Day 14 - Friday 19th September, 2025
We both need to stop in at Charters Towers this morning to pick up some refreshments and a few groceries. Our mates headed in early and after we had a leisurely pack up, we popped over to the dump point and that's when our morning turned slightly to sh*t. After empting said toilet cassette, got back into the car and well the mighty Hilux just didn't start 😮 what the! Craig grabbed the jump pack out of the back of the Hilux and I jumped in and started her up, as we drove into Charters Towers we thought that was weird.
Found a park, I headed to the shops to grab some groceries and beer while Craig looked after Barney, got back packed the beer and food into the fridge and wouldn't you know it, Hilux no go again (well we were expecting it not to start but were hoping) LOL. Jump pack out again, start her up and away we went straight over to Supercheap to buy a new battery. Craig replaced the battery outside the store and they were happy to take the old battery, but Craig decided to keep it as it still had life in it and thought it may the run the tractor or something when we got home 🤷♀️ After that Hilux started first time, every time and no more delay when you press the start button and it actually firing up - yes I know, the signs were there!
Anyhoo, onwards to Clermont which is our overnight camp for tonight in a powered site with grass and we'll all be doing some washing. Clermont I hear you say, well we had to stop somewhere for the night before reaching our desired destination that we are staying for a couple of nights at, so Clermont was it. Around Belyando somewhere we had to get off the road for a wide load, which was a little challenging since there was not a lot of room for 2 caravans to pull off but luckily in the nick of time there was a small but big enough area for both of us to pull off. She was a huge wide load with 2 pilots and 2 police escorts and they were going real slow.
Nice straight roads out here too isn't there.....
We stopped at Belyando Crossing for lunch and a break. Boys had a beer and it was so hot, Craig had to carry Barney across the bitumen.
We arrived at Clermon Caravan Park late in the afternoon, so set up camp and then I went off to do some washing before it got late. We were given the grassed powered sites down the bottom which was great beause we didn't really have anyone camping next to us.
It's a tidy caravan park, quite a lot of the washing machines and dryers were out of order which was painful and the amenities were old but clean. It looked like the park catered for the mine workers mostly. It cost us $50.00 for the night.
Barney enjoyed the grass to play on and roll around on. It was rather hot so both vans had the air con on and Doreen spent most of her time inside in the cool. We met a couple of lovely older ladies travelling around in their new smaller van, they both took quite a liking to Barney, so he got lots and pats from them.
We cooked sausage rolls in the camp oven on the gas cooktop, which turned out pretty good again and while they were cooking I tried taking some star shot on my phone, which were pretty average, I'll show you....
See what I mean 😆 Been a big day, so not a late night for any of us.
