Back out and about

Finally got back on the road on the 4th of June after being parked up for just about two months. I was hoping to head back North again, but although the State Premier saying the whole state was reopen for intra state travelling the roads North were still all closed to protect the Aboriginal communities from the virus. So instead I went East being mindful to keep away from the big cities as a precaution but, that plan soon fell by the wayside as I shall reveal later on. So I set off from Barcaldine Eastwards heading for a small township called Sapphire, which as the name implies is a hotspot for sapphire prospecting. Your type of place Shelley, unfortunately I didnt find any at all, could have done with some expert guidance from Mike and Diane. Not much in the place at all, one very small shop attached to the caravan site I stayed at, but 6kms North was another place called Rubyvale with a very nice hotel and cafe. In retrospect I would have been better off staying there rather than Sapphire but I had already booked myself in for 4 nights so made do.

After four nights in Sapphire I headed off again through Emerald (are you getting a sense of how the towns are named?) and then turned North towards Charters Towers. I stopped about halfway there at a spot called Belyano Crossing, which is quite literally a T junction of two roads which were originally stock routes. Free camped there for a few days, which was very peaceful except from one night when a road train pulled in for the night with three trailer loads of cattle, so the whole night was marred by the sound of cattle moving around on metal and all sorts of noises coming from both ends of the beasts. This in turn set Whisper and Cody to having the odd growl and bark to accompany them during the course of the night. Very restless but luckily the truck moved off around 5am so I managed a bit of sleep.

So onwards to Charters Towers which was a decent sized town, I was going to stay just for the weekend but as it was pouring down with rain on the Monday morning I stayed an extra night. I just couldn’t be bothered to pack up the van in that sort of weather. I did have a major brain fade on the Monday morning I was there, which Im sure a few of my older readers can relate to. I made up a bowl of porridge and put it in the microwave to cook and started it going, while this was going on I was making a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. When the microwave pinged I went to to stir the porridge before putting it back on to finish cooking. Opened the microwave door and the microwave was empty. Very baffled, look around not sign of a bowl of porridge anywhere. Maybe I thought I didnt make any and just thought I did, so made another bowl and put it in the microwave and two minutes later it was ready. I was still going over what had happened as I was sure I made a previous one. A couple of hours later I went to get something out of the freezer for my tea and lo there sat my bowl of porridge silently mocking me. It was a relief I had found it, but I had no recollection of putting it in there.

After leaving Charters Towers I carried on heading North, and ended up at a very small place called Greenvale, nothing much there at all apart from a roadhouse which seemed very popular with all the trucks which is always a good sign, the fare was typical roadside cafe type menu but the coffee wasnt bad at all. About 2km North was a very large area for free camping which was ideal for me even though it took a couple of laps of the area to find a reasonably flat bit to park up on. It was while I was parked up here I noticed that my water pump was playing up, normally when you switch it on you hear it run then stop, then it just runs whenever a tap is turned on. I noticed that mine was running all the time whether a tap was on or not. I could also hear water under the sink and thought initially that I had a leak, but on looking it was all dry but I could hear water moving, On looking outside I saw that water was coming out of the water intake nozzle. I also noticed that after a minute or two of the pump running that the caravan power was shutting off, which I thought was due to the pump, but later I discovered it was something else. Anyway I thought I had better get my pump sorted and the nearest Jayco (make of my caravan) dealer was in Cairns about 400kms away. On phoning them they managed to get me booked in for the following Tuesday morning so that gave me 5 days to do the trip which wasnt a problem. So with the problem with the water pump I was only switching it on when absolutely necessary, but I did notice that in the mornings when I woke up there was no power in the van, and looking at the battery monitor it was obvious that the battery was not charging fully or holding its charge for very long either. So back on the phone to Cairns and found a chap who was happy to come out to wherever I parked up and fit a new battery for me. He was a bit more expensive than the others but it did save me having to drive somewhere to have it done. I had no intention of going anywhere near Cairns in may plans or for that matter any big city, but in this case it wasnt an option. So after a couple of expensive days in Cairns I got back on the road again on the Thursday morning with all things fixed and working.

I headed off from Cairns back inland a bit and ended up at Archers Creek which is about 30kms East of Innot Hot Springs, which is a lovely free camping area but with no phone, internet or radio reception. It was very quiet there with only about 4 other campers around, but on the Saturday night it got very busy with over 20 vans parked up. (school holidays started on the Friday). I left there on Monday and Im currently parked up at Sugarbag Saleyards which is just to the West of Mount Garnet for a bit more free camping. As a little aside the water pump is playing up again, so maybe I may need a new one. Not going back to Cairns though so will wait til I get to any town with caravan dealership of any sort and look into getting it sorted again.

Sorry no pictures in this issue, Ive not really seen much of note at all on my travels, hopefully soon.

So that’s where Im at, and continuing to slowly head West and back into the Outback proper.