The Gulflander - Normanton to Croydon

Today was an early start to get to the Normanton train station by 7:45am for an 8:30 departure on the Gulflander for a 5 hour trip to Croydon. The "train" is actually a 1950s railmotor complete with diesel engine and a manual gearbox. Maximum advised speed for this track is about 25mph. Yes the track markers along the way and the speedo are still in miles.

Read more: 02 September 2020

Normanton

Leaving Leichardt's lagoon behind, we tackled the enormous trip to Normanton (all 25kms of it) and booked in to the Gulfland caravan park for 3 nights. It is a quirky little place with a very rustic amenities shed.

Read more: 31 August to 01 September 2020

Today's travel was Croydon to Leichardt's Lagoon. This is a private property, about 25km south of Normanton, with a lovely lagoon full of bird life for $8 per person per night. No power or water hookups but what a view.

Read more: 29 to 30 August 2020

We arrived in Croydon late morning and set up camp in the local council's Freedom Camping Area. A permit was needed for the cost of a donation to local heritage preservation and display. Well done Croydon shire! We had an afternoon drive to Belmore Dam, Croydon's water supply, and stopped at a lookout to watch the sunset before heading back to camp.

The next day we looked at some of the historical precincts in the town.

Left Forsayth heading towards Croydon via Georgetown and stopped at Cumberland Lagoon for the night. Lots of birds and a very big chimney from the early days of gold mining.

Drove to Forsayth via Georgetown and shuffled the vans into very cosy sites in the caravan park with much anticipation of tomorrow's tour of Cobbold Gorge.

We left at 10am for a one hour 4WD bus ride to Cobbold Gorge on Robin Hood Station. Our driver, Stephen, was a wealth of information as he shared many details of the geology, flora and fauna, early settlement, and mining and grazing history of the area. Upon arrival at the village we had time for a quick dip in the infinity pool (at least Jamie and Carolann did) before our yummy supplied lunch. Then it was back on to another 4WD bus to take us to the gorge where we walked for about 2km including over a glass bridge (not so scary after all). After the walk, we boarded a very narrow aluminium boat to negotiate the gorge on the water. The rock formations and reflections were beautiful and we saw a few freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves beside the stream. Once again, the guides were both entertaining and interesting to listen to even though it was a big effort to keep up with ours on the walking section. Off the boat and back on the bus to the Cobbold village, then our morning bus again to travel back to Forsayth by about 5:30pm. Conveniently, we were dropped of at the local Goldfields Hotel (also owned by the family who own Cobbold) so we had a drink and walked back to the caravan park for a well earned sleep.

Mt Surprise (2)

Stockyard Creek historical site and freecamp near Valley of Lagoons turn off.

Set up camp Thursday at TNC (Townsville Naturist Community). This is a lovely private campground about 50km Southwest of Townsville. It is near Woodstock but disappointed as there were no Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana or even Melanie Safka. However, It is beautiful and peaceful here so we have booked in for a week. We went into Townsville on Friday and ended up spending about 7 hours at the Townsville University Hospital after Jamie had some chest tightness. They let hIm go home after 2 ECGs, 2 lots of bloods several hours apart, a chest X-ray, and lots of obs. Possibly muscular, possibly unstable angina and waiting for a scan to be sure. Hopefully In the next few days. Staying put here at least until Thursday, and maybe longer.

I have been quite neglectful of a small member of our travelling party. I would like you to meet Tiggy. He is a very rare miniature rainbow tiger that our grandson, Noah, gave to us for safekeeping and to travel with us. As we start posting photos, keep your eyes peeled as Tiggy is bound to creep into some of the photos. Here he is relaxing on a stool in the sun.

I had a lovely day for my birthday today. Trudy and Carolann took me to the old Courthouse Pub in Charters Towers. I had an amazing mixed grill with some Strongbow. Before lunch Trudy and I met up with Michael Brumby at the Library where he looks after historical records of the area. Many of you will remember his dad, Ted who played the organ at Kedron Church of Christ for many years and also taught me to play. Ted, his first wife Win, and later his second wife, Muriel were like extended family to our family for many years and it was great to reminisce over our joint past.