Charters Towers

We received a message about a possible Fraudulent Mastercard transaction on our Credit Card, we didn't have a satisfactory phone signal at the Campaspe River RA to resolve the issue so had to break camp early and head into Charters Towers to follow up with the credit provider. After driving into town wondering what was happening with our finances all the way in, we found that the transaction in question was not fraudulent at all but quite normal, from a respected company and for the princely sum of AU$4.76. I guess somebody had to prove their worth to the company. We spent the remainder of the day camped behind the BP Roadhouse reading The Courier Mail and waiting for the the next morning to travel south to Belyando Crossing in the cool of day.

This 'sort of' makes you feel insignificant doesn't it! A four trailer Freightliner Road Train parked beside our small combination.

Reading The Courier Mail was how we spent the afternoon.

Early morning at The Dump Point and filling our water tanks beside the rejuvenated Poppit Head from the last operating gold mine, that ceased operations in 2002.

Other photographs from an earlier visit :- http://avantouring.blogspot.com.au/2009/11/charters-towers-attractions-mon-9th-to.html

Campaspe River Rest Area

Once more we get on the road very early to avoid the high temperatures and gusty easterlies.

Made Hughenden for morning tea, refuelled, had a look at the RV camping area for possible future stays. The RV area is in The Showgrounds and looks very good, with green grass and well maintained facilities. There is a fee involved though. Made camp at The Campaspe River RA, 90 kms west of Charters Towers on the Flinders Highway. We have stayed here before and on this occasion we were able to camp in the exact same location, behind a huge mango tree that blocked out most of the highway noise. However, the downside was the extra long freight trains thundering past only 35 metres away ---- not too many of those though. I only heard two trains during the night, one, I thought was coming through the van door!

Photograph taken early morning, from beside the rail line looking towards our camp and the Flinders Highway beyond.

The rail trestle over the Campaspe River. The river bed does not have any water, only truck loads of sand!

More photographs of the Campaspe River here on a previous post.  http://avantouring.blogspot.com.au/2009/11/campaspe-river-rest-area-sat-7th-sun.html

Julia Creek

After a fun stay with family in Mount Isa the time had come to say goodbye and leave this Outback City.

Have you heard of the statement 'According to Murphy's Law'? Well, it applied to us at this time. Having driven from Longreach to Cloncurry into W/NW 'head winds' on the way out to 'The Isa', we now face 'head winds' on the way out of 'The Isa'. From Cloncurry to Julia Creek we were punching E/NE winds gusting to 25 km/h. The wind was only one factor against us, the outside temperature was hovering between 43 C and 44 C as well.

I didn't like to push the car this hard, towing the van, so I slowed down our speed to relieve the stress on the vehicle. We were only 20 km from Julia Creek when the engine temp gauge shot up and the Auto Transmission Temp Warning Light came on, the first time I've ever seen it glowing it's red presence. We pulled off the highway and left the engine idling for about 8 minutes. All temperatures 'normalised' and we drove into our free camp 1.2 km east of Julia Creek. Very relieved to arrive without damage to us or the vehicle. The XXXX Bitter tasted wonderfully refreshing.

Julia Creek, a free camp and picnic area 1.2 km east of the Town of Julia Creek. Picnic tables and wood fired BBQ's aplenty. Nature Trail to walk, if you are inclined. We walked around to the other side of the creek and saw the 'slither' marks of a very large snake. We were very happy to not make acquaintances with it.

Our camp from a different aspect.

Jude resting in the shade of the van. Cattle flies were a bit of a nuisance, Jude donned a fly net but that makes drinking your XXXX Bitter too difficult.