FIJI

We flew out of Brisbane to Fiji on the 19th November to attend Roger's renewal of his wedding vows.
 The night before we left there was a severe hail storm that hit Jindalee and the caravan, car, Marie's car and Michelle's car were damaged.   The hail went through the vents in the roof of the caravan and three sides and the roof are very badly dented.  Bob and Marie spent quite a while out in the rain putting tarps over the van to stop the rain coming in the damaged vents.
 We were to go to the Naviti Resort, but a few weeks earlier four of the six restaurants and the kids club burned down so Roger was able to transfer all our bookings to the Warwick Resort.
This resort was great with excellent facilities and food.  We had a great time catching up with everyone and enjoying the facilities.  The renewal took place in an island restaurant and everyone looked beautiful and the service was very moving. 
 We took a cultural tour from the resort that took in a traditional village, a woodcarving workshop and a primary school.    This was very interesting and the children at the school were wonderful considering the lack of equipment that they have.
We both enjoyed Fiji very much, the people are so friendly and although it did rain in some part of every day, we were still able to do what we wanted.
We flew back into Brisbane on the 26th November and stayed on a few more days at Marie's in Jindalee.   We left Jindalee on the 30th November to slowly make our way home.    We hope to be home by the 9th December.

 A view of the Island Restaurant where the renewal took place

 The ceremony

Children at the primary school







Fire walkers at the Resort

 

The view from our room at Warwick Resort



WURUMA DAM-BAN BAN SPRINGS-MOORE-JINDALEE

Reluctantly left Wuruma Dam and went back through Abercorn and on to Eidsvold, which is a lovely small town with lots of parks and sporting facilities, where we found a dump point.   Continued down the Burnett Highway through Mundubbera, Gayndah to Ban Ban Springs where we stayed for the night.   This was a free camp with toilets, a reasonable amount of room and a spring where you could get crystal clear drinking water.  It was beside the highway and noisy with trucks.
The next morning we continued  down the Burnett Highway to Nanango and on to the D'Aguilar Highway to Moore and stayed in the free camp opposite the shops.   This free camp had toilets, two free power outlets, reasonable amount of room and picnic tables.   Once again we only stayed one night  as we were due in Jindalee the next day as we wanted to attend Michelle's graduation on the 15th.
Next day headed through Esk, over the Wivenhoe Dam, on to the Warrego Highway, through Ipswich and on to Jindalee.

 Ban Ban Springs Rest Area

 The spring at Ban Ban

 A close up of the spring

 

 

Moore Rest Area

Another view of Moore Rest Area



BARALABA-COOMINGLAH RANGE REST AREA-WURUMA DAM

Left Baralaba and took the short cut road just out of Baralaba and headed down to Banana, then followed the Dawson Highway to Biloela where we did some shopping, had lunch and filled up with fuel.
We then continued down the Burnett Highway to Coominglah Range Rest Area which is 22km north of Monto.   This is a free camp just off the highway, it was quite good but not very big.   There were toilets and picnic tables there but no TV, phone or internet.   The following morning we continued down the Burnett Highway to just south of Monto and turned off to Abercorn and then on to Wuruma Dam.   The road from Monto to Abercorn was very narrow and up hill and down dale but was sealed all the way and very little traffic.   We arrived at Waruma Dam and were surprised at the number of vans there but with a little luck (someone was just pulling out) we were able to get a great spot right next to the water.   This is a free camp and very large with plenty of camp spots beside the water and more spots up off the water.   There is toilets here although they are on top of a hill (good exercise).
We could not get TV, phone or internet at the camp but if you drove up to the entrance of the park (about 1.5km uphill) there was good phone and internet access.
We had allocated three days to stay here but it was  so good we could have stayed much longer.
We met a lot of friendly people here and got some good ideas for catching and cooking red claw and got photo's of a solar powered pump that could pump water out of the dam for use in washing, showering and washing up (was not suitable to drink).

 

Coominglah Range Rest Area

Cows wandering through our camp at Wuruma Dam

 View of some of the camp from the toilet

Another view of the camp area

 Another view of our camp

Solar powered water pump

 Red claw caught in the dam

 Turtles that came out of the dam at night



 The Wuruma Dam wall

 

BEDFORD WEIR TO DULULU TO BARALDABA

Drove back to Blackwater and continued along the Capricorn Highway.    We stopped at Duaringa Rest Area to fill our water tanks and this turned out to be a nice area with plenty of room, water taps, toilets and shade.   We then continued on to Dululu along the Burnett Highway.   Dululu is a very small town consisting of a pub, tennis courts and a free camp.   We decided to stay here two nights, the free camp is behind the tennis courts and had power and showers for a fee but did have toilets.
From Dululu we went along the Leichhardt Highway  to Baraldaba to the Neville Hewitt Weir.
This was a great spot beside the water, it had toilets and a cold shower with drinking water available, plenty of room with grassy shady spots and a boat ramp.   No TV, but had email and phone with the aerial      We met a local at the weir and he told us that during the floods the water was 40 ft deep over where our caravan was parked (scary).   There is also  a dump point in town in the showgrounds nearly opposite the caravan park.
Baraldaba is a small town and we were there on Melbourne Cup day, went into the general store to buy some bread and asked if the pub had a tab-No Tab- OK we will go to the newsagent to put on a lotto-Sorry town is too small for lotto.   Well it did save us some money (I think).

Dululu pub (shoping centre)

Free camp at Dululu

 Neville Hewitt Weir

 Our camp spot at the weir

View of the main street Baraldaba



THERESA CREEK DAM - EMERALD- BEDFORD WEIR

Drove down the Gregory Highway to Emerald and stayed in the free camp that is at the Botanical Gardens.    This camp in fairly small, and there are no facilities there, but is just across the road from a shopping centre which is convenient.   We decided we would not cook dinner so walked up to the Golf Club for a meal, it was very good, the waitress even offered to drive us back to the caravan.
The following day we drove along the Capricorn Highway to Blackwater and went north from there for 28km to Bedford Weir.   This is a free camp (although they did ask for a donation) beside the weir, it has toilets, hot showers but no drinkable water.   It had phone and internet access with the aerial and non potable water for washing.
It was a very well run camp with a caretaker who worked hard to keep it clean.    There was a ski club down on the water's edge with picnic tables, bbq's and boat ramp, and the weir was quite popular with the locals for fishing and red claw (although once again we did not see any caught).   We enjoyed this camp very much as it was quiet with only 4-5 vans there at any one time and friendly people, but is very busy through the winter time.
We drove into Blackwater a couple of times for shopping, it had a shopping centre at the back of the town with Wollies and the usual combination of shops.
We ended up staying at the camp for 6 days.   Our next stop is Dululu at another free camp.

 

 View of Bedford Weir

 Our campsite

 Water cascading over the weir

 Another view of the camping area



Picnic area and ski club in the background

 



FLETCHER CREEK REST AREA TO THERESA CREEK DAM - CLERMONT

We left Charters Towers and travelled down the Gregory Development road, through Ballyando Crossing and on to Clermont where we drove out to Theresa Creek Dam as we had been told that it was very good.    The development road was very good with little traffic.  On the way into Clermont we encountered some bush fires that were burning up to the road but the traffic was still able to get through.  
  This camp was indeed very good and only $10.00 per night.   There were toilets, hot showers and lovely grassy areas to camp on, but had no drinking water or power.  There was a ski club down on the waters edge that did become a bit noisy on Friday night.   There were quite a few campers there but not as many as the busy season.   People were water skiing, fishing, swimming and setting nets for red claw (although we did not see any).  On the bottom end of the dam the local coal mine had erected what looked like carports for campers to pull up beside and use them as a personal picnic shed, this would be very useful in the hot or rainy weather.
 We stayed for two nights.

 Balyando Crossing

 Bush fires on the way to Clermont

 A view across Theresa Creek Dam to camp ground

 

Another view of camp ground across dam 

 View from our annex

 Water skiers on dam

 Sunset

 Carports for use of campers

Fishing for red claw (no tea tonight)



CAMPASPE RIVER REST AREA TO FLETCHER CREEK REST AREA

We continued along the Flinders Highway to Charters Towers and stopped in town to go to the Information Centre.    There we spoke to a lovely girl who told us some of the history of Charters Towers and invited us to watch a short documentry on the town.   We then turned off onto the Gregory Development road and drove for 42km to the Fletcher Creek Rest Area.    This is a free camp with lots of room three sides of the creek, with toilets and cold showers on one side of the creek only.   The creek was very clear and fast flowing with a foot bridge over it for campers on the other side to access the toilets.    The water in the creek surprised us as all the creeks we had crossed on the way had very little or no water in them.   There was a National Park called Dalrymple about 2.5km in from the campsite along the Burdekin River and there is a cairn there with a tree stump with Leichhardt's blaze on it, this is where Leichhardt and his exploration party camped on their 1845 expedition.  This spot was so good we decided to stay for 6 days (you are able to stay here for one month).  
 We drove into town the following day to have a good look around and do some shopping.    The town is very interesting as all the shopfronts along the main streets are heritage listed and not able to be changed, therefore it has a wonderful old world charm.
The shops like Target have preserved the facade and built their shop windows behind which was very interesting.   There was also the Stock Exchange arcade where you could see the shopfronts of the old stock brokerage firms along the arcade and could well imagine what it would have been like in the past.   Another day we drove to town and went up to the town lookout which was interesting as it had a lot of history on big billboards depicting the old gold processing procedures and stories of characters of that era.   There was a large rotunda there that looked like it was used for recitals and the view of the town was very good.   Charters Towers is a large town with all the facilities and lovely large parks and we enjoyed our stay there very much.

Fletcher Creek under the road bridge

Fletcher Creek in the other direction

 Our campsite

Leichhardt's cairn

 Main street Charters Towers

One of the old buildings in Charters Towers

A view from Towers Hill Lookout

 One of the billboards at Towers Hill Lookout

 



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