10 August 2011 - Kerribee Park Rodeo Grounds, Mareeba, Queensland

I am writing this so much later than normal, tucked in to bed, cosy and warm after having been out quite late (for us) in the cold evening. Another day has passed with lovely weather and lovely people.
Bernie and Ray stayed for about two hours last evening until we disbursed for our respective evening meals. The census officer finally turned up at about eight o’clock with the forms, but we were not in the right mindset to complete them then and there, so they were left until this morning.

The morning dawned clear and cool yet again, and while Chris attended to the government questionaire and his own daily log, I made up the milk and the yoghurt, did a load of laundry, all of which dried within the hour, and prepared lunch. By 11 am we were on the road, heading along the Wheelbarrow Way which runs on out to Chillagoe, then turning south back toward Walkamin on the Kennedy Highway.


I suspect the Wheelbarrow Way is so called because during the gold rush, way back in the olden days, the hopeful miners would have set off west with their possessions and tools loaded in to wheel barrows.

Before turning off the highway, we detoured up a road searching for a pineapple grower selling his produce at the gate, recommended by a fellow camper. We did not find any such stall, but did pass many farms growing the inevitable sugar cane, avocadoes, melons or squash of some kind, strawberries, coffee and pineapples, and a lot of road works which was probably the reason why the road stall was not in evidence.

The countryside across this tableland, or at least that we drove through, was dry and reminded me of Otago. Chris remarked that I will see land that will be much more like that southern part of New Zealand’s South Island. For now I can only speak of that I have seen. We passed a prison and a distillery, both quite isolated, and eventually found our way through to the highway that links Mareeba and Atherton, the Kennedy Highway. At Walkamin, we found a small park, deserted but for us and a hundred noisy birds. We asked the woman at the general store how to reach the Nardellos Lagoon which is reputedly a paradise for bird watchers. We followed her directions, and did indeed find the lagoon, or rather saw it across private land from the road. We asked some people nearby about access only to learn that it is all on private land and not for public appreciation. So why is it marked and remarked on in the tourist brochures?


We drove on back through Mareeba and north to the Mareeba Wetlands, about 17 kilometres north then west. Because this is only a small detour from the road we will take tomorrow, we had originally considered doing this side trip with the caravan as we left for Cape York. It is fortunate that we had a change in plan because the gravel road is not really suitable for caravans, or at least those whose owners wish to take good care of them.

The 2,000 hectare reserve of open savannah woodland and freshwater wetlands is managed by the Wildlife Conservancy of Tropical Queensland. There is an interpretive centre housing a café, a Gouldian Finch breeding aviary, and the opportunity to walk around the reserve or take a guided boat tour, all of which are charged for. When we arrived in the car park, three emus came to greet us; I wasn’t sure whether their approach was aggressive or just curious. We did not let them intimidate us, but made our way to the centre to learn that there really was nothing here for us, however we had enjoyed the drive in and out and the tiny wee Gouldian Finches were just beautiful.

As we returned to camp, we popped back into the town and purchased a few more items we had found missing when we went over our lists in the morning and more importantly filled both tanks with diesel, which even with our Cole’s discount, cost dearly, but not so much as we expect further north. This purchasing for the expedition has been quite a mission!

Soon after we arrived home, we heard music coming from a covered area close to our site, and by 5 pm, the entertainment, a country and western singer calling himself Bear, was drawing the crowds of campers. Just after we had started our dinner, Ray popped over to ask if we were going to join him and Bernie, and another couple, at the concert. We agreed we would once we had dined, and so we took our coffee over soon after, to sit with him and Bernie, and their other friends, Graeme and Kate.

As we seated ourselves, we noticed the glow in the sky to the east, a flare up of the wild fire that had apparently been newsworthy the previous day and kept a large number of firefighters occupied. Obviously they had not been 100% successful in putting it out. Again, from where we were, it was spectacular and not in the least a threat or inconvenience.

We stayed for some hours, enjoying the music. Most of the audience drifted off for their dinner and finally when the concert had disintegrated into chaos when the entertainer’s drunken wife had disrupted the proceedings in a most inappropriate manner, we all left as well. We returned to our caravan, washed the dishes, then took our coffee over to Graeme and Kate’s caravan where they all were enjoying their rather delayed dinner. Eventually the cold drove us home, but not before we had spent some quality time together, promising to meet up again before we all head off our separate ways in the morning.