Fishery Falls/Charters Towers

Fishery Falls/Charters Towers

Posted on 3 Nov, 2009 13 comments

6/10
The removalists finished at 4 pm and we had cleaned the floors and packed the trailer an hour later. Off we went to Fishery Falls, where we had booked a cabin for the night. It was beautiful, nearly new with everything in it. A lovely veranda on the front, wide enough to fit the table and 4 chairs. The veranda was high off the ground, steps leading up to it. We sat there with the dogs for our evening meal, then walked the dogs and let them sleep on the veranda, our flyscreen door closed only and left the curtains open so the dogs could see us. We had a babygate, so they could’t get out, but it was slightly too short, so we parked a chair in front of the stairs as well. They looked quite happy and we went to bed early. Our first night without a home. All our stuff fitted in one sea container and was in the depot at the removalists, waiting for orders at a later date. A strange but happy feeling, as we were finally doing what we had planned many months ago.



7/10
First back to our house to pick up the trailer and hand over the keys to the new owners. We had a bit of trouble fitting our stuff into the trailer, but after some jig-sawing we managed to close the steel caged lid and the tarpaulin on top of it. It was now 10 am and our adventure could begin. The audometer said: 154060, just noted so we will check at the end how many kms we would have travelled.
It is 10 am, we are heading South and it is 27C, fine. Round midday it was 32C and we arrived in Ingham, in search for a sandwhich bar. Well, that was not an easy task. In the end we found a cafe and I went in to ask where one could get a sandwhich in town. We were at the right place and I ordered one round of cheese and salad and grabbed a tomato juice from the fridge. A bit further was a bit of a grassy area in the middle of the road where we sat underneath a big tree and had our lunch. Strange place, really. We missed the sign to Townsville when we just continued on the road. A caravan in front of us had made the same mistake: this was not route A1! Back to Ingham for 3 kms and I asked at the petrol station. Haha, we had been too busy looking for a sandwhich place and had missed the turn off. We were now on the right track. Up to now it had been the usual lush green sugar cane and rainforest covered mountains, but gradually towards Townsville the dry season became very obvious. On the Townsville bypass and on to Charters Towers. Compass telling us we are going S/SW, the right direction! Going through savannah country, very dry indeed. We stopped at a restplace for 10 mins to stretch our legs and let the dogs out and arrived 5.45 pm in Charters Towers.
We were booked into a motel, which was quite old and mainly used by tradesmen. The owners had two Jack Russells and they were inquisitive to our dogs. We ordered some dinner, which we had on the veranda in front of our room, after I fed the dogs. Had put the table and chairs outside. It was a lovely evening, a balmy breeze was blowing. The guy from the room next door had a chat with us. He was a surveyor and Paul picked his South African accent at once. We heard he had been here with his wife from Zimbabweh for 10 years and it was the best thing he’d ever done. The car was parked across the track from our room, underneath a flowering yellow Albizia tree, as it wouldn’t fit in the parking bay with the trailer. The tree was dropping its flowers on our car, so in the morning it looked as if it had been snowing. We went to bed early, still dead tired of all the rushing and packing of the previous days.

More blog posts by Marguerite