July 21

Well, good news, of a sort. The local Toyota people diagnosed the problem with the Prado as a fault in the torque converter but that it should be OK to drive for about 2000 km. We basically had three options: 1) stay here and get it fixed which would involve the locals pulling out the gearbox and sending the faulty part to Rockhampton for repairs and then put everything back together – could take a week ??? 2) drive to Rockhampton, get it fixed then continue our journey which would have meant cancelling and rebooking van sites; 3) continue on to Mt Isa and get it fixed there. Enquiries revealed that the expertise existed in Mt Isa to do the work but a delay could be caused by waiting for the parts to arrive from Syd, Bris, Melb or Townsville!!! We opted for the Mt Isa solution as we can continue our journey pretty much as scheduled. The only problem is that we’ll have to miss Adels Grove and Lawn Hill NP – which is really disappointing – it also means spending an extra four days in Mt Isa. Going to Adels Grove would stretch the 2000 km distance but then we’d still probably have to spend extra days in Mt Isa as well. The temps in Mt Isa have been high 20s-low 30s so maybe we can get a sun-tan. Of course the big unknown is still the cost of the repairs. Please pass the hat around!

We woke this morning to light rain – just enough to settle the dust and soften the insects on the van and car. As a result we had a big clean up. Mum did two loads of washing last night and today cleaned out the inside of the van. We also did the outside of the van and the Prado in and out. Everything is shiny and clean, at least until the next lot of rain or dust!

The train, Outback Spirit, from Longreach to Brisbane stopped here this afternoon so we made our way to the railway station to have a look. It usually has 16 cars and it had to stop twice at the platform – firstly to load on the luggage and secondly to load on the passengers. I wonder if trains have torque converters??? Maybe we should travel by train in future.

Off to Barcaldine tomorrow – where the Labor Party had its origins.

July 20

Last night when lining up the Prado and van ready for an early getaway, I noticed a whine coming from the transmission. The last time the Prado had transmission problems it cost just over $4000! Needless to say we had quite a “restless” night worrying about the possible repercussions.
As night became day it was obvious that the decision to move out a day early was the correct one – it was quite overcast and although rain was not threatening we probably would have spent the day walking around with bent necks from watching the sky. The other advantage of leaving early today was that it would allow me to front up to the Toyota dealer tomorrow and get the noise assessed. As well we still have the option of doing a car/van clean up.
The drive to Emerald was uneventful and was mostly flat with some quite spectacular hills around Springsure. You can run, but you can’t hide! We were stopped at a rest area taking some photos of these hills when a guy asked where we were from. The ensuing conversation revealed that he was from East Corrimal and travelled across to Broken Hill, up the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs, across to Mt Isa and then down to Emerald via Longreach. He had a time limit of 4 weeks and was travelling with his heavily pregnant wife and daughter (about 3 yrs old) in a Landcruiser and camper trailer.
On arriving in Emerald we went on a look-see tour. There’s not much to see, in fact it’s quite an uninteresting town. The Botanic Gardens and the historic railway station were probably the highlights. We were amazed to see that the railway line to Emerald was electrified! Perhaps it has something to do with the rail line being used for coal exports (?).
Wendy and her family lived here for a number of years while Ron worked on the gem-fields and I can understand their aversion to the area. It does have a Woolworths and Coles (both shut on a Sunday) as well as Maccas, KFC and Red Rooster (if that counts for anything). Petrol from Woolworths with a voucher is 154.9 cpl so I suppose it’s not all bad.
Not a good spot to be holed up in if in fact the Prado does have a major problem – oh well, fingers crossed!

July 19

We woke this morning a little stiff, enough to discourage us from any major walks. As a result today was a low activity (rest) day. We did head out mid-morning and did a 3 km walk to get out the kinks from yesterday. The walk was up Mickeys’ Creek Gorge however the side walk was far more interesting. We progressed past the sign which said “Formed track finishes here” (as others had obviously done) and ended up in an extremely narrow gorge about a metre wide with daylight showing at the top. Being caught in there during a sudden downpour would certainly have made life interesting.

More magnificent scenery – the colours are just spectacular!

I’ve got to say, Carnarvon Gorge has been one of the most awe-inspiring places we’ve visited in Australia. We’ve just absolutely loved it! This afternoon we were talking to another couple and they asked if, having seen just about everything, we’d come back again. Our answer was a very definite, yes.

After lunch we explored the area around the resort and after checking the weather forecast on the internet at Reception decided to get out of here a day early. Late showers are predicted for Sunday with heavier falls possible on Monday. It probably won’t be a problem but for our own piece of mind decided to go a day early. The road out has two particularly steep sections which, with the slightest rain, could become quite treacherous. We lose a night’s accommodation as there is no refund. We’ll stop the extra night in Emerald use the day to have a van and car clean-up before we start heading west.

July 18

What a terrific but tiring day. We set out at 8.30 to do the Carnarvon Gorge Walk. The complete walk, with all the side excursions is 23 km however we opted to do the section which provide access to the four most popular parts – a distance of 12 km. Walking up the Gorge in the early morning was absolutely fabulous and didn’t change one bit as the day progressed. The colours were outstanding – the white of the sandstone cliffs in the sunlight, the greyish-white of the flooded and spotted gum tree trunks, the dark grey/black of the ironbark trunks, the bright green of the sand palms and the darker green of the cycads. Starting to sound like a botanist, aren’t I?

The walk crossed over Carnarvon Creek 10 times before we reached the end of our section – each crossing involved rock-hopping. Fortunately the rocks were quite large and stable so it wasn’t in the least hazardous. Each crossing is numbered so you can easily find where you are by referring to the walk map. By the way, the complete walk involves 22 creek crossings and of course each crossing on the way out has to be recrossed on the way back.

Our first stop was at the Moss Garden – water dripping through the sandstone has created a carpet of mosses in a cool, humid side gorge. The Art Gallery consisted of a large collection of aboriginal art - stencils of hands, aboriginal tools and weapons and engravings. Ward’s Canyon involved quite a steep climb but was very rewarding – another cool, humid environment with an ancient species of king fern dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. The final “attraction” was the amphitheatre. This involved another uphill walk and a ladder climb before passing through a narrow opening into the actual amphitheatre which was like a huge cavern without the roof. The base was approx 60 m in diameter and the walls sloped upwards to an opening about 30 m across.

Six hours after we had set out we arrived back at the car park, tired, exhausted but exhilarated by what we had seen.

A National Parks ranger presented a slide show here tonight and provided a few more insights into the park and its operation. Interesting to note was the fact that the ladder we had climbed to get access to the amphitheatre has already been repaired three times due to the force of the water coming through the opening and that the previous ladder had been completely washed away in a previous flood event – such is the power of nature!

July 17

It was a really interesting drive from Roma to Carnarvon Gorge – we passed through hilly country with lots of different trees and fortunately, not too many road trains. Our caravan park last night was on the road to Carnarvon Gorge, Rolleston, Springsure & Emerald and from the time we arrived the trucks just didn’t stop. Helen pointed out this morning that yesterday was Sale Day at Roma so that may have accounted for the endless stream of trucks during the night. We used a fair bit of fuel getting here as the road was generally uphill plus we had a bit of a headwind. The 40 km in to Carnarvon Gorge was half bitumen / half gravel. The gravel section wasn’t too bad and not too dusty due to the rain a couple of days back. At the Caravan Park last night Helen ran into a woman who had driven out of the Gorge yesterday – their car and van had been covered in mud and they had to use a car wash in Roma to clean up. As rain is forecast for Sunday I’ll have my fingers crossed until we get to the bitumen. The Takarakka Bush Resort is in an excellent setting about 7 km from the National Park – there are lots of trees and birds around and we have a huge site. There’s a campfire burning most of the time and a large camp kitchen. The Visitors’ Centre at the National Park is located in a beautifully grassed and treed area with kangaroos relaxing in the shade. We did two walks this afternoon – an aboriginal cultural walk with a lot of interpretive signage which always makes things more interesting. The second walk was to the Rock Pool, the only place where swimming is permitted. While the pool isn’t very large or deep, the water was far too cold to swim in. When we visited there was a family relaxing there – the kids had found some coloured sandstone, ground it up and made their own aboriginal stencil painting by blowing the paint around their hands.

July 16

Well, today got off to a pretty disastrous start. We planned on an early getaway from Charleville however on stepping outside the van discovered we had a flat tyre on the Prado. I managed to make a quick change and get down to the Tyrepower store by the time they opened at 8. They inflated the dodgy tyre but couldn’t find a leak of any kind. I’d checked the tyre-pressure yesterday so can only assume that a bit of dirt or something may have blocked the valve open. It’s OK this afternoon. Had a good chat – another life history - with the local who did the tyre. You’ve gotta love these outback people!

Eventually got under-way at 9 so it wasn’t too bad and it’s only a 3 hour run to Roma. The country was different on this leg – more undulating and hilly. We were fascinated by the size of some of the cactus trees along the road. As we got closer to Roma there was more farming instead of all grazing.

The condition of the bitumen was quite “lumpy” and really checked out how well we’d packed things in the van. There were lots of triple road trains as well between Charleville and Mitchell – after Mitchell they were restricted to two trailers but that didn’t reduce the numbers any. Of course therewas lots and lots of road kill.

There isn’t much to see here in Roma so after a stop at the Visitors’ Centre and a look around town we hit Woolworths to do some stocking up for the next four days. Worth mentioning is the number of Queensland Bottle trees around the place – we saw one really huge one and an avenue of bottle trees – one for each deceased serviceman. We saw our first Maccas and KFC since leaving Dubbo and mum shouted a shake at Maccas to celebrate.

I filled up with petrol for the first time since arriving in Cunnamulla although I did put 60 L in yesterday in Charleville, just to get us here. All the evidence indicated that petrol here was cheaper and at 160.9 cpl it certainly was – actually the cheapest petrol since leaving Wollongong. We averaged 15.5 L/100 km which is pretty good although half of the travel we did was on the dirt roads to Hungerford.

There probably won’t be any updates for the next 4 days while we’re at Carvarvon Gorge as there is no Telstra mobile coverage – the only phone is a satellite public phone. As soon as we hit Emerald on Monday I’ll upload everything. If anyone needs to contact us the phone number for Takarakka Bush Resort is 07 4984 4535. I daresay we won’t have TV or radio coverage either – back to nature in more ways than one!

July 15

The Cosmos Centre Observatory session last night gave us an opportunity to have a “closer” look at some of the features of the night sky. There were three telescopes set up inside a shed which was opened up as the two halves slid apart. The telescopes were 12” and provided 100 x magnification. Two planets, Saturn (you could see the rings) and Jupiter (you could see a number of its moons) were viewed. Alpha Centauri, the brighter of the two pointers for the Southern Cross was actually seen to be two stars (3.6 billion km apart). You learn something every day! The most fascinating viewing however was of a barely visible (to the naked eye) star adjacent to the Southern Cross. When viewed through the telescope it appeared as a multitude of stars, actually 150, of a variety of colours and was nicknamed the Jewel Box as a result. Seeing the moon through the telescope was amazing as the clarity of the craters and other features could be clearly seen. Yesterday afternoon we found we had a non-functioning LH turn indicator. Purchasing a new bulb did not solve the problem, so it was off to an auto-electrician who diagnosed a fault in the wiring behind the socket and relieved me of $33 in the process. This morning we managed to fit in a visit to the local Royal Flying Doctor Service visitors’ centre which enlightened and entertained us for a while. This afternoon we did a “Stories and Scones” tour of one of the local historic pubs. It was extremely interesting and at the end we were provided with a Devonshire tea. There are lots of historic buildings in Charleville and it was a good opportunity to find out more about one of them. Overall I rather liked Charleville but I’m not sure I’d like to live here in summer – this morning Charleville had the lowest minimum in the state and a few days ago had a minimum of -30! However it is a clean and tidy town with an obvious sense of community pride. In point of fact a lot of these outback towns have a great community spirit where people obviously cooperate and pull together as a group – I suppose you have to when you’re so isolated.