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!!