Right now I am sitting outside Captain Slow gazing at millions of stars as there is little light in the quiet freecamp spot of Bogantongan, a tiny town on the edge of the Great Dividing Range west of Emerald, so the nightsky is incredible! Something I am really enjoying as we come further west.
We left Townsville on Sunday to have our first break for lunch in Charters Towers. We stopped at Pioneer Park, a lovely spot, where we opened the van to find a cupboard we hadn't secured properly had opened and a glass bottle of oil had escaped and smashed all over Reubens bed and Dwaynes pushbike, making a mighty mess! After the cleanup, we had lunch and laughed about the mishap, saying that now Captain Slow and Dwaynes bike were now very 'well-oiled machines'!
Lesson1 for today-check cupboard locks twice before going and no more glass bottles!
That afternoon, we drove on towards Emerald, however due to all the excitement at Charters, we were quite remiss about our fuel status and realised when the fuel light came on that we still had about 30km before the next Roadhouse! Eeeek! The 2 jerry cans on the roof were empty too! I know, sounds very careless and we both felt very dumb! We prayed and sweated and held our breath and just when we figured we were going to be stuck we pulled into what we thought was a truckstop, which turned out to be Belyando Crossing Roadhouse! It was our Oasis! After filling the car and the jerry cans here, we decided to camp the night here and thank God for our blessings!
Lesson2 for today- never let the jerry cans stay empty and check for the next fuel stop before leaving the last one!
What a day that was! One we won't forget in a hurry! Belyando Crossing had a Roadhouse which was also the motel, van park, pub and shop. Other than that, there were lots of grasshoppers when the sun went down and not much else, not much going for it, but for us, a place we won't forget it! It was the place though, where we found 'Camel Balls Chewing Gum'!
Monday, we travelled through Clermont and onto Emerald for lunch and a look around and later arriving at this freecamp at Bogantongan where I spend the evening studying the stars and listening to crickets. No service here, just bush, stars, and an old railway station. Lovely.
Its morning and we are aiming for Longreach today, and set off early from our Freecamp after breaky. It was a cold morning, but heated up quickly when the sun came up - we can tell we are west now!
A short stop in Jericho, a small town that sits on the Jordon River near Lake Galilee (sounding familiar?) but interesting stop, as they had retold the Jericho Bible story in a rock and sculpture formation called 'The Crystal Trumpeters'. We also enjoyed looking at a minature version of all the towns buildings done in clay at the Information Centre. A great little community project completed by the 150 people living there!
We drove onto Barcaldine for lunch where we sat under the Tree of Knowledge, a restored, preserved famous tree that was the meeting place for the first true unionists of the shearing workforce in Australia to fight for better conditions. A bit of a sad story as most went to prison or lost there jobs for the effort, but another great. Aussie fair-go battler story. Barcaldine is also famous for its 5 pubs in a row along the main street, all over 100 years old - and for the size of the population is quite remarkable!
Our last driving stretch to Longreach was a long, flat, hour of nothing and it was great to get to our stop at one of the two van parks in Longreach, the smaller of the two. It ends up being a great little friendly park, with scheduled morning and avo cuppa times for all to meet together in the middle each day. A great way to learn and listen to the many stories of others. We intend to stop here for a few days to look around.
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