We left Richmond after having breakfast at the cafe attached to the museum and info centre. Jo had scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for $10. I had the $15 big breaky, deleted the toast and ask for two hash browns and paid $17. So my breaky came with 2 eggs, bacon, a slice of tomato, and the 2 hash browns. Peter ordered the big breaky at $15, and got 2 eggs, bacon, a slice of tomato, 2 pieces of toast and 1 hash brown. I somehow feel ripped off!

At Hughenden we fuelled up and shopped for more food for the pizzas and took off for Porcupine National Park. Staying there if you haven’t booked isn’t really an option and to book online is difficult in this part of the world. We had lunch there and wandered off again on the Kennedy Developmental Road to have a look at Blackbraes National Park. We went the 4 k’s off the main road to the old homestead and now rangers quarters. The quarters were unmanned at the time and for camping we could go a further 17 k’s into the park, or back to the main road and stop at a place called Moonstone Reserve. We did go in but didn’t like the place so back to the main road again. In the end we stopped on the side of the road for the night. The temperature at 5 pm, about 27 degrees.

The roads up here range from very good to very dusty, and even most of the bitumen can be bumpy in places. When we left Richmond we were about 180 metres above sea level, after Hughenden it rose quickly to and stayed around 900 metres above sea level.

We continued on and stopped for a coffee and ice cream at “The Lynd”, and after chatting with the manager we headed to Mount Surprise as he told us that we would be able to get a ride on the motor rail to Forsythe on the Monday, according to him the motor rail went 3 times a week. We found out that the train went once a week on Thursdays…

We toyed briefly with idea of going to place called Cobbold Gorge, but heard the roads were in a bad way, and when you get there it’s nothing but taking money from you. The costs that we heard of, and later confirmed was $36 for a van site and then another $82 each to see the gorge. Although it sounds like a nice place we gave it a miss.

Anyway, there are 3 caravan parks in Mount Surprise, the most expensive was $28 per night and we stayed in the cheapest at $16 for a powered site, with grass, shade and very good facilities and we are staying for a couple of nights. I took the down bike and managed to ride 4.7k’s around the town, and that was as far as you could go without duplicating the ride…and that was both sides of the highway. Mount Surprise was the site of Radar Station 53 from August 1942 to May 1944. It was designed to provide early warning of Japanese attack for Cairns and Townsville and it also helped to bring returning bombers home.

Instead of the train, we all went in the Landcruiser to drive the loop from Mount Surprise to Einasleigh, Forsayth, Georgetown and back. The roads once off the main road are mostly dirt but are in reasonable condition. At Einasleigh we checked out the caravan park – it had green grass and only the manager there, it also had a sign up stating that mature guests were welcome, and no one under 18 allowed!

Copperfield Gorge was a 50 metre walk from its parking area, and probably a 500 metre walk from the pub. We strolled over the rocks and didn’t get too close to the edge, I don’t know how deep it is but it’s a long way down to water at the bottom. At the pub we had a softie (Bruno it was only 10.30 in the morning! ) and tried to have a chat with the woman behind the bar, I think many of us have more engaging conversations with brick walls!

The drive to Forsayth took just over an hour, winding it’s way through the hills and dips. This is very much gold country out here with Forsayth at one time being the centre of the district with mines all over the place. We had lunch at the rest area, and while we were there an old local came over to suggest a few things to look at. In talking to him he had lived there for years. He was employed by Queensland Rail and worked for them for 28 years being one of the two maintenance men looking after the line from Forsayth to Mount Surprise. He work until he was 2 years past retiring age, and 2 weeks before he was handing his notice in the (QR) offered him a redundancy. He also spoke about Cobbold Gorge, and the owners had tried to put more accommodation in but (according the old fella) because of native title wanting compensation, the owners bought more land to extend their station to Forsayth. They have also bought the pub and are looking to extend their accommodation into the town and run tours from there. It must be a good business case…

We left Forsayth and were only a couple of k’s down the road when we had a flat tyre, there was a cut in the tyre about an inch or so long. It would be useful if car manufactures put useful tyres on their cars. Anyway we change the tyre and continued to Georgetown. Georgetown is one of the larger towns in the region and had 2 tyre places, neither carried a new tyre in my size but we managed to find a used tyre that would be the new spare from the BP. The BP had tyres, fuel, groceries and a limited amount of hardware, and was run by an older Chinese couple. The bloke was knee high to a grass hopper with just as much meat on him, but before long (and $30 exchanged) he had the old tyre removed and the new old tyre on the rim. We needed a tank of fuel and would have bought it from him, but his neighbour was a lot cheaper.

Back at the van park, and it being 33 degrees a swim was in order.

We had a rest day in Mount Surprise. We strolled the main street from one long end to the other, must have been 350 metres at least! We ended up at the “Gem Den”. Jo suffered as she was cut off from unsupervised spending….however we all contributed to the local economy. While I minded the goods in the veranda, the others bought a bucket of dirt and looked for gems. They all found topaz in their buckets and Fiona is getting one of hers made up into a pendent as a memento.

We spent the afternoon quietly, jumping into the pool when it got too hot. Just as we were about to have a pre dinner dip, the owner and one of the staff members killed and removed a “night Tiger” snake from the boys toilets. ‘Night Tiger is what I hear just before I go to sleep every night, but in this case it was over 4 feet long with bands around its body. We were assured that if the snake bites you, we wouldn’t be killed, you would just swell up a lot where the bite is…..that might be a good thing for the lads in the loo I suppose depending where the bite was!

We took off for Chillago, about 170k’s away and mostly dirt. The drive was about 3 hours long of slow but easy going. It’s been about 20 or more years since we had last been. The smelters were the only thing of note at Chillagoe all years ago, and you could drive and walk around the slag heap and the remains of the buildings. These days the whole lot is fenced off so you can’t get too close to anything. The town has also taken off with new buildings springing up everywhere. The smelter only worked up to WW1 and apparently ran at a loss the whole time, what it did though was help the Queensland economy survive and grow.

We also visited Tom Prior’s Ford car collection. His cars in very original condition stored under a rambling shed and he clearly keeps them original. Have a look at the photos and see what you think (it was hard to get good photos inside so apologies for the quality). He had some WW2 vehicles as well.

It was pretty hot when we moved off from Chillagoe, so after knocking off 2 Calypos each (icy poles for those who aren’t up with the latest! ) we continued on.

After an hour or so we pulled up to roadside camp on the banks of the Eureka Creek. It’s a big area but we were the only ones there and the traffic died in the evening and started around dawn the next morning. Around 5.30 an old Nissan Pathfinder pulled up and a bloke got out and filled his radiator. After he did that he came over for a chat and made the comment we all looked like healthy people!

The conversation turned to diets, and it turns out the bloke has worked with the local disadvantaged kids and has found evidence that the modern high carb, wheat and high sugar diets can lead to, or encourage diabetes, dementia and behavioural issues. He clearly had researched a lot and had books on the subject and their effects (LH, HR remind me for you guys as well).

When he walked up he is clearly a fit man. He had been up since 3 am, and during the chat we found out a bit more about him….his wife passed away a month ago (it’s a bit harder now….) and he mentioned the war. His age was 89 and he was born on a mission, taken at 5, left school at 10 and tried to join the army during the war – he joined under a mates name, and once he was found out he was offered either jail or join the US merchant marine. He choose the later but was always sea sick. Again once the authorities worked out the he could handle horses and was a bushie, they sent him to India to work with the mules and horses there, so he spent much of 1944 there. He also has worked on farms, as a ringer and the mines. In 1995 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his services to disadvantaged youth. In 2000 he was recognised by Rotary International for his services to youth.

The next day wasn’t going to be long in the car, it about 35 k’s to Tyrconnel Mine via Dimbulah where again we caught up with news from the south, and had a coffee at the bakery before heading to the mine. No GF bread this time or even something GF for mornos . The coffee was average and the girls tell me that the cherry ripe slice was ordinary as well.

Tyrconnel Mine was a large mine just north of Dimbulah and now set up as a bush camp with facilities for campers plus 4 or 5 replica miners cottages dotted on the hillsides for those who aren’t into camping. The 20 or so k’s from Dimbulah is along a bumpy road, with the last few being up and down through the gullies and along the ridges. The drop from the top of the mine down to the bush camping area is relatively steep and tight with our vans, you couldn’t be much bigger than out setups and still get in here comfortably. The mine was established in 1876 (only 15 years after Bourke and Wills wandered from south to north and back) and was one of the bigger mines and crushers in the area and was still working up to 1944, in fact the crusher still works for demonstration purposes. As always, we are left wondering of how they did it, and impressed by the ability to bring in the boilers and machinery that goes with these mines.

The caretaker is an interesting bloke, born in Italy he has been out here for many years, some of his mother ashes are spread on the lookout on a nearby hill and the remainder back in Italy. He has just finished a decade working on the mines as a Medical Technician – he is described as the person first onsite when medical aid was needed, no matter where it was. He was also a wealth of information about the area having been here for so long and enjoying the history and culture with a passion. He knew about nearby Kingsbourgh – small community of about a 100 people in the late 1800’s, and Thornbourgh, about 5k’s away that peaked at 1500 people before 1900. Remembering that this mine was established in 1876, the goldfields around here started in 1870, the establishment of Cairns (1876) and Port Douglas (1877) was to provide services and store to the goldfields.

We had a look around the area, and visited the nearby cemetery that had a half dozen or so graves with the oldest with a marble headstone dated 1884. As always out here, graves of children seem to be too prevalent in these types of areas. One of the graves was of a little boy, aged 22 months in 1884 and his sister aged 27 years in 1906. Their surname was Minogue, and they apparently are related to Kylie who has also stayed at one of the cottages at one time.

Tyrconnel is about to change hands (in the next week or so) and the new owner also owns the nearby Mt Mulligan Station which had the old coal mining township of Mt Mulligan on it. Free camping used be available at Mt Mulligan but that has now stopped. According to the caretaker at Tyrconnel, the new owners want to make an “El Questro” type resort at Mt Mulligan and have Tyrconnel for bush camping.

While in the area, we drove the 30k’s to Mt Mulligan, which aside from being a huge mountain some 13k’s long, was the site of a large township that mined coal from 1910 til 1958. They shipped the coal out via railway to Dimbulah and I assume to major areas such as Brisbane or Sydney. The mine was also the site of Australia’s 3rd largest mine disaster in 1921. The explosion killed 74 men, leaving about 8 in the town and was heard as far away as Mt Carbine and beyond – over 60 kilometres. At that time the local cemetery hadn’t been thought of, and they hurriedly made a new local cemetery for all those who had died. Walking around the cemetery, there was one chap who left a wife and 10 kids, another left a wife and 11 children behind, who knows how many others there were. One can only imagine what it was like to be in the town to hear the explosion….Today the streets are still marked out as is most of location of the buildings identified. After the mine closed, they dismantled the town and the railway, the last train picking up the tracks on its way out. Driving around the area, you can see where the new owners are starting to build the new “El Questro” style of resort.

Leaving the area we had coffee and cake at “Camp 64”, a new coffee shop in Dimbulah. The coffee there was good as was the cake – the significance of Camp 64? the owner likes to have a stroll in the bush with a couple of dingoes for company, and 8 goats as pack animals, and on a recent walk of 1000 k’s, his “Camp 64” made the biggest impression. The cafe is in the old butchers shop in the town – a shop that hadn’t been in use for 40 years.

This update is being sent from Mareeba where we are spending some time cleaning up and restocking. We will spend some time in Cairns and Jo will fly home for a few days to check out the southern state. I must say that after the last 6 or so months it has been for us, Jo is looking great and starting return to normal, hills, stairs and long walks are still an issue, and I am losing more “chats” than I was a month or two back, but that’s a good thing…

Cheers til the next update (couple of weeks I think).