Wow, 100 days since we left home tomorrow, goes fast doesn't it?
We left Townsville, again, on Monday with clean, bat-poo free canvas. We set up camp on Monday afternoon at Fletcher Creek just north of Charters Towers. Apparently they put bollards up last month to prevent anyone camping along the riverbank but we were still close enough to enjoy ourselves. Caravans spread out for over a kilometre along the creek so while there were quite a few people camped, it was by no means crowded. We dropped the opera house pots in the creek at around 5pm and had around 30 yabbies/red claw by 8pm, yum. We stayed put for the rest of the week and left yesterday thinking that it's about time we made our way out of our state. A couple camped near us lent us their Camps 5 book in which they had written comments about places they had stayed, so I copied their notes for our own reference and they also told us about a few places that weren't in "The Book". Everyone we've met refers to Camps Australia as "The Book", "is it in The Book?", "you won't find that one in The Book". It's quite funny.
Last night we stayed at another free camp at Campaspe River (it's in The Book) and missed the warmth the coast offers at night, it was soo cold.
We are officially in the Queensland outback now. The country side on the way to Julia Creek was in vast contrast to what we had seen up until yesterday, not a hill in sight and trees few and far between and brown grass for miles around.
Tonight we are free-camped by a little creek just east of Julia Creek with the town in walking distance and well back from the road (this camp spot is not in The Book). We thought that we might have the camp to ourselves tonight as every other camp we have been in we have had company but, alas, at 6.30pm we had a caravan come in and set up just across the creek. Oh well, I don't mind really, safety in numbers and all that.
Tomorrow we are heading for a camp on the other side of Cloncurry then Mt Isa to do a mail pickup then north back up to the warmth, we hope. Don't much like this cold, the days are nice and warm but I need 3 layers of clothes in the evening just to stop shivering. At least tonight we have a campfire going, but, damn, no marshmallows.
