A Bit of a SE Qld Holiday August 2014 - Day Twelve - Fourteen

Wednesday 20th August, 2014
Slept in this morning until 7.30am.Beautiful morning- blue sky & a light breeze. Looks like we're staying another night. Spagetti on toast for breakfast this morning. Once we eat & cleaned up, we grabbed the cameras & water bottles and set off on a walk around the edge of the dam. Chatted with fellow campers as we passed by their campsite and we spotted a couple of good campsites for next time. 

Western side camping area

Western side camping area

Walking around the dam

Walking around the dam

Walking around the dam

It was a lovely walk, took about 2 1/2 hours all up. Boris got to have a good play with the black dog next door. They let the 2 dogs loose and they played in the water, then chased each other around and around and up and down the beach like pork chops.

By the time we returned to camp it was 11.30am, so we had an early lunch in the shade of a big gum tree overlooking the lake - very pleasant in deed.  I was downloading our photos onto the laptop after lunch, when the old fellow Craig was talking to yesterday came over and asked if Craig wanted to go out fishing with him in his tinnie (his wife didn't want to go out again with him, but she wouldn't let him go out alone). Craig gratefully accepted his offer and an hour later at 2pm they were off.

I've been enjoying my time this afternoon, writing in my journal, reading my camera manual and changing a few settings on the camera and playing around with it, while enjoying a glass of wine.  I got the fire going about 4pm, I'm going to make a damper to go with dinner so coals will be needed. We're having chicken steaks for dinner which I made up a marinade for after lunch, so they've been doing their thing for a few hours. Using the BBQ plate tonight, so we'll throw some potato rounds on there also.

Craig arrived back about 4.30pm and he was a triumphant hunter - are you as surprised as I am!!! He caught his first yellow belly and Ian (aka Spike) was nice enough to fillet it for Craig so he could show him where the fat sacks were in the fish.  So we had Yellow Belly for entree (both fillets together were the size of blokes hand, not huge).  I didn't really like it that much, this is going to sound stupid but it was too much of a fishy taste for me. I left Craig to finish it all off.  I wandered off to try some more star shots while Craig was tending the BBQ. Oh, the pumpkin & chive damper turned out beautiful.

Dinner served & consumed (only 1/2 the damper eaten, so some for tomorrow night). Quite tired by the time dishes were done, so we retired to bed and Craig read one of his 4wd magazines for a bit, while the dog and I slumbered.

Thursday 21st August, 2014
We're up at 7.30am again this morning. Craig got out of bed and before he could turn around to lift Boris down off the bed, Boris had slipped off the edge of the bed onto the foot lockers then down onto the floor.  He's never fallen off the bed before, perhaps pee time was more urgent then we realised this morning.  He landed on his feet Craig said, must be related to a cat!  Craig checked him over, he wasn't limping or anything and seemed to be just fine - more interested in getting out the door.  Craig hooked him up to his long rope and let him loose on the world.

Quick breakfast this morning of Muesli (I'm really over this muesli thing, I'd much rather scrambled eggs on toast, or bacon, scrambled eggs & toast!!). While we were packing up, Ian from next door's wife popped over to tell us that Ian had caught a bigger yellow belly this morning and they thought since Craig didn't get  a photo of his catch yesterday, he might want to take a photo with Ian's fish - I thought that was really sweet of them). Craig said it was okay, he wouldn't take a photo holding Ian's fish because he'd know it was his own - gives me this look - so read between the lines here, it's my fault as I didn't dash over with the camera to take the proud shot of boy holding up his ruddy fish when they got back yesterday and he yelled out to me that he'd caught a fish - I say Boo Hoo!!

So while sooky boy went over to look at Ian's fish and have a chat, I continued on with 99% of the pack up.  That is until Ian and his wife asked Craig "are you supposed to be over there helping pack up..."  he yes and they promptly sent him home. Don't you just love 'em!

Finished packing up, used the facilities then headed off at 9am to find the dam wall.  I don't know how many people bother to turn right at the T-Intersection, but they should. It takes you to the day use area, dam wall and lookout (the Rangers homes are also located here). It really is a beautiful little area, shelters, picnic tables, bins, loos.

From there we followed another dirt road which took us down to one of the prettiest river crossings below the dam wall and through some really pretty countryside. 

We continued following the road for a good hour or so until we got onto the road that would lead us back to Eidsvold.  It really is a pretty drive, plus it's not bitumen which is always better. I sorry I couldn't tell what road we just followed out nose more or less along the dirt roads, until we turned the Hema GPS on right at the end. Give it a go, it's fun and worse case scenario you have to turn around!

Through Eidsvold.....again, onto Mundubbera where we stopped to check Wikicamps and Camps 7 book for our campsite for tonight. We selected a couple to have a look at as we went along. Craig wasn't any help as he & Boris were too busy looking at the train monument in the park - hmm, yes he likes trains.  I told Craig we needed to grab a pie at the local bakery, it was only fair as that's what we've been doing in each town we stop in. We found Mundubbera's and it's not just a bakery but a bakery/cafe with a ruddy great selection of food. We got 2 pies, sausage roll for the dog, a little quiche and ribs for boy. We drove to the local park on the river and sat at one of the picnic tables to eat.  Really pleasant place to be actually.

From here we're heading to Mt Connell Lookout which is supposed to be a free camp with toilets - sounds good. Another dirt road for boy to drive on and an absolute rip snorter of a track up to the lookout, talk about steep - problem is for me, we've got to come back down it yet....

Righto, the lookout:-  amazing views out over the valley, the camping not so appealing. Unfortunately the lookout area has been trashed by somebody, it's disgusting. The toilets have been set on fire.... from the inside, there is rubbish strewn around the place and it's just in a state of disrepute.   It's a shame, however the area right at the end to the viewing platform is nice, nice gardens and steps leading out to the platform.  

View from the Lookout viewing platform

Righto then, we're not staying here. Time to move on.

Onwards to Gayndah.  Craig played "where does that road go" only to have to turn around and come back - sometimes he drives me crazy!

Needed a comfort stop at Gayndah, but as we were coming into town we went past the Weir, which I remembered was a free camp in the Camps 7 book.  We turned around and went back to have a look and use the loo. It's a small area, only 2 other spots available and it would have been full with a total of 5 campers and very close campers, if you know what I mean - you know, don't sneeze or fart or the people next to you can bless or comment on the smell.... We did notice a sign saying "no camping" in the are, $5,500 fines apply. Decided we'd obey the sign regardless of what the book said.

We moved on to our next potential campsite, Barambah Creek near Ban Ban Springs.  It started to cloud over this morning when we left Wuruma Dam and we've been getting showers on and off all day - bugger, wet canvas when we set up and depending on how heavy the rain gets, might make it somewhat unpleasant...

The GPS was saying turn right onto Ban Ban Road as we can into Ban Ban Springs, but we couldn't see it, all we could see was the rest area which was full of caravans. We did a U-Turn in the rest area and as we drove to the end we saw the road sign and the dirt road that ran beside the gaggle of parked caravans.  Oh yeah, lets go have a look then!

What a pearla' of a spot - no wait did I say that....  I mean it's a terrible spot you wouldn't like it...... There is a high area to camp which looks down over the creek and has campfires and bin or you can follow the dirt road down across the creek, where you will find a flat grassy area on this side of the causeway or across the creek you will find a small area on the left or there is an area on the right on the riverbed where you could camp, it's sandy and covered in river stones though. We got out and had a look around, there was an old fellow in a caravan camped on flat grassy area and he looked like he was there for a while. We decided with the inclement weather we were having, we would camp up the top.  It's very nice up the top overlooking the creek and one side is bordered by a citrus farm.

Looking down at the creek

The top camping area looking at
the Citrus Farm

We'd just opened up and a Burnett Council ute came over the causeway and pulled up next to us.  We thought maybe we weren't allowed to camp on this bit and they were going to tell us to move on - no they just wanted to say hi and have a look at the camper and commented on what a good spot it was to camp. They were telling us that the riverbank below was all grassy and flat like the spot the old fellow in the caravan was, but when it flooded in January all the top soil was washed away and the trees were washed down stream and lay strewn all along the riverbed now. Once the council workers left, we finished setting up and Craig got the campfire going so we could defrost the sausages over it. Craig decided to extend our dry area and lift up the side wall which made it much better.

Our camp

Dinner defrosting

We're having a new recipe/experiment tonight for dinner - a sausage casserole. Since we didn't put up the big awning over the galley, I grabbed all the spices etc., I thought I need and put them on the table around the side under the awning.  Made up the casserole then stuck it over the fire on the tripod. We'll have the leftover pumpkin & chive damper with it.  

It was pretty relaxing sitting there under the awning with a drink, watching the fire with camp oven on the tripod and listening to the rain. We ate about 7pm and it was yummy and hot, we appreciated on this cold and rainy night. Boiled the billy over the fire to do the dishes, then headed into bed out of the weather.

We listened to the rain while chatting in bed.  It's not going to let up tonight and we're glad we didn't camp down in the riverbed.





Friday 22nd August, 2014
Had a broken sleep last night, Craig checking no water was pooling on the awning, the rain & wind blowing, then the dog snuggling into my legs and feet trying to stay warm.  Woke up around 6.45am to a miserable day.  Hung around in the camper, braved the rain to grab the laptop & camera from the car and downloaded some photos.  Tried to get some internet but unfortunately neither Optus or Telstra had a signal, we were hoping to check the bom website for the forecast & radar.

After numerous times asking each other "what are we going to do", Craig piped up and said we'll go home and try to get everything unpacked & dried. By 9.30am we were very wet, but closed up and ready to go. Grabbed a quick takeaway breakfast at the Ban Ban Spring Roadhouse of pies & sausage rolls and we were heading home.  The rain has gotten heavier as we head east toward Gympie through Kilkivan. No playing "where does that road go" in the dismal weather, just straight home by the most direct route - there is no point being out on the roads any longer then necessary in this horrible weather.

We arrived home about 12.30pm, now it's time to try and unpack, clean everything & dry everything in between the rain coming down.

Stay tuned for our next local camping adventure in a few weeks.