Lake Elphintone QLD

I am just wondering how many Carbs are in a big chunk of damper twisted around a stick, toasted on the campfire and filled in the middle with two inches of butter and maple syrup? Perhaps I don’t want to know!

Room with a view.. Lake Elphinstone QLD

We are at Lake Elphinstone in Central QLD along a dirt road, in which ever direction from Moranbah. Yep, you can clearly tell that I sit in the passenger seat and hold the map and still don’t know where on earth I am!!! We coastal dwellers are quite un-navigated whilst tripping around the middle of the land of OZ, just as well the sun rises and sets in the same direction everyday. We’re in true Queensland country here. As I am writing this, we are listening to the first State of Origin game on the wireless and Geoff is making all these strange noises and yelling out all sorts of rude words…. I think it has something to do with the score of the game.

We left Emerald and headed to Moranbah to visit our darling friend Corey. He’s working out there in the mines and was pleased to see a familiar face, as we were too. We were treated to the luxury of a night in the mining town of Moranbah at the Workers Club.  We had a nice meal out with Corey and got to catch up with him which was great.

We got the inside information from a local snoozer about how to get to Lake Elphinstone and set off the next day. Experiencing our first bit of wet weather, we took off down these dirt roads which share their existence with massive mining companies and their constant traffic and local wheat farms. Such a contrast, you are driving along one minute dodging cattle grazing on the side of the road and watching huge tractors ploughing the fields of wheat in never ending paddocks. Then BAM all of a sudden you come over a rise and there is a massive coal mine, in the middle of it all. Massive mounds of coal waste and a hole in the ground that is too big to describe. Machines, cranes and dump trucks everywhere. The most unbelievable sight to see. I don’t think Matty will look at his Tonka dump truck in quite the same way again.

Cooked Red Claw

We found our way successfully to the lake. The camp site is on about 20 acres of cleared land right on the water. I believe it use to be a ski park, but is now used by people like us. There are toilets and ‘donkey’ showers to offer us the comforts of home. Yep, I did say ‘donkey’ showers. Don’t worry we had no idea what that meant when we first heard it either. There are two 44 gallon drums of water, one each for the men’s and ladies showers, at about 2pm people camping bring along some fire wood, and start the fire up under the drums of water. The water in the drums heats up, which in turn heats up water from the water tank up the hill that runs through copper pipes into the drum of boiling water. When you turn on the shower the water is gravity fed from the water tank up on the hill, through the pipes then out of the shower head. Well that’s my muddled explanation anyway. You get a nice warm shower and it is quite a social gathering of sorts when the fire is lit by the other campers. So there you go.

We can have fires here and have been enjoying being able to cook on the fire again. Everyone around is so friendly and happy to pass on bits of info about where to head to next. One of the fellows has kindly taken Ben out in his boat a few times so we can set our nets in the deeper water to catch Red Claw. This Red Claw that I keep talking about are found in most fresh water dams and lakes. People have told us that they were introduced by the miners for a bit of fun to catch and they have bread like wildfire, to the point where they are considered a pest and you are not allowed to throw any back. They are like a prawn on steroids, and taste just a bit like a crab or lobster. They are so tasty. We just boil them up and eat them as is. To catch them we just put out our ‘opera house’ nets with some meat or vegies as bait and set them over night. It is unbelievable the amount we are catching!  We arrived on Sunday and are still here 4 days later and will probably be here until next Sunday…

Camp Oven Scones - how clever am I?

The weather has cleared up and we are enjoying Blue Bird Days! We’ve been able to swim in the lake. The Queenslanders think we’re nuts, walking around with no jumpers on and swimming. They don’t know cold!! We’ll head off from here eventually, still trying to make our way to Cape York.

Everything is BIG!!

Tamworth to Carnarvon Gorge

Girraween NP - bit chilly

Leaving Coonabarabran we thought to ourselves that we might pop into Tamworth for a snappy look and about a re stock of the essentials and to have a look around. We found ourselves in a $65 / night non powered site in a Big 4 (big dollar) caravan park. Tamworth didn’t offer us much except a hot shower and to catch up on some washing. Sorry to offend any born and bred Tamworth lovers but the town is really lucky to have the music festival.

We joined the New England Hwy and headed north for 350km (one of our biggest days in the car) finally getting across the boarder, we are officially in QLD yay bring on the warm weather. QLD roads authority just love their signs – everything is signposted and they also love their rest areas, lots of them too.

We camped over night in the Girraween NP just over the boarder, a nice place at 1200m approx above sea level. Soooo at that height it would explain to us why we froze our bits off at a pleasant over night low of -2 degrees. Mmmmmm clearly we haven’t gone far enough north! We got to explore a bit of Girraween NP and climbed some really huge boulders, discovered the caves and decided upon a snappy pack up and press on. Did I mention we wanted to get to the warmer weather?

Gourmet campfire cooking - Chicken & Bacon Fetucinni

The vehicle and camper are going well and are good on the road. Diesel is a bit cheaper in QLD at $1.52 / litre. Not that you really notice the difference when you fill our two tanks at 145 litres! But everything helps. The kiddies are travelling ok and are reasonably happy as long as they are eating. Boy can they eat. We are not sure if it’s out of boredom or they are truly suffering from pangs of hunger every 5 mins? Because they are surely not burning any energy whilst they are sitting in the car for 350km. For those of you who have had the pleasure of feeding our kids, their appetite may not surprise you though.  Daily we make and pack lunch for ourselves which makes it a bit cheaper and easier to feed the passengers on the road if we are doing a big day in the car. Man, we are ploughing through some food! I do have to say that in the whole time we have been away that we’ve only fed the kiddies two meals of ‘2 minute noodles’ (for all you people with a direct line to DOCS, put the phone down we are all eating well!)

After Girraween NP we found ourselves a nice campsite beside a river at a place called Archers Crossing, SE of Chinchilla. It was free of charge, we cooked on the camp fire, had the place to ourselves, caught a few yabbi’s and a few carp, in our trap. We’ve tagged Archers Crossing as a place we will return to for an overnighter. Popping back out onto the VERY straight Warrego Hwy (two very narrow lanes wide) we were sharing the HWY with Road Trains. Oh my goodness, how excited am I? These trucks are amazingly HUGE and up to 4 trailers long. The trucks are something else out here. I am enjoying watching them pass us on the road, (once a truckies daughter – always a truckies daughter)  however my driver doesn’t share my passion, as there is not a lot of room when our little vehicle shares the road with a massive road train going in an opposite direction at 110km/hr. We passed lots and lots of endless cotton fields. Being the punter tourists that we are, we stopped on the side of the road to pick up some of the cotton as there is just so much of it around that falls off the trucks. And you wouldn’t believe it – it actually feels just like cotton balls. Who would have known?

Moss Garden - Carnarvon Gorge

 

We were aiming to get to Emerald further north, but doing 500km in a day was asking a bit too much. Geoff knew it was time to find somewhere closer when I serenaded him on lead vocals, backing vocals and dance moves to Huey Lewis and the News – ‘Happy to be stuck on you’ So we ended up at Carnarvon Gorge NP. Nice place this is… we thought at first we had been stooged as there is only one camping option in the off season, and that’s at a private camp ground. We planned to stay for one night and ended up staying two. Again, words cannot describe how beautiful this place was. We took ourselves on a snappy 10km return bush walk to have a look around. Whoa it was beautiful! I have included some of the many pictures I took that day. The 10km walk was only a fraction of the park and we could have gone on many more walks and stayed a few more days. I do think though, that there would have been a mutiny on board, Ben could walk to the end of the earth, Matty, perhaps not as far but stuck with it. Marley, on the other hand is loosing her enthusiasm for discovering the great outdoors on foot. We literally had to drag her the whole way to the sounds of constant protest. The bird watchers in the NP thought she was some pink haired crazed budgie who had fallen from its nest. We think Marley would prefer to be flown in via helicopter to view all these out of the way place. But to keep us on our toes, she does then sigh in awe and wonder when we get to the end of the walk and tell us how much she enjoyed the scenery. We think she is playing with our minds!

Ampetheatre Carnarvon Gorge

For our last hoorah at Carnarvon Gorge we swam in the rock pool. Brrrr it was cold. I will still defend myself and say I went for a swim (up to my waist) but my family is disputing my claims as I didn’t go under the water. (Me thinks I am not as silly as them!)

With the promise of no bush walks for a little while we are leaving Carnarvon Gorge and heading for Emerald, with a bit of Road Train spotting along the way.

‘I’m hungry…….’

Wondering in The Warrumbungles



'The Bread Knife' Warrumbungles



Sun 9^th – Tues 10^th May 2011

Dill Marley Matty Ben & Lizzie about to start
our walk up 'The Bread Knife'

The Warrumbungles….oh how we love ya! Volcanoes erupted many many years ago and left a whole lot of mountains behind. And they call them The Warrumbungles and that’s where we are. High up in the mountains (not as high as Coolah Tops mind you and we gauge this by the size of fire needed to keep us warm and the amount of clothing you need to wear to bed). We are still experiencing single figure temps overnight, and this morning we awoke to a bucket of water having a nice ½ inch layer of ICE on the top. No way! Yes Way! No wonder Benny woke up in the middle of the night and asked why he couldn’t feel his toes. Bit chilly. I do believe that all over the state is experience cold weather too, so we are not alone.

Quite a civilized National Park, providing, us with HOT bore water showers. When no matter how much soap you use in the shower you come out clean as a whistle but with that distinct whiff of bore water on your skin. But hey who is complaining? Not this dirty duck. It was still a challenge to get Benny and Matty to pop up the shower block and run around to get wet. Who needs to waste precious time having a shower when there is so much dirt and dust to play in around the campsite? Whilst I am on the subject of dirt. Can someone please tell Linda Evans …a thousand Thank You’s. Linda’s wonderful advice was for us to pack a couple of trucks and cars and shovels for the kids to play in the dirt and they would be happy. And happy the kids are!  We pull up to a campsite and Geoff and I assess the grounds for camper trailer suitability and the kids get out and check if there is a spot to make a road and quarry and parking area for their trucks and cars. Who would have known?



Geoff and Lizzie on top of the world



We were blessed with the company of our dear friend Dill, who came over to meet us from Brewarrina to stay with us for a couple of days. We haven’t seen Dill for a while so it was great to catch up with him and also to see a familiar face. Mind you we’ve only been on the road for just over a week, imagine what we’ll be like after four months of not meeting up with anyone we know?

The Warrumbungles is renowned for its walks. And walk we did!!!!! We took in a few small walks on the Monday, just a taster of what was to come…. Back pack full of lunch and some water and off we set, our mission – to walk to ‘The Bread Knife’, the Bread Knife is an amazing skinny rock jutting out the side of a mountain. It was about a 5 ½ km walk to the top, it was absolutely breathtaking, we were virtually the only people on the mountain side, in what seemed like the middle of no where standing at the base of an unbelievable rock formation. It took us about 6 hours to complete and in total we walked about 11 km. (including nearly 200 stairs). I suppose it has to be seen to be believed and whilst we were on top the mountain feeling like the only people on the planet we were also so proud of ourselves and especially the kids because they walked the whole way! Did the kids enjoy the experience and find it as inspiring as Geoff, Dill and myself I hear you ask? Ummm lets just say that when they sift through the photo’s in about 10 years time they may remember the Quad burning walk and say to themselves…’yep that was worth every step’. Geoff and I had planned to take the family on ‘The Walk of 1000 stairs’ the very next day but the enthusiasm level of our tour party was quite low, so we gave it a miss. But mark my words, one day we will return to conquer the 1000 step walk.

We camped not far from another family from SA who have been on the road for a month and had 3 little people with them. It’s the first lot of kids we’ve come across so our little people were more than happy to have a bit of social interaction with people their own height.

Lot’s of Kangaroos in the Warrumbungles and during the night we were visited by the biggest foxes you have ever seen! Holy Dooly they were cunning too, taking a bit of convincing to shoo away from our campsite.

With maps spread over the camp table trying to plot our next destination and thawing out our bits from the below zero temps overnight – we thinks it’s time to bid central NSW farewell and head North to warmer weather. We are going to do a couple of big days on the road and a few overnight stops to get up North perhaps somewhere near McKay to catch some ‘Red Claw’

As the song goes…we’re on the road again………….

The Bread Knife is the 3rd rock from the right
in this pic, 11km walk we climbed the rock on
the far right..unbelievable

Coolah Tops NP - where it's really cool (COLD)

Shhhh… now block your ears….. what can you hear? Nothing! Zip Zilch Nothing. It is so quiet out here. We are only on the edge of nowhere and it is quiet. We sit around the campfire at night and there is no noise. (partly due to the fact that our children are tucked up in bed and are not asking a bazzillion questions or fighting)

And when it’s not deadly silent there are hundreds of birds in the trees letting us know they are there.



3 Smith's on a log - 'Breeza Lookout' Coolah Tops NP



Grass Tree's



Our Camp - Coolah Tops NP



We are spending our last of three nights in the Coolah Tops NP, it’s about 30km from the town of Coolah. This place is massive, and once again has offered us many options for bush camping. We are staying at a campsite called ‘The Barracks’ years ago this area was logged for timber to be made into railway sleepers. I won’t bore you to tears with the whole history of the place, but one thing we have to say is that there is so much history here.

We are about 1240m above sea level, which provides us with lot’s of ‘look out’ opportunities. Coolah Tops is where the Liverpool Mt Range, The Great Dividing Range and the Warrambungle Ranges all meet together. At the look out’s, the term ‘as far as the eye can see’ really hits home. Because as far as you can see the land just goes on and on.

But what goes hand in hand with camping on top of a mountain range this time of the year? It gets very cold, no actually is it REALLY REALLY cold. The days are lovely at about 15 degrees, let’s just say that the nights are super cold, in the mornings we have woken up to ice on the windscreen and frost on the ground. Always one to look on the bright side of things…. Your ice doesn’t melt in your drink or esky. In fact who needs ice?

If anyone has any tips on keeping a four year old inside his sleeping bag during the night, it would be greatly appreciated.

We’ve been lucky to cook on the campfire in this National Park as well. It may sound like we are focusing on meals quite a bit, but when you are camping and you have time to sit around and plan and cook a meal, it actually becomes an event. And with Geoff being the pyromaniac that he is… he likes to do a lot of the cooking, which suits me down to the ground. The kiddies are even getting into this washing up in a bucket caper. (mind you. we have only been away for one week). By the way, if anyone gets the chance to pop into the butcher up the street in Gerringong, can you let Adam know that all that meat we ordered has been spot on and is keeping really well? Ta.

We haven’t had the pleasure of Possum antics here, however if you were a bird watcher, you would be most excited to say the least!

We are going very well being quite self sufficient in the bush which is an exciting prospect. Cooking on the campfire, and being able to run one fridge on gas and relying on solar power to top up our 12V batteries to run our other fridge and lights.

Bidding farewell to Coolah Tops and heading to Coonabarabran for all the essentials then to meet our dear friend Dill at the Warrambungles for a few nights of fun can’t wait.

Love to everyone

From the Travelling Smiff’s

Dunn's Swamp Wollemi National Park

Dunn's Swamp - No sign of Shrek here



Three Wise Monkey's in a cave Dunn's Swamp


Sunday 1st May 2011..... A date we thought would never arrive. Much planning, preparation, thought, packing (un-packing) and talking has gone into this trip for us Smith's.
12:07pm departure time from "Leigh Park" . Right on time!!!! Camper trailer in tow, two big and three small Smith's on board. Dunn's Swamp here we come! A nice smooth, incident free trip, it felt like we were just popping out west for a weekend away, when in fact we are away for a whole 4months (who does that?) we still can't believe that this trip is finally happening.

A nice camp in the bush with a campfire (and a pit toilet - it's just like an en suite site) We have decided that Dunn's Swamp should not only be known for it's 3km of pristine weir. But also known for it's rocks. Really big rocks. Actually they are more like boulders. Complete with fantastic caves, hiding places and great views. Scribbly Gums as far as the eye can see and who needs TV when you can sit around the campfire toasting yet another marshmallow (yep too many of the warm sticky things stuck onto the end of a stick can make you feel quite unwell) and watch 'Possum TV'  This place is full plenty of wildlife who all like to party after dark, we sat around the campfire and shone the torch on about 10 possums running around playing and fighting in the dark. Who needs a television to keep you amused? Possum's also like the taste of plastic, Geoff disturbed one attempting to break into our fridge by way of gnawing through the plastic in the middle of the night. (thankfully it didn't get too far)

We've had some yummy meals...Roast Chook in the camp oven, cheese and tomato cruskits, leaf tea in the billy, stir fry and bacon and egg sandwiches. ( Jamie Oliver eat your heart out). And to top off the meal to end all meals we dined on a fine feast of Yabby's, Geoff and the kids set some of our nets and came back with their catch of five, (we won't be exceeding the 200 daily Yabby limit) we boiled them up in billy and enjoyed them for breaky. Too yum.

The brave members of the family dunked themselves in the water for a swim, Marley being one of them - yep you maybe surprised but she went for a swim with Geoff, The water was only about 14 degrees. Rest of us were too chicken.

We've explored the place with a few bush walks covering quite a few kilometers, causing some of the smaller members of the family to have aching legs at the end of the day, and during the bush walk. Time to move on though, we are off to Mudgee to stock up on groceries, wash some clothes and to have a shower (oooooh I am looking forward to that!!!)

Stay tuned.
Missing you all