After a pretty relaxing stay in Bundaberg it was in a westward direction and inland for a few weeks of travelling.  Our first place to stop was Eidsvold.  We decided to stay just out of Eidsvold at the Tolderodden Regional Park.  This was only a few kilometres out of town and was free.  What more could you want.  Another bonus was that we were the only ones camped here and there was also fire wood around.

There is a bit to see around the Eidsvold area and we had no trouble filling in a couple of days looking around.  Archer Homestead was worth a visit.  This is the original homestead of the Archer family who were brothers from Norway and were some of the original pioneers of the district over 100 years ago.  The RM Williams Australian Bush Learning Centre is also worth a look.  The centre provides stories of the people around the district and their contributions to the past.  RM Williams also settled at Rockybar, a cattle property just west of Eidsvold in his later years. 

Theodore was our next destination.  They have a free camp at Theodore and we checked that out to stay at.  It was very crowded and quite shady so we moved on.   We stayed at the Theodore Rec Reserve and Showground which we felt was better as you had more room and power and water for only $20..  This is where we started to see lots of caravaners doing the inland trek.  We weren’t sure how busy it would get with grey nomads and Theodore was the start of the crowds.

Theodore is a very neat town and had a bit of a mining town feel for both of us with the way it was laid out and maintained.  The local hotel is run by the community and all profits go back into the town.  Theodore also had a bit to see around the area and two days was filled in quite easily.  We did a drive out to Isla Gorge National Park with the intention of doing some walks.  When we arrived it was really just a lookout with only a couple of short paths.  We were a bit disappointed with this but you cant have everything I suppose.

From Theodore our next destination was Rolleston.  On our drive to Rolleston we stopped at Cracow for a morning tea stop near an impressively painted water silo.  Its good to see when some places make an effort to make ugly eyesores a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Rolleston was a very small town and was only a washing stopover for us.  Kaye had fallen behind with the laundry and we couldn’t fit anymore dirty clothes into the cupboard.  With all the grey nomads on the road the community had opened a coffee van in the park which was very popular with the passing traffic and those of us who had decided to stay for the night.  We did do a drive out to a billabong close by and had a nice picnic lunch with all the flies.  They were starting to get very friendly by now as we were heading further west.

Another thing we had noticed as we were travelling was the amount of butterflies everywhere.  The bush out here certainly attracts them in the winter months and they are quite prolific. 

Springsure was our next stop for a few days.  This was a bit bigger town and had some good shops for restocking.  The Showgrounds were our home for a couple of days and worth the stay.  While in Springsure we did a drive out to Old Rainworth Fort that has quite an interesting story attached to it.   In October 1861, 19 people of the party from Victorian settler Horatio Spencer were massacred by aboriginals not far from Rainworth Station as it was known then.  During the attack Edward Kenny managed to escape on a saddled horse and rode to Rainworth and broke the news of the attack.  No reasons were ever discovered for the attack and in the reprisal attacks no accurate number of aboriginals killed was ever known.  It was because of this incident that Rainworth Station acquired its “Fort” title.

Also very close to Springsure is the Minerva Hills National Park only a few kilometres out of town.  Some of the views from the top of the surrounding area are very impressive and also over the town of Springsure itself.  Pity about the road into the park though, it was very rough.

From Springsure we were going on gravel for a while and heading ultimately to Salvator Rosa NP.  Our road was the Dawson Development Road and we had heard mixed reports on its condition and how bad it could get as well.  We have found that most times you are best off just going on the roads as we have found most peoples opinions of a bad  gravel road are very different to ours.  We were heading for a rest area only around 115km up the road for the night.  Besides around 10km of reasonably bad corrugations the road was very good and our rest stop for the night, though close to the road was good and we did have a nice fire for the night.  Plenty of firewood out here, and flies of course.

On the web site for the National Park we were going to they said that the road in wasn’t suitable for taking caravans on, so we had phoned ahead to a station not far from Salvator Rosa and asked if we could leave our caravan with them for a couple of days.  They very nicely obliged so the next day was a short drive to drop the van off then onto Salvator Rosa NP.

Salvator Rosa is a section of the Carnarvon National Park.  The campground at Salvator Rosa is called the Nogoa River Campground and we had it all to ourselves. We weren’t expecting to see many people out this way, but were surprised that we were the only ones here.

There are a few tings to see at Salvator Rosa with the crystal clear spring fed creeks being a highlight.  Though there were no overly long walks the treks up to Homoranthus Hill and around Spyglass Peak did offer some impressive views of the area.  Major Thomas Mitchell and his exploration party camped near this area in 1864 and used the springs to allow his men and bullock teams to recover after exploring the country to the north and east.  It was Mitchell who named the area Salvator Rosa as it reminded him of the paintings by an Italian Baroque painter of the same name in the 1600s.

We did enjoy our visit to Salvator Rosa NP.  Its not very big but it did have some nice places to see and the campground was pretty good as well.  As it happened we felt we could have easily bought the caravan in with us but we weren’t to know and anyhow we had a good time in the rooftop tent.  Now its just a short drive back to the van and then continue on the gravel towards Tambo.  Hopefully the gravel roads stay as good as they have been so far.