. One thing that all the towns is this region of Queensland like to promote is their connection to old fossils and I’m not just talking about Kaye. Most of the towns all have displays of various types of dinosaurs that they have excavated and put on display. Just out of Hughenden is Porcupine Gorge and that was where we headed for a few days. Porcupine Gorge is in the Porcupine Gorge National Park and has some nice large camp sites. There are a few walks you can do and the walk down into the gorge is very impressive. Like all these places we have visited in Queensland there is always running water which makes them all pretty special.
From Porcupine Gorge we headed off on some dirt track that was advertised as a tourist drive towards the main highway that was going to take us to Charters Towers. This would probably be the worse road we have driven on with the van on the back. It was literally a single lane dirt track. It saved us about 80 kilometres which was worth it anyway. As we still had enough water with us to stay another night on the road we pulled up at some abandoned gravel pit not far from Charters Towers and stayed the night.
Next day it was in Charters Towers for a few days to restock the food and alcohol supplies and also do some washing. We spent a few days last year in Charters Towers and so while there this time we didn’t really get up to much at all. The car got a good clean at the local car wash so that was one bonus.
Next stop was Townsville. It seems like ages to us since we were on this side of Queensland as we had spent a fair bit of time inland. We both didn’t realise just how big Townsville was. It has about 200,000 people and along with that lots of traffic and noise. The caravan park we chose was nice but a little bit to noisy for us so we probably wont go back to that one again. There is quite a bit to see around Townsville so we decided that a week stay was on the cards so we weren’t feeling to rushed. We also did a day trip to Magnetic Island which was a great day out. We hired a small little car that had no doors or roof and drove all around having a good look at everything. There are a few old bunker remains from WW2 that you can also walk up to and look at. They were mainly observation posts used to spot enemy ships and planes coming down the coast. The ferry ride over only takes about 20 minutes you even get a voucher for a free drink.
While in Townsville we also caught up with Jeff and Helen Jones who we knew from Newman. Kaye used to work with Helen at the Newman hospital many years ago. They have really set themselves up well and live on a few acres on the edge of the city. Kaye also caught up with one of her fiends that she did craft with in Perth. Gale moved over to Townsville last year and seems to have settled well into the NQ lifestyle.
After a great week in Townsville we did the big 60 kilometre drive up the coast to Crystal Creek. There is a national park here that we wanted to look at so we decided to stay in the caravan park not far from the NP. This would have to be one of the best caravan parks we have stayed in on the trip so far. The sites are huge with grass everywhere and very neat and tidy. Another good thing is that it is not very busy which is good for us but probably not for the owners. The Crystal Creek NP is well worth the effort to take time to look at. The rivers and swimming holes are excellent as well as some of the walks. They are very spoilt in Queensland to have so much diversity in their landscape. A short drive up the coast was Ingham which is a nice change of pace to Townsville. They also have a few hardware stores which was good for me.
From Crystal Creek we hopefully will head a bit further north towards Mission Beach. We have heard a lot of great comments about Mission Beach that we thought we have to check it out. With the school holidays not far away we will try to book somewhere and maybe stay in one spot for a few weeks and take it easy. With the constant travelling it will be nice to pull up and stay put for a while.