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