All good things come to an end

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Friday – 13/4/12

It was a bit noisy last night with trucks and cars on the hwy throughout the night. Much prefer those quiet country roads.

It was most likely our last night of having a shower under the stars. Was a little cool, not like out west where we hardly needed any hot water. As we have travelled we have turned the 12v hot water on, it’s been nice to turn up at our destination with running hot water straight up. That has suited this trip since we have been on the move a lot. When we did stay put a few nights easy to run the generator for the 240v hot water. The wooden duck boards I picked up last min as a trial for the shower have worked really well, so we will be making them part of our kit.

Our neighbours had a diesel hot water and heater and we could smell the diesel fumes, so for us we are happy with the way we went with the 12/240v hot water.

Well it’s has been a great shake down trip. We have found what works, what needs a bit of tweaking and what needs a bit more sorting out like tyres. The springs on the ute need sorting out too, we have been hanging a bit low in the rear. Standard springs that came with the Ute are a bit soft and fine with no load on the bitumum but not off road and with a load. Update: We have visited and talked to many different spring places, (the supposed experts) so we are well on the way to getting new springs and all the other bits they have suggested all sorted. We are very concious of weight in the Ute and on the ball and make sure the load is correctly distributed. Chris has done loads and loads of research on it all too. Seems you buy a 4wd vehicle new but it’s not really suited for 4wdriving without some after market products. As one guy said the manufactures have taken the 4wd out of 4wd’s. All the bits Chris did in setting up the ute have been fantastic, have made the whole setup/pack up a lot easier and everything has a spot.

The trailer went really well no issues with it apart from a little dust getting in due to the seals softening after some use from being new, a little adjusting is all that is needed. The trailer has lapped up the dirt roads, follows without a hitch, wouldn’t even know it was there. Setup has been quick and easy. We have had both awnings on the whole trip and only sent them up a couple of times, so we plan to take them off at the start of a trip when there is a lot of overnight stops, save having to battle with them blowing around in the wind.

We called into Bundaberg and Bargara for a bit of a look around. Had morning tea on the beach at Baragara.

Doing our run for home now, with some stops along the way. Lots of bits to get sorted for our next trip, the big one into the red centre for 8 week trip all up. Been a great trip and we have had lots of fun.

Approx 400kms travelled today, lots for the whole trip.

Q – Bedford Weir Reserve

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Q – Bedford Weir Recreational Reserve and Camping – T, S, B, W, F, OR, M. This is an awesome spot. Large grassy areas, trees, weir. Very friendly caretakers. Dogs allowed on leash. Free for up to 7 days as it’s paid for by the local council.  Next G mobile only. Happy hour on Wed’s and morning teas on Sundays, fees apply. Rating – 5

Bedford Weir

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Wed – 11/4/12

Bedford Weir is a pretty good spot. Large camping area, divided into 2 sort of sections. Some with shade, caretaker on site which everyone must report to when you arrived. Very friendly guy. Toilets with hot showers, was lovely to have a shower and not have to turn the water on and off. Big under cover shade area, weir with a big day area including a small playground. All for free. Ground was very hard to hammer pegs in. Happy Hour is every Wed at 5pm, BYO drink then a cost of $7 for food and a raffle ticket. Morning tea every Sunday morning at a cost of $5 they provide morning tea. The only downside is a quarry that is close by that makes noises all night, its not too bad, some sort of machinery so a bit like white noise. Generators can be used from 8am to 8pm. Coming from Emerald the turnoff was about 2kms outside of Blackwater then 26kms down the road, well signposted. The campground is fully funded by the council. There is a limit of 7 nights.

We arrived late last night and set up in the 2nd area that is a bit away from the loo but we have this whole section to ourselves at the moment. We will chill out here for the day and stay again tonight then move on. Was a little chilly last night and this morning. We had pancakes for breaky cooked on the Baby Webber with the breaky plate, worked really well.

Very windy today, plus is its blowing the sand flies away that the caretaker warned us about.

We had a relaxing arvo, reading some mags and going down for a walk to the weir. The road is closed due to recent rain that has the weir overflowing over the road. More like a dam overflow. You can see how high past floods have come up to. We were told in the Dec/Jan floods in 2009/2010 this whole campground was under water.

We went along to Happy Hour, I couldn’t eat any of the food but I wish I could have, they certainly put on an amazing spread. I had to keep reminding Chris he had a roast on back at our camp. Instead of the raffle Lyn and Alan, the caretakers gave each couple a jar of homemade relish. Was great to catch up with other campers. Also found out the quarry doesn’t run every night, last night was only the 4th time it has in the 3 years Lyn and Alan have been here. Well worth joining in on happy hour if in this area.

Like a lot of these mining towns rents are expensive so workers are flown in and out and like Blackwater become a mining camp not a community. Many small business are closing down. Country towns like this rely very much on the trade of travelers.

Wow the mossies are nasty suckers here, they bite you through your clothes, big ones.

Thur – 12/4/12

Well Bedford Weir was a really nice spot and would recommend it to others. We will certainly be back there. After we packed up we got to have a shower before we left, so we feel all nice and fresh to hit the big smoke of Rockhampton. Whoo hoo I’ve got my clean shaven hubby back, he was looking a bit like a fuzzy old fart.

We had lunch at Rocky, Red Rooster nice to have some roast chook.

This coast road sucks. So much road work it’s not funny. Just clear one lot and we get stopped at another. And all this traffic. We have gone all day without seeing another car when we were at west.

We pulled into the Calliope Rest Area, but the road across the river is closed, we assume due to flood damage, has been closed for a while though. The hwy side of the rest area is packed, some have driven the 4kms around and are camped on the other side. We considered that but feel we are kind of making time now, this close to home. So we are pushing on to Gin Gin tonight and will pop into Bundaberg tomorrow and take the rest from there.

It was Chris’s suggestion to call into Bundaberg and Bargara, I’ve cotton onto his plan. He likes ginger beer. He innocently looks at me and says hey we could call into the Ginger Beer Factory, mmm I’m onto his game.

That’s a bit of a worry when you see a sign that says roadworks next 54kms, multiple prepared to stop :(

After much roadwork we finally arrived at GIn Gin rest area. Once the trailer was level we flipped the camper out, set up the kitchen, kettle on, chairs out and setup in about 3 mins, not bad going. Setting up the main big awning would take us a few mins longer. Travelled approx 445km’s

Q – Nogoa Creek Campground

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Nogoa Creek Campground – T, W, OR. In the Salvador Rosa section of Carnarvon Gorge National Park. Bit of a rough road in, 4WD only, 138kms from Tambo. Very close to Nogoa Creek which is a lovely place to cool off on a hot day. 2 open grassy areas. Self registration for fees. See our post on Salvator Rosa for distances. Rating – 4

Nogoa campground

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Mon – 9/4/12

Some of the other campers were a bit noisy early on but did quieten down. We were in bed early and up around 7.30am so a big sleep. Was nice to have a cooler night again.

Yeah everyone has cleared out and we have the place to ourselves. Have had one day looker so far. We are doing a big bake up, have the gennie on baking bread in the bread-maker, also charging batteries and hot water. And are cooking some jam drops in the webber.

After lunch we went for a long soak in the river to cool down, was so lovely, could actually do with being a tad cooler. When we came back up a man with a couple of kids and a camping trailer was setting up.

We spent the rest of the arvo sitting in the shade having cuppas chatting and reading magazines. We had some Apostle Birds come and pay us a visit, there was a young one that kept on squeaking making lots of noise. A Kookaburra also kept flying down seeing if we had any crumbs.

While we had our tea of fish and chips cooking we packed up a few things, had a few spits of rain. We will probably watch a DVD tonight after a shower.

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Tues – 10/4/12

We had a windy pack up making it hard to keep the awning over the trailer roof as the wind kept blowing it back. We eventually got there and headed back down the bumpy narrow road. 30kms back out to Salvador Rosa Road. 24kms traveling on this road until we turned onto the Dawson Development Road. From there its 114kms to Springsure. The roads have corrugations, muddy washouts, sharp rocks, bull dust, loose rocks, dips, cattle grids, cattle and generally bumpy. So a bit of everything, never know what you are going to get on dirt roads as the conditions change all the time.

Damn these sucky Bridgestone Dueler AT Tyres, another flat, these are the Taiwan made ones. They have certainly been the weak point this trip. Coopers are sounding real good at the moment.

Even though we can use the trailer tyre if we get stuck its not exactly the same size. (something we were going to deal with in the change over of tyres down the track, so they all matched, fully interchangeable and also carry a 2nd spare for the ute) So we are going to reevaluate our situation at Springsure over lunch and decided where to from here, as we don’t think it’s wise to go on any more dirt roads with the few days we have left. With no real spare for the ute. Don’t really want to buy another second hand spare, rather put that money towards decent tyres.

We decided to go to Emerald, do a wee bit of shopping then head slowly towards the coast stopping at anything that interest us. First stop Bedford Weir, we were told about this place last time we were in this area. Supposed to be nice. Travelled 342kms

Salvator Rosa

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Sun – 8/4/12

Another awesome gravel pit, very few bugs and no passing cars. Was also nice to have a bit of a cooler night and a bit of a sleep in. Leisurely morning sitting back relaxing a bit before we packed up, bit of a later start to the day, on the road by 9.30 am.

The road so far has been pretty good, but not advisable in the wet. 35kms further down the track we entered the Goodlife section of the National Park, where there was a road saying the road had minimal maintenance. The road did get worst from this point. It is quite a pretty drive in with tall grasses, shrubs and lots of trees.

A bit further down the road there is a well marked sign and clearly defined dirt road, saying 30kms to Salvator Rosa. Turnoff is approx 108kms from Tambo. There is a 2nd turnoff 14kms down this road, saying Salvator Rosa 16kms. The track become narrow with high grasses on either side. All up the campground is approx 138kms from Tambo.

As we got closer there were amazing sandstone cliffs with some fascinating formations. We saw a dingo disappear into the long grass. The track is rough and bumpy with some areas that had been muddy.

Nogoa campground has two areas close together one area larger than the other with several tables. Toilets are also in this area. There were 3 other people here when we arrived at lunch time. By the evening there were two other campers. The Nogoa Creek is 50m away, is has a nice sandy bottom and is fairly shallow but flowing fast. The water is beautiful, it was lovely to cool off in the hot afternoon. I did managed to find a couple of quick sand spots and sunk up to my upper thigh.

The creek was in flood earlier in the year and has taken out the bridge across the creek. Apparently you can normally cross the creek and go further into the park, to another camp ground where two rivers meet. We also heard the Ka Ka Mundi is closed due to flood damage and Mt Moffatt only has one campground open, due to the other areas being muddy.

For the first time this trip we have set up the awnings and the ensuite room I made. Can’t have showers under the stars tonight with neighbours close.

Short travel day 93kms.