After packing up the van and
hitting the road, our first stop was at Mt Surprise for fuel and then we went
into a little café type place for coffee and was known for its miniature horses
in the back paddock. We went on through
to have a look and after passing the bird aviaries we came across an emu that
the woman had taken in. It was just
lazing about the yard and was apparently friendly – we were a bit wary to get
too close to begin with. Down the back
were about half a dozen miniature horses (not ponies) and the kids got to have
a bit of pat over the gate. On the way
back out Zoe was even game enough to get up close to the emu for a pat. Back at the car, we had something that looked
like a large lady bug stuck on its back on the front bonnet which Sami
saved. The scenery was lovely as we
drove along and before too long we got to the Cumberland Chimney. This is a large chimney in the middle of
pretty much nowhere and is the only remnant from another large gold field. The backdrop is a nice lagoon with floating
lilypads but there is nothing else about.
The next town along was Georgetown where we stopped at a park with free
bbq so Josh cooked up some sausages for lunch before pushing on again. This area of road is bitumen but it is only
wide enough for one vehicle so on the odd occasion when we passed another we
all had to move over and share the tiny strip of road. We stopped alongside the west side of the
Gilbert River and it actually had a little bit of water in it. We decided to free-camp here for the
night. There are so many travellers out
on our roads that there were about another 8 cars/caravans that had pulled in
here for the night. Occasionally someone
would walk past and start up a bit of a chat to see who else was around – all
lovely people. It was really warm
tonight and being so far inland there was no breeze at all. As we were free-camping, we also had to make
do without the air-conditioning. I don’t
think any of us slept very well tonight…
Back on the road this morning our
first stop was at the town of Croydon.
In the late 1800’s it was also a big gold mining town. The information centre here was one of the
better ones. There was a lot of old
machinery outside to read about and the woman inside was extremely helpful (we
could hardly get away). We found out a
bit about the town and sat to watch a 15 minute video on the town which was
pretty good – just like a movie theatre without the popcorn. We grabbed a few maps and headed out the back
to check out a couple of replica buildings from the town in its heyday. The replica home was literally an old tin
shed and I’m sure would have been sweltering hot in its day, even with the
windows open. There was also a replica
miner’s hut with dunny out back. We
continued on doing the historic town walk, including a visit to the town hall,
the police headquarters with jail cells out back, and to the courthouse next
door. They had the courtroom set up with
a mock court trial using cut out figures and voice recordings. It was good for the kids to witness and see
how harsh life was back in the day. The
woman “on trial” was sentenced to 2 months jail for using bad language out on
the streets, etc. Not like punishment (or
lack of) of today’s kind! We went for a
quick trip out to the cemetery where many of the deceased don’t have headstones
but instead just a marker. The ground is
so dry and dusty. This cemetery also has
a Chinese section. The Chinese had a big
influence here, and in many other towns, as they knew how to grow fresh produce
in the harsh environment with very little water and then they would sell it to
the gold miners, workers, etc. Not far
out of Croydon is also Lake Belmore. It
isn’t as big as many of the lakes that we saw on our Murray River trip the year
before last but it’s pretty and provides water for the town. Unfortunately, it is not a place that you are
allowed to camp. We went to the local
pub to see if we could have a counter lunch here but they weren’t opened for
lunch so just had some cold drinks instead.
The inside of the facia had a lovely new mural painted right around
it. Great to look at while enjoying a
beer. We had a quick bite at the café
next door for lunch and then continued on towards Normanton, where the old Gulflander
train leaves from and does its run between here and Croydon. The train has a bright fresh coat of paint
and you wouldn’t believe that it’s over 120 years old except for its shape. The line was proposed for copper mining and
to transport cattle but once gold was found, money was no longer a problem to complete
the line and it became operational in 1891. A unique thing about this rail line is that
the sleepers are made of steel and are hollow but packed with mud. They were designed to be submersible,
allowing flood waters and debris to run over the line and leaving it in tact
when the water subsided. Next, we went
to visit Krys, the replica 8.63 metre salt water crocodile who shot in the
Norman River in 1957. It’s hard to
imagine a crocodile getting to this size… hopefully we will never encounter one
of this size. We walked along further to
the old Burns Philp building – massive for its day. This is now the information centre in town
and they too have some great displays of the area in eras gone by but in the
back is still part of the original Burns Philp building that used to sell
everything from food to tools, etc. It’s
timber and has cracks in the floor and walls and not very well ventilated but
that’s how it operated back then. We
next found somewhere to stay for the night and booked into a lovely caravan
park with a full 25m pool and hot spring spa.
Josh ducked out for a few groceries and wine while I set up the
van. We were all thankful to have air
conditioning for the night. After dinner
we had a visitor join us for a couple of drinks. His name was Danny and he was travelling in
the same van as us with his wife and 3 children. When he headed home, Josh went for a walk out
of the van to check out the Purple Pub in all its glory. The building is painted a bright purple and
with the lights all on, it nearly glows in the dark.
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