Tonight we are parked up in another council blessed free park not too far from the Bruce Highway and the railway line, but this time in Rollingstone. We did not bother counting the parties in tonight, but there are surely more than forty, compared with the more-than-thirty last night. Rollingstone seems to have only a BP on the highway, a general store advertising “Cheap Fuel” however their fuel pump is out of action and probably has been for a year or two, and this excellent recreational area. Up the road there is a Big4 Caravan Park and back a bit is a prickly looking pineapple plantation. We had hoped to pick up a pineapple for as little as $1.50 as we did beside the Ross River in Townsville, however there are no gate sales here, only a box outside the BP shop at $3 a pop. That is the top dollar we consider fair, so squeezing into the budget, we did of course buy one with our diesel and enjoyed it with greek yoghurt topped by muesli for desert this evening. Delicious!!
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| Our camp at Rollingstone |
We were away from the camp at Bluewater just before ten, on the road and at Rollingstone before you could say “Jack Robinson”. Truly we have traveled such short distances over the last couple of days! There were quite a few vans already set up, some staying another day to fulfill the 48 hours allowance. One of these was a chap we had run into at the Six Mile Creek camp just south of Gympie and again at Giru about two weeks ago. He is traveling with a car and a little caravan of maybe twelve foot, undertaking further research and marketing his website advising travelers such as ourselves where to find free or super cheap camping spots. We spent some time with him at Giru and found him to be an interesting chap, Scottish born, well traveled, now widowed and passionate about his crusade and Australia, his adopted country of forty years or more. I did check the website out, but found it at this still developmental stage, to offer not a lot more than we are already gleaning from our travel bibles. And truth be told, we are still very book based rather than using computer based references. I guess in a few more years, that may be the reverse, providing we don’t stagnate.
Chris and I conferred about plans for the day, having come to no decision to that point, and agreed we would follow my suggestion of a day trip up into the Paluma National Park. I quickly packed up lunch, Chris unhitched the van which our Scots mate offered to keep an eye on, and then we set off further up the Bruce Highway, then inland to the Mount Spec section of the park.
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| The inviting swimming hole on the Big Crystal Creek |
We first visited the Paradise Waterhole on the Big Crystal Creek and the Rockslides, further upstream where the amazingly crystal clear water flows through the large rocks. At the Waterhole after lunch, the water was still so clean and clear and reminded me of the beautiful waterholes that were the centre of the Australian Survivor programme some years ago. They had to be swum in. There were no crocodiles and no stingers, just hundreds of tiny fish. So I took most of my clothes off and jumped in, still maintaining some decency. We should have taken our togs, but never actually expect to go swimming, and there was only one other couple present; she in the itsy-bitsiest bikini and he with the baggy togs and camera. Once refreshed and absolutely satisfied with my mad impulsiveness, we sat in the sun until my skin was dry and then dressed once more.
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| Bridge over Little Crystal Creek |
We then drove up the more southern road, several kilometres up a very winding road to Little Crystal Creek, where another crystal clear creek flows over a series of falls into a gorge, passing under a beautiful quaint masonry bridge. Here too was a picnic area, but this one was in the shade and shelter of the gorge, probably more attractive on a hot summers day rather than a cooler sunny winter’s day.
Just up the road, at about 1,000 metres above the sea level we had left at camp, sits the very small township of Paluma. Apart from having wonderful viewing spots, and wonderful rainforest which we did a short walk through, Paluma boasts a couple of educational centres (for school trips and the like) and a collection of houses dating from the early to mid twentieth century, most of which have had little done externally since being built. Tin was discovered here in 1875 but soon declined due to poor access, high transport costs and low tin prices. The National Forest was milled through to the mid 1970s. In 1988 the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area was formed and that saw the end to all timber harvesting.
When we had left the Big Crystal Creek area for the Little, we had noticed several areas of the forest that seemed to be burning. As we climbed the range, it became more evident and we could even see the burning areas right up to the road edge. Given the lack of panic, it would appear that this was part of the controlled burning regime that the National Parks undertake from time to time. When we reached the McClelland’s Lookout at Paluma, much of the vista below us was obscured by the smoke drifting up from the fires below.
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| Smoke rising |
We returned to find even more campers in, and to find that most of them carry fireplace gizmos made out of the most amazing pieces of “junk”. (Charlie and Geoff of the Perth Brigade carry the circular internal drums of clothes driers.) We find ourselves to be the oddballs, without portable fireplaces and a dog, and we will willingly remain so. The problem of carting such grubby appliances on the road far outweighs the desire to have our own hearth.
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