Day 45 Exmoor

Monday 31st May, 2021 30.9km

1187.1 / 3911.8km

Quiet night. I love the remoter tracks. The roads I have been on aren't the busiest, but no cars is better.

Nine kilometre walk to Exemoor Homestead, and I can tell you cows are not the smartest animals. They see me and eventually run, but not away to the side, in front. I have chased them 100s of metres down the track and if they ran at right angles we would be parted so much sooner.

Drier country here

My morning path

Bowen River again

The walk is quiet and uneventful but I enjoy it, as after the homestead it's back to the road.

When I get to the homestead I talk to a man who doesn't actually live there and he tells me they are up the other property, so I walk out the front gate and am about 100 metres up the road when I hear a lady yelling. "Do I want breakfast or a cuppa?"

I think it would be rude to walk away since I've walked on their property all morning, so I return. Her name is Vicky and she invites me upstairs. I say yes to a coffee and I said I wouldn't mind some toast, not a big breakfast.

The track around to the homestead

The old homestead

I only wanted a coffee and toast, 
but got this instead

I end up with orange juice and water. She has leftovers in the fridge and I reluctantly say yes ok. I ended up with yesterday's scrambled eggs. A mix of steak, kidney and bacon stew, hash brown and roasted tomato. I polished it off and eventually get my coffee and two bits of toast. She makes good coffee so I asked for a second.

I'm thinking I wanted to put in a big day. Then the husband Errol arrives and I sit and talk. Must have been nearly two hours, meaning I don't have many breaks left if I want to get to where I planned.

I take a banana and my leave and set off once more.

The next stop is what they call Alligator Crossing on Little Bowen Creek, where I fill up my water and give my shirt a quick wash. Then it's a 15 kilometre slog down the road to a creek I'm told still has water, which will become my stop for the night.

I arrived just as the sun begins to set but have eaten and had a cuppa before the mosquito's get bad. Then a quick wash and into bed. Big hill climb tomorrow.

Some strange looks but no offeres 
to carry my pack

Little Bowen River crossing, I got water 
from the rock pool

Upsteam. Pond where cattle water and
 pelicans sit

The afternoon road

Day 44 Cattle paddocks

Day 44 Sunday 30th May, 2021 26km

Early morning start from my camp spot 
beside the road

Sunday but a lot of traffic went past my camp spot this morning.

Another long day planned. Not much to see initially just the hot road. I did pull my gloves on for an hour but it warmed up fairly quickly. I arrived at the designated camp spot but as it was only midday, so I decided to push on. I had an opportunity to stop by the river with a 700 metre detour or I was looking at a large dam beside the track further on.

In the end it was the dam that I aimed for. For once the track went across country and for a walker became interesting. It was only a kilometre or so but it was to meet up with a station track which in theory would only see the station vehicles using.

The road getting less travelled

The dam I was aiming for was large a

s described but dry. There were still a lot of cattle here and I could see them milling about in the distance and thought there must be a trough. As I resigned myself to cow snot water I spied something a hundred metres to the left.

Big solar panels and as I walked over I could see it was a bore. Closer inspection showed a pressure pump run by solar and a tap and hose I could get to. A quick run of water with a taste and I loaded up my 5 litre overnight requirements and headed south for about a kilometre to get me well away from the cows and setup beside the track.

The path across paddocks

The country here is a lot drier

Then down a fence line

I set-up the tent and had dinner. Sundown is usually 6ish and I crawled into the tent and promptly fell asleep. I seem to sleep better after a walk and in the tent.

Run out of puff and set up camp
on a bit of dirt.... less prickles

Day 43 Bowen River

 Day 43 Saturday 29th May, 2021 31.6km

Old house dying (Collinsville)

Strange, I was in a lovely bed, the only guest here but I could not sleep properly. So an early morning start it is. There was a chill in the air that had me wishing I hadn't packed my gloves away. I know it will warm quickly but for 2 hours but I might just bring them to an accessible spot.

The book says nine kilometres of bitumen... I measured 14. A couple of coal trains went past and gave a toot. I was hoping to see how they load them but just before I reached that spot a train embankment went high and blocked the view.

Collinsville Post Office

My mates giving me a rousing send off!

Not much to talk about on the walk. It was steady, hot with little shade and dusty as cars went past to camp out the weir.

The only feature they mention is, The Rock Wall, a long hump of granite rocks that the road follows.

I eventually got to the weir but didn't bother going down to it and just went to the crossing and filled up with water. This is the designated camp spot but as it's early I decide to carry 5 litres of water and keep walking until I have had enough. Ended up doing 30 or so kilometres.

Couple of old trucks

My only company this morning

The loader I wanted to see in action

Wishing my gloves weren't buried deep and 
then I find these!

The start of the gravel road

Pipeline and road to weir

Bowen R

Day 41 and 42 - Bus around to Collinsville

27th and 28th May, 2021

0 walking km

The plan was in place. But having seen the amount of plans I have thrown out so far my confidence wasn't high.

There was a real heavy dew last night and the tent fly was saturated. The ticket booking people said the bus leaves Charters Towers at 8 so be on the side of the at 8.10am. As Mingela is 48 km away I think he would take longer than 10 minutes. But as I wanted to hang my tent fly out for a bit I walked down and did it while waiting. The bus arrived at about 8.50 am.

I didn't move the age average on the bus at all. If I did it would have been down. Looks like Eventide emptied for a bingo run. It was pleasant to sit and look out the windows at the road I had driven so often. Not much had changed except the amount of traffic.

I was dropped of at Stockland Shops. Had a quick Pork roll for breakfast. Then took the long way on a bus into Townsville proper. It has certainly changed here but still quite dead. Wandered down to Reef HQ only to see the reef wonderland has gone derelict.

I walked out to the ferry terminal and sat waiting for the greyhound bus.

It arrived on time.... left about 4 minutes late then slowly got later as we hit all the roadworks. There should be a rule, you can only set up one roadwork traffic light every 200k. On the trip we had to stop for 5 of the things.

Arrived in Bowen 15 minutes late but I had a 30 minute leeway. There were only 2 of us on the Collinsville bus so we set off 5 minutes after I arrived.

On arrival in Collinsville I checked in at the Opal. Bit flash. Then raced down town to see what grub was on. I was a little disappointed. The Opal has a restaurant but top dollar, the pub I used to stay at has shut down. I wasn't impressed with the other so went to foodland and bought some crackers and cheese, a bottle of port and some lemon crisp biscuits. Still under the $38 for the steak dinner.

Day 42

Got up with a slight hangover. I was able to wash and dry my clothes in the motel laundry and watched some mindless television until I could walk to the post office. I picked up my parcel,went back and made the Pharmacy lady excited as I was the first electronic prescription they have had after installing the equipment and software. A curry pie for breakfast, then sorted my pack ready for the next leg.

Once I went back to the post office and sent forward my excess it was about lunchtime and I decided to do nothing for the afternoon. The next book is from Collinsville to Kabra and is mainly walking on roads through cattle country. I expect to speed up a little and will try and get as far south as I can before Belinda and Isabelle come visit in the July school holidays. That's the plan. Had many of them before.

Collinsville Main St West

Collinsville Main St East

Collinsville lodgings (Opal)

Day 40 - Back to Mingela

Wednesday 26th May, 2021 (back tracking to Mingela)

The actual walk back into Mingela isn't that long after yesterday's effort so I wasn't in a hurry to move.

I was determined this morning to boil myself up a brew of tea. This I did and then I started pulling the tent down and promptly knocked the cup over when folding up the tent poles. I cursed loudly at the responsible diety and boiled up a second brew (Lucky I carried the extra water last night). I finished packing and sat down, enjoying every sip of the tea.

Normally I would be gone before 7 am and breakfast would be around 9. It was a little different to sit in the tent and watch the day come alive. During the night there are a lot of noises. Sounded like a galah was getting eaten by a snake last night. But you can't see anything. Watching the different birds come through the trees as the light changes was interesting. One of the earliest birds to move was a hawk. At last light went yesterday it was in the trees above me scanning around. Then this morning at first light it was back scanning around.

I could here some galahs coming then a flock of black cockatoos came and chased everything away. They looked to just pick and drop small branches. As the sun came up nectar birds arrived. A willy wagtail landed on the wire beside the tent and picked a few bugs off the tent. Some birds came through with a different way to fly between trees, like a couple of beats of their wings then they fold them back and move through the air like a missile and then another couple of quick beats and fold back again.

None of that dawdling gets any kilometres under the belt so eventually I lift the pack get back to the road and start north.

One lady stopped for a chat this morning. She had seen me plodding yesterday and even picked up that I was wearing Scarpas. Her husband's favourite brand until his last pair a goretex upper that was falling apart. Goretex is another industry fabric I'm not a fan of. I like good old leather. (Sorry Vegans)

I dropped in on the Mingela cemetery and looked at the couple of graves here. I like cemeteries. I am a believer that when I stand there and read their stone for that instant I bring back a relevance to their existence. When you read a stone with words from a mother who lost a 3 year old I can empathise even though it was over 100 years ago. We all have a story. We all don't get into the history books. For those I like to spend a couple of seconds imagining.

Then it's only a short walk back to the pub. Ivan likes to grow Desert Roses and is working his way up to just not growing them but to graft different colours on each plant. It may be worth coming back in a couple of years to see how he is going - as long as he looks after himself. He has lost a toe already and looking at his legs he is not on a merry future. But this evening he asked me if it was alright if we just had a roast chicken dinner. I know I paid for it but Ivan and Moana have looked after me when I have been here.

I stayed up late to watch the lunar eclipse but couldn't get a photo of it, then had a good night's sleep. I don't have to get up early as the bus leaves Charters Towers at 8am and we are 48km away.

Ivan's Desert Roses

More Desert Roses

Mingela Pub

$18

Mingela

Cemetary

Mingela

Mingela

For Sale

I love these compression socks Mal gave me

Day 39 - Back tracking to Mingela

 Tuesday 25th May 2021 (back tracking)

Up early and had a continental breakfast and then wandered up the road.

The diversion walk that ended on a mine road and a locked gate.

I was following the book out of town, this time from the south and about 3 kilometres in I come to a gate with all the warnings and a locked gate. Checked and rechecked the notes looked around a bit but had to admit defeat and retrace my steps back into Ravenswood.

A couple of hours later and I'm back to where I started. So onto the main road, a quick stop up the top shop for a ginger beer and a picnic, then the slow plod north. I had to remind myself it was the shorter option.

Out the front of the top camping area

Miners Hut

A couple of kilometres in and the local Policeman pulls up. He is on 4 week temporary transfer to Ravenswood. He has also done a few walks and was interested in a chat. I accepted the lift of 8 or so kilometres to Kirk River an official camp on the trail. I wanted to check it out for the couple following me. Also I don't get the bus to Townsville till Thursday and getting to Mingela too early won't help.

Old and New. You can see a mine truck dumping tailings and the dozer.

The farmers here on most large waterways are fencing right to the bridge. Same at Kirk River and I couldn't find water within the road confines. I have been told there would be water east up the river at the abandoned homestead and yards (Didn't check it our though). I did check the two mentioned dams .

The first dam, just near Kirk River was very close to a house. May as well go into the house and ask. The second one I didn't see. Further up the road at a turn-off to Silver Valley and Pandanus was a dam down in the paddock but all I got from that was mud and tadpoles. I still tied the dirty water to my pack and kept walking just in case. I finally came to water at Little Oakey Creek where I could see water overflowing a tank in a nice steady waterfall. These yards are part of a horse place. I had to climb the locked gate twice to get the water I wanted. Filtered 3 litres and carried another 3 litres in the dirty water bag for the evening camp. I walked a couple of kilometres looking for a good camp spot and decided to go up a creek just off the road. A long day over 30 kilometres covered with about 25 walked.

Beside the road. Penny Silk died in her boyfriend's arms after swerving to avoid a kangaroo. 23 years old just trained as a teacher and working at Ravenswood school.

The set up. No fly on tonight.

Picture taken from road. You can just see my set up. Drivers at 100kph have less chance.

Full Moon

Settled in and watched a full moon rise, a couple of hot drinks then sleep was easy to come by.