Have a nice trip Bruce

Fridayevening we had a nice send-off drink for Bruce (the guy with the beard
on the left). We met him before in Windorah, and met again here in the
Caravan park in Townsville. He is traveling on his own, just fishing. We had
a nice evening with him and some other friends, and on saturdaymorning he
hit the road again heading south. Terri-Ann and Peter took me out in there
boat on the ocean on saturday: BEAUTIFUL !! Not many fish but WOW! You catch
fish here on the Barrier Reef that you buy in the shop in Holland for big
money to put in your saltwateraquarium. It was hot (40) but a nice
seabreeze. So, as long as I kept myself covered with a long sleeved shirt
and a hat, I had no problem.
Today (its sundaymorning here now) we will do some shopping and pack our
stuff, ready to travel on tomorrowmorning. We will go to Mission Beach, wich
is some 200 km north from here, on the way to Cairns. We will spend some
time there, because its beautiful, and the area has plenty of opportunities
to make trips into National Parks etc.

Tropical Townsville

We are in Townsville. Tropical north Queensland. Tropical means: hot (35),
humid (80+%), and there is no swimming in the ocean because its
stinger-season ("kwallen" in dutch). They are no fun, there are species here
that are deadly (the box-jellyfish). And if all of that is not enhough,
there are crocs; the BIG saltwatercrocodiles love these areas. Thanks god i
have not seen one yet, and I want to keep it that way.
Besides all of that: we love it here. Nice nature, nice town and people,
fishing-opportunities are plenty: we bought ourselves each a nice
fishingrod. We have been to several beaches and natureparks in the area and
will see plenty more in the weeks to come. Our plans are to travel north
slowly, more tropics, but very nice places to visit.
From time to time we have heavy monsoon rain (like today), forcing us to
stay under the awning of the caravan, or inside with the aircon running.
plenty of time to update my blog.

Life is not too bad

Charters Towers.

After escaping Windorah, we travelled north to Longreach, Winton, Hughenden and arrived last monday in Charters Towers. We treated ourselves to a nice caravanpark to recover from the flies, sandflies and mozzies (mosquitos) and are enjoying a week of lazyness. Just a stroll through town and the surroundings, a chat with fellow-campers, a nap during the heat of the day (30+), a beer.

We used our intire internetaccount of last month, so we had to wait till february till we could get online again. Thats why this update is a little late.

Our plan is to travel to Townsville on monday and stay there at least a week. From there we will discover the rest of North-east QLD, but we will keep our camps at the coast.

Queensland flooding

After five years of extreme drought, Queensland is now in a different position: 1.000.000 sqKm (three quarters of the country) is flooded. And it is not over yet. Although we are not threatened ourselves, we are definitly affected by it: We are trapped in Windorah. The little map that I made, might explain. In order to leave Windorah we have to go east via Quilpie to Charleville, and then South. North is no option because the situation in the Longreach-area is blocked by the Coopers Creek. That same Coopers Creek is going to block us to leave Windorah to the West later this week. Leaving Windorah to the West is no option because that is where the world ends: The Simpson Desert (50+ degrees, no bitumen roads, next place for water and diesel in Birdsville, 400km west). So our hope is that the situation in  and around Charleville improves quickly (Charleville is totally flooded now, we cannot pass the Paroo and Warrego rivers at 3 and 4 yet), before the Cooper blocks us from leaving Windorah at the end of the week at 1). We just wait and see. We will not have any problem in town here, we just cannot leave.

Under the shade of...

.....under the shade of a coolibah tree. Most people, and all Australians,
know the song Walzing Matilda. The unofficial Australian hymne. "Once a
jolly swagman camped at the billabong, under the shade of a coolibah tree".
We had a naturedrive yesterday around Windorah and there she was: the
coolibah tree. Beautiful nature, creeks, river and we had a nice picnic out
there. Later, the flooded Cooper Creek prevented us from driving on, so we
had to turn around and come back. In the evening we had dinner in the hotel:
rumpsteak aussie size. Bloody hell. Today we are going to have a drive to
the red sanddunes and Andy is propably going to take me out fishing. Will be
fun !

Tanbar Station

Thursdaymorning we left Quilpy (Quilpy is where the railway ends) and we
arrived safely in Windorah in the afternoon. An impressive drive through the
Queensland outback. Fridaymorning we left the caravan behind at the hotel in
Windorah and headed for Tanbar Station. 60 km out of Windorah the bitumen
ends too, and from there its dirt-road to Tanbar. The Cooper Creek was just
passable with the 4WD in the morning. THATS a nice experience for this
bloody Dutchie. Tanbar is impressive: 90.000 sqKm (Km2), 1.5 times the size
of Holland. Producing 500,000 heads of cattle last year (voor de
nederlanders: 500.000 koeien die per roadtrain zijn afgevoerd voor de
slacht). Tanbar is owned by ONE lady who owns 7 more stations. She bought
this one for 50 Million Aussie dollars. BIG business. In the afternoon we
returned to Windorah. We will stay here some days, using the hotels wireless
internetconnection, because our mobile one does not work here.

Charleville

A day in Charleville. While the owl was watching me from the tree just above
us, we prepared for the trip to Quilpy and Windorah. The information that we
got is, that the roads out there are free. A lot of water is coming down
from the north into the Cooper- and Bulloo river. But at the moment: no
flooding of the roads towards Windorah. So tomorrowmorning we will head
towards Quilpy, stay the night over there, and check again weather the roads
are clear. We set ourselves up with enhough supplies to fight the flies,
mozzies (mosquitos) an especially the sandflies. Charleville is an outback
town beiing one of the eight RFDS (Royal Flying Doctors Service) bases in
Queensland. It also has a nice old hotel: Hotel Corones. Hotel Corones was
built by Harry (Poppa) Corones, the first Greek who got a licence to run a
hotel in Australia.