Bourke to Charters Towers

From Bourke, we headed north and finally crossed into Queensland, chasing the hotter weather.  We stayed overnight in a great park in Charleville called the Evening Star.  After talking to Amy’s cousin Shayne, he gave us a great recommendation to go out to a cattle property that another cousin, Dale, was managing.

This property is a remote, 450,000 acre cattle station, 180km west of Charleville on which Coles use to get a large amount of their beef that go into the supermarket.  They can have up to 12,500 cattle at a time, and life keeps them pretty busy.  The stay was short, as we didn’t want to get in the way, but was fantastic.  The kids loved interacting with all the animals, collecting eggs, feeding the dogs, and ‘riding’ the horses.

Then a short stay at Amy’s Aunt and Uncle at their cattle property in Dulacca. So lovely to see them and sad that there are so many years in between each visit.

Glenn had fun playing with the ‘big toys’, fixing the 60 tonne, 420 horse Power, D9 bulldozer with Amy’s cousin Shayne.  We had a great stay with Shayne and Nicole and their four kids.  Our girls had an absolute ball and so did we.  And we were very grateful to have somewhere dry and warm to stay over a couple of very wet and cold days. 

Arcadia Valley was the next stop.  The chopper pilot from Dale’s property had given us the ‘scoop’ on this great camping spot and it was lovely.  We stayed two nights, and thankfully had the benefit of a campfire to help us deal with the freezing nights.  And I reckon it was the best damper we have ever cooked on the open fire.

Canarvon Gorge for 2 nights after that.  Glenn and I had been here before, but didn’t realize how lucky we were last time to have been able to stay in the campgrounds right at the gorge.  At the time, it was the start of school holidays, which we thought wasn’t so good, but that’s apparently the only time they open the camping grounds.  So this time, we had to pay $35 per night in an over price, over-crowded caravan park nearby.  Anyway, the girls managed a 10km walk and we saw some lovely sights, so it was still worth it.  On many sections of the walk, we had to wobble on stepping stones to criss-cross the river and Savannah fell in at one point, boots and all.  She wasn’t perturbed and kept soldiering on with wet pants, socks and boots.

At Charters Towers, we decided to stay in a cabin overnight at the Dalrymple Caravan Park (or ‘tourist park’ as they call it, which I suppose sounds more impressive and a reason to charge more).  Heavy rains were expected and we were glad when some rain eventually came to justify us wimping out.  The rain is fine, but given we were due in at Amy’s folks in Townsville the next day, we didn’t want the hassle of having to dry the camper out.  Anyway, it was nice the having the toilet in the same spot as your ‘camp’ and other such ‘luxuries’.