Beth and Mark's Gap Year 2014: Lord of the flies - 18 March

At my last post we were about to move from one side of Lamington National Park (Binna Burra) to spend a couple of days on the other side (Green Mountain or O'Reilly's). About 7 Kilometres as the currawong flies, but about 60 Kilometres by Jeep. The purpose of course was to experience the full range of walks on offer in the park. A couple of smallish walks on the afternoon of our arrival did not disappoint. One was to a lovely waterfall (Moran's Falls I think it was called), the other was O'Reilly's treetop walk which traverses the rainforest canopy by means of rickety bridges suspended between enormous poles planted in the rainforest floor. Beth did not, I think, believe my protestations of innocence when accused of intentionally causing the bridges to lurch and sway, and stern looks ensued.

The next day, despite a rather bleak weather outlook, we decided that we would take our chances and set off on a long ethereal walk through the misty rainforest. This was all quite enchanting until about halfway through the walk when the heavens opened. This in itself only slightly diminished the splendour, but the discovery that we were under attack by an army of leeches increased the urgency of our push for home and diverted our attention away from the beauty of our surroundings and towards the extent of our infestation. This somewhat lessened the pleasure of the experience. To add to the excitement, we discovered that the Lamington Blue Crayfish which we understood to be quite rare is indeed anything but when it is raining, and there seemed to be one at every turn standing in the middle of the track waving its claws and snapping and hissing. I am sure that they are quite harmless, but they are off putting nonetheless. As we were getting a little closer to camp, we happened upon a British couple perhaps a little older than us going the other way and Beth warned them of the leeches. To which the lady replied that she was quite squeamish about things like that, and that was why she always wore a hat, and off she trudged. We are still trying to work that one out!! By the time we finally fell out at the other end of the track the sun was shining and all the trendy and sophisticated tourists had just arrived to start their little walks. The sight of a couple of dishevelled, wet and bloodied walkers stumbling from the forests probably caused them some anxiety.

Once back in our trailer, we assessed the damage, and Beth is claiming bragging rights over me because she has 22 leech bites, whilst I could only count 14. I am happy for her to have won this one, because the leech bites develop into the equivalent of large, itchy, slow healing and nasty mosquito bites. Although Beth does not quite see the humour in it, she does look a bit funny walking around with a little ring of festering volcanoes around the tops of her socks and the bottoms of her shorts (where the leeches gathered). Oh well, I am sure that they will clear up in the next few months, and until then they will be neat dotted lines marking the start and end of her walkers tan.

Our next stop was Giraween National Park, which is along the New England Highway right on the NSW/QLD border. Giraween is renowned for its rocks, and given that Beth and I both love rocky landscapes, we thought we should check it out. Three days later, we had completed every walk on offer in the park and had a wonderful time. We got to climb up the side of huge rocks, walk through boulder strewn landscapes, wander along streams cut into rock, and crawl over, under, through and around rocks. Not only this, but we had perfect weather to do so for the duration of our stay. And the icing on the cake was a delightful campground with flushing toilets and hot showers for the princely sum of $10 per night. Queensland clearly has a different National Parks camping agenda to other states, and affordability is high on that agenda. Nothing to complain about with Giraween, which is a bit bothersome. I don't feel comfortable when I have nothing to grumble about.

From Giraween we start pushing seriously westward along the border with single night stops at Goondiwindi, Cunnamulla and Thargomindah as we make our way towards Innamnincka just across the QLD/SA border.

Goondiwindi was very nice, but a bit of a one horse town (that horse being Gunsynd of course). The only problem with Goondiwindi was that it lulled us into a false sense of security in terms of weather, and whilst we were out sitting in the garden by the river, having our weekly video conference with our daughter, a thunderstorm snuck up and dumped a heap of water on our trailer. Not a big deal normally, but someone had forgotten to close their window (yes, it was me), and you guessed it, things got wet. Luckily the thunderstorm passed quickly and was replaced quickly by bright sunshine which dries things off nicely. Interesting coincidence at Goondiwindi. We noticed that our neighbour in the caravan park had Victorian registration plates, and when we asked where they were from we found that they are actually neighbours at home as well. They live just a couple of streets away in Ferntree Gully.

Goondiwindi to Cunnamulla was an interesting drive, particularly throughout the cotton growing areas around St George. We lost count of the road trains transporting huge bales of raw cotton, presumably back to Brisbane. As they thundered past little tufts of cotton flew off and settled on the side of the road. It looked for all the world as though it had been snowing in the 35 degree heat. We stopped to pick up some of the cotton flotsam, why I am not sure, it just seemed as though we should pick up a piece. The countryside seemed surprisingly green as we travelled, but between St George and Cunnamulla it became clear to us that this was all new growth from very recent rain when we observed a very emancipated herd of cattle grazing the long paddock. They have been doing things tough in this neck of the woods.

Cunnamulla was quite a small town, but one that we really enjoyed. We met some lovely people, particularly the caravan park proprietress, who in inimitable country style chatted for more than an hour while we registered. We also had good coffee, which I thought we may have run out of by now. I suspect that I have the demands of the Grey Nomads to thank for the proliferation of espresso machines in the outback.

Thargomindah is smaller again and we are really starting to hit the outback now. Heat, flies and barrenness are hallmarks, but the marketing blurb suggests there is a whole lot more to this town. Unfortunately most of this "whole lot more" was closed because we were a bit early in the tourist season, which I believe does not really start until Easter. Despite being denied the delights of Thargomindah we managed to keep ourselves occupied and interested, and again met some very friendly country folk. The thing which we most have to thank Thargomindah for however, where a couple of fly net hoods which we purchased. When buying fuel upon our departure, needless to say the fuel vendor was up for a bit of a chat, and when I told him our next stop was the remote Noccundra Hotel, he told us that if we were going there we must buy fly veils. I was greatly disturbed by the number of flies at Thargomindah and naively expecting an improvement in this situation as we moved on. My naivety was tempered by his " ten times worse at Noccundra" prognostication.

So off to Noccundra we went, and sure enough, not only where the flies ten times worse, there were mosquitoes thrown in to boot. Lovely camping spot on a permanent waterhole on the Smith River, but no inclination to leave the safety of our trailer for fear that we would be carried away by insects (I did try applying Aerogard, but I could hear the flies laughing as I did!!). Instead we treated ourselves to an evening in the Noccundra Pub (which really is the heart and soul of town, largely because there is nothing else there), where we were entertained by the publican and the various locals who drifted in and out. We asked the publican who their patrons were, and she told us that they were basically itinerant workers, tourists and local cattle station workers. Almost on cue as she finished the sentence the door burst open and in walked a ten gallon hat, under which was a wiry, dust covered, jeans and boots clad character - legs akimbo John Wayne style. He didn't quite say "bartender gimme a beer"' but it was something like that. Turns out his name was Splinter, and he was a ringer at the nearby Nockatungah cattle station. Although it was difficult getting him talking, it was a lot of fun chatting with this very real country character. As the evening progressed a few road workers drifted in, and again it was interesting to talk with then and listen to their conversations. All up it was a fun evening which made us forget the terrors awaiting us outside.

After a shower at Noccundra (they did have a public shower - brown river water, with a slight bouquet of mud - which was open to all, including grasshoppers, ants, beetles, flies, and of course Beth's favourite, mosquitoes: better than nothing I guess??) we packed up the trailer to head for Cooper Creek at Nappa Merrie Station where the "Dig" tree still lives. For those who don't know about the Dig Tree read the Burke and Wills story. This is our second visit to this site, and at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, there is a special atmosphere or spirit about this place which takes you back and puts you in the shoes of these early explorers. Notwithstanding my reverence for this place, there was no relief from the fly situation and being confined to quarters had caused me to sink somewhat into a state of melancholy. Beth suggested (in the nicest possible way of course) that I was being a sook, and perhaps I should be a brave little soldier, put on my hat and fly veil and go for a walk despite the flies. We resolved to do this and although I am still grumpy about the flies, my funk has cleared significantly.

Just one night at Nappa Merrie,, and then off to Innamincka (about 50 kilometres away) for two nights. Because of the heat we are doing our walking very early in the morning and then trying to spend the heat of the day either indoors or driving around in the air conditioned car, and this has worked very well at Innamincka. I was able to enjoy a couple of sessions in the pub drinking coffee (quite good) and eating cookies (they don't have cake!), and we were also able to visit various waterholes along the Cooper (which is flowing quite well at the moment) as well as Coongie Lakes about 100k north of town and one of the lake systems into which the Cooper drains. Cooper Creek really is quite beautiful, particularly against the backdrop of the stark and inhospitable countryside it cuts through. It is well worth the effort required to get there.

As I write this we are roasting (we should be resting) in the trailer at an overnight stop on the Strzelecki Track (Montecollina Bore) en route to our next destination, which I think will be Marree or Leigh Creek. Strzelecki track is hard work. The road is wide and very rough in places, but at times exceptionally smooth, which invites you to travel quickly. The only problem is that every now and then you happen upon well disguised bull dust holes (just like a politician or senior public servant) which have the propensity to alter your course dramatically (which is not advisable when you have 50 wheel road trains going in the other direction), so we have been driving slowly and carefully. I am hoping for phone reception at either Leigh Creek or Marree, so that we can wish our son a happy birthday and I can post to the blog otherwise we are probably off the air until we get to Uluru around the 9th of April.

Still having fun despite all the nasty things sent to try us, they have only served to build our characters and tolerance to such things. On the subject of flies however, I am happy for nothing more to be added to the structure of my character. I have this sense however, that the flies are with us now for quite some time. A lady at Innamincka told us that once the overnight temperature drops to below 4 degrees, even for only one night, it kills them off. I hope she is right and I hope we get a short cold snap some time soon.

Posted from Leigh Creek.