Salvator Rosa Trip - Day 6

Day 6 - 6/4/2015 - Biloela to Home

It was a bit of a slow morning again, because we didn't really want to face up the fact that the holiday was over.  We just wanted to keep driving and exploring!  We knew we didn’t have a huge distance to travel and it was a pretty quick pack up. We were on the road by 9am.

You could easily tell that it was Easter Monday.  The traffic on the road was steadily increasing as we approached and joined the Bruce Highway.  Even on the road from Miriam Vale to Bundaberg there was a constant stream of traffic, most likely all leaving 1770 and Agnes Water.

We arrived home early afternoon which was handy as it allowed us to do a majority of the unpack and clean up to get ready for work the next day :-(

Here are some of the basic trip stats:

Total Km = 1580

Total Diesel = 283.03L
L/100km = 17.91

I did fill up an extra 20L jerry can at Springsure.  It was mainly for a backup just incase the track did get a bit sloppy and I was burning more diesel than anticipated.  With having a long range tank fitted I didn't really need too but I tipped the jerry can into the Pajero at camp just to use it up.

Salvator Rosa Trip - Day 5

Day 5 - 5/4/2015 - Salvator Rosa to Biloela

We woke to an absolute stunning morning.  The clouds had cleared over night and it was going to be another beautiful day.  It was a pity we had to pack up and leave :-(

Salvator Rosa Trip - Day 4

Day 4 - 4/4/2015 - Salvator Rosa

Again we woke to a beautiful morning, but as the day progressed so did the build up of the clouds.  Light cloud at first but as the day went on the cloud got lower, heavier and darker.  

The day was spent doing pretty much the same as the day before, the only difference being I was having to chase the sun with the solar panels more due to the cloud.  It was a really bad solar day and if we had had two of these days in a row, we would have been getting to near critical levels with the batteries.

There wasn’t any actual rain but it felt like it could start at any minute.  One group of campers packed up and headed off after lunch.  I suspect not wanting to risk getting stuck if it did rain and the access track becoming impassable.  We were due to leave the following day so we were also keeping a close eye on the weather.  Due to the remoteness we couldn’t even receive any AM radio stations to try and listen to a weather report.  We had a chat with some of the other campers and they were also keeping an eye on the weather but were staying put for the time being.  As they were more “local” than us, (from Augathella and Sapphire), we thought that we would just go with the local knowledge.  If they looked like they were going to make a move, we probably would have as well.  We also had plenty of water and food and we knew we could send a message out via the satellite phone if we did have to stay for a few extra days to wait for the track to dry out.

That afternoon and night we did get a few sprinkles of rain but not as much as on the first night.

Salvator Rosa Trip - Day 3

Day 3 - 3/4/2015 - Salvator Rosa

After a few more drops of rain during the night, we woke up to a perfect day.  We started off the day by having an explore around the camp grounds.

Salvator Rosa Trip - Day 2

Day 2 - 2/4/2015 - Springsure to Salvator Rosa

We didn’t have any rain over night, there wasn’t any thing showing up on the rain radar and the prediction was for only a slight chance of a small amount of rain.  After talking to the Showgrounds caretaker the previous night, there hadn’t been any significant rain in the area for a few days so it was all systems go to head into Salvator Rosa.

Springsure sunrise

Charleville Trip - Day 5

Day 5 – 24/8/2014 – Charleville to Springsure

The lightening visit to Charleville was over. It was time to start making our way home again. It was only a quick trip to get a feel for the area and to see what we want to do next time.

Instead of heading home the same way that we came, we decided to head towards Springsure via Tambo. We were initially going to follow the Ward River via Black Ward Road because the people at the visitors info centre said that there were some nice camping sites along the river and we wanted to check them out for future reference. However no one could give us any reliable information to the condition of the road. A week or so beforehand Charleville had record breaking rainfall for the month of August. Given that the road would have been going through black soil country, and we didn't know the condition of the road, so we decide to just stick to the tarmac. Black soil gets very boggy, slippery and sticky with very little moisture and it is not something that you want to get stuck in.

So we ended up stopping in Augathella, meatant country, for smoko.

Carnarvon Gorge Trip - Day 5

Day 5 - 16/8/2011 - The trip home

Well unfortunately it was time for us to leave Carnarvon so we were up early and packed and ready to leave by just after 8am because it was going to be a long trip home.

On the way out

Carnarvon Gorge Trip - Day 4

Day 4 - 15/8/2011 - Moss Gardens walk

Jodie decided that her legs and feet just weren’t quite sore and weary enough so we needed to do another 7km!!  So again after a bit of a late start we headed off to the visitors information center again to do the walk to the Moss Garden, a side track that we ran out of time to do on our way back from Big Bend.

Because we weren’t under any time/distance constraints today, I was also able to take a few more photos of the scenery along the track.

Locals at the visitors centre

Carnarvon Gorge Trip - Day 3

Day 3 - 14/8/2011 - Balloon Cave & Rock Pool

Today we had a bit of a sleep in after our big day yesterday.  Plus we were on holidays so we were going to have a bit of a relax today.  After a bacon and egg breakfast we decided that we would try a few short walks, just to keep the legs in condition!

The first walk was down to the Rock Pool.  It was only a really short walk of 300m.  We though the Rock Pool was very ordinary.  Maybe it had been significantly altered due to the floods earlier in the year.  It wasn’t as picturesque as we had been expecting.

Rock Pool

Carnarvon Gorge Trip - Day 2

Day 2 - 13/8/2011 - Walk to Big Bend and back

We thought that we would get the big bush walk out of the way on the first day, that way we still had a few days to recover if it knocked us around too much.  Plus the weather was ideal for walking.  Again, not a cloud in the sky and it was cool but not cold.  We came out to Carnarvon expecting it to be fairly cold at this time of year, but the temperature only dropped to 6 deg over night.  We didn’t even have to fire up the diesel heater!

We left camp at around 8:45am and drove up to the Carnarvon NP visitors center which was about 5km further along the road to the start of the walks.  It was probably a touch after 9am when we started out on the track.  We were going to tackle the walk out to Cathedral Cave but along the way we thought we would go for broke and go the extra 500m to make it to Big Bend.  What is an extra 500m after already walking 9.1km!  Just ask Jodie at the end of the day!!!  All up it was about a 23Km round trip!  This is the most that Jodie had ever walked in a day and she was feeling it by the end of the day.

Carnarvon Gorge Trip - Day 1

Day 1 -  12/8/2011 - To Takarakka Resort, Carnarvon Gorge

Looking at our calender for the rest of the year, there weren’t too many free weekends were we were going to be able to get away.  So we decided that we would take a few days off and head to Carnarvon Gorge to check it out.

We knew it was going to be a big day so we were packed, hitched and ready to roll at 8am.  It was a fantastic day for the start of the trip.  Not a cloud in the sky!  We were hoping that the weather was going to stay like this for the next few days.

First stop Miriam Vale for an early smoko