Continuing south for about 120kms on the Diamantina River Road took us to the Diamantina National Park over road surfaces which could be best described as ‘variably awful with just enough good bits to raise one’s optimism before once again dashing it to pieces’. We kept hoping that the road ahead would have smaller corrugations or smoother rocks to traverse but our hopes rarely beame reality. Commonly the ’slightly crushed’ quartz surface in many places did not allow movement out of the rail line-like wheel ruts we were in without significant risk of cut sidewalls to our tyres, so no zig zagging along the track in an attempt to find a smoother part, (as many dirt roads allow), instead riding out the ‘jackhammer’ corrugations & bumps. Some folk advocate speeding up to enable the car to ’skim’ across the top of the bumps, but it’s not a practice I subscribe to for two reasons. 1. If I need to slow/brake suddenly I have far less control & greater chance of accident, & 2. even though it may ‘feel’ smoother, the car is still being hammered from below, & the extra speed & less noticeable vibration can still do damage, either suddenly or insidiously & we want our car to keep doing what it does for many years yet. A tiny example of insidious damage caused by corrugations occurred despite our caution,but because we were going slow we noticed a noise we didn’t normally hear, stopped, found the cause & rectified it before any significant damage had been done. All we sustained was a 2 or 3mm deep groove worn into the aluminium of the rear canopy by a brass fitting on the end of a hose. We estimate it would have happened within just 3 or 4 kms. At speed we would not have noticed & undoubtedly would have found a hole worn through the aluminium. I’ve heard stories of folk wearing holes through the roof of their vehicles when a roofrack fitting has come loose allowing movement of the rack. After seeing how quickly wear can happen I have no doubt that such stories are true.
This road is good, but didn’t stay that way for long
On reaching the camp ground at the NP I was exhausted. 120kms is not much, but driving these roads demands constant concentration, reading the ever changeable road ahead, scanning for any indication which might suggest a wash out, pot hole, steep floodway dip, holes full of bulldust etc. It struck me just how EASY bitumen roads have made driving. Concentration may still be required, especially around other traffic, but the road surface can generally be expected to be consistent. No complaints about the roads we’re travelling on though, it’s our choice & they have significant benefits. Virtually no other traffic (often none & if we see more than 2 or 3 other vehicles a day it feels like a busy day!). They also take us to places the bitumen can’t, AND because they are used far less than sealed roads the wildlife often haven’t learned to be wary or frightened of cars & people, so we see them close up.
Entering the park was quite spectacular. More hills/mesas, but with a particularly pleasing perspective. Set among these was the ruins of the old Mayne hotel which operated along this stock route from 1888 until 1951. Only a few posts which once held up the walls were left, along with the remnants of the beer ‘cellar’, an old bed frame & a few empty beer bottles. Alongside was a now dry dam & & part of the water tank on the levee bank between the dam & the pub. It was hot & dry…… & easy to imagine what a welcome oasis it would have been to the many drovers who brought cattle through there.
The remains of the Mayne Hotel. Not a bad spot for a pub.
The last remaining ‘barfly’. 🙂
Cuppa sets an example (drinking tea – not the fashion statement!)
Remains of the beer cellar. Guess the beer was warmer back then.
A detour off the road along a smaller track took us to the Diamantina Gates. In flood the Diamantina spreads wide over a vast area through multiple channels, flooding the country like a great sea, but all that water has to pass through the ‘Gates’, an opening of just a little over 1km wide between two cliffs at the ends of the Goyder & Hamilton Ranges. Few people can have ever been there to witness the spectacle of the Diamantina floodwave entering the ‘Gates’. It would have to be an incredible sight. I have searched the internet for film footage of the event, but doubt if it has ever been filmed. I’d give my right arm to witness it first hand, but just standing on the top of the Hamilton Range at ‘Janet’s Leap’ looking across to the Goyder cliffs it wasn’t hard to imagine it happening. If anyone is aware of any film footage of the ‘Wave’ coming through the Gates please let us know how to access it.
Looking across the ‘Gates’ from Janet’s Leap’.
North side of the ‘Gates’. Imagine the first wave approaching, then water as far as you can see!
Brolgas
The park has two camp grounds. Gum Hole has small shady individual & private sites next to a waterhole whilst Hunter’s Gorge has a larger waterhole with a cliff as a backdrop, but is a large, open & dusty area, where even the park literature comments how it can often be very windy. Wind & large dusty areas combined make for unpleasant camping, as does almost non-existent shade under the harsh Queensland sun. Gum Hole however is recommended for ‘tent campers’ & not suitable for caravans, motorhomes etc. We checked out both sites & decided that as we are half tent/half caravan we could get away with staying at the far more pleasant Gum Hole ……. & we did. It was a good decision, this part of Queensland has been experiencing an unseasonally early heat wave & in daily temperatures in the mid to high 30’s being under the trees was very welcome……..despite the entire Australian fly population sharing our view!
When we travelled back in ’08/09 we were enthralled by the airborne acrobatics of flocks of budgerigars, the synchronised swimmers of the air, an airborne symphony. We rued the individual caging of birds who’s natural habitat is in nomadic flocks of 100, 200, 500 or sometimes in the many 1000’s, clouds capable of blocking out the sun. It was here in the Diamantina, at Gum Hole that we made our first ‘re-contact’. A small flock of just a 100 or so putting on a display over the waterhole. Many birds fly in formations, but none can equal the speed & syncronicity of the budgie. Time & again they split off into smaller flocks, before once again rejoining after their lightning fast manouvres, glinting under the morning sun, bright green, silver, invisible, bright green again. It felt great to be back into ‘budgie country’.
The 90km ’tourist track’ through part of the park took us to sand dunes, clay pans, gibber plains , waterholes, old stockyards & seemingly never ending mitchell grass plains over track mainly made only by vehicles driving over it. No graded tracks so often very slow & bumpy, except for on the clay pans. Sticking to the tyre marks across these extensive clay pans was wise, despite the seemingly hard surfaces, getting out to walk around revealed some surprisingly spongey surfaces which it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a set of 4 wheels with the weight of a touring 4wd above sinking quite suddenly.
Out on a clay pan
A highlight was seeing our first dingo of the trip. We have seen dingoes before, they can be quite common around some heavily tourist focussed areas, (particularly in the red centre) but seeing them genuinely in the wild …. in ‘their’ territory is better still. In our 30 years in Australia this is only the second one we’ve seen away from campgrounds (where people tend to feed them, thereby encouraging their presence). This one was taken by surprise at our appearance. The wind was in our favour so we saw him before he heard us, but as soon as he knew we were there he took off. The only photo I got after pulling up, grabbing the camera & trying to follow him on foot is the one below. Not the best photo of a dingo, but I’m including it to celebrate his/her ‘wildness’, & our privilege to have seen it.
Dingo
Mitchell grass
Disused stockyards
The ‘wired timber’construction was still exceptionally rigid & strong.
Leaving the park via the Springvale Road (leads past Springvale Station) the road remained awful until the Boulia side of the station, after which the relative smoothness was a joy! Stopping off to walk around Elizabeth Springs, a set of artesian mound springs where water oozes out of the ground at high temperature from deep below we found natural grass rimmed ponds and areas of bog where walking was not adviseable. There were mounds where we could see water oozing from, but those we could get close to were cool & appeared insufficient to fill the ponds. Perhaps the ponds are fed by these in conjunction with underwater supplies? Apparently they are home to unique aquatic species adapted to living in very high temperatures as well as supporting a local population of wildlife including a specific goanna & birds called Yellow chats, which only live around such places & uncapped bore drains. We did find goanna footprints but no goannas or chats. One seemingly dead bush came surprisingly & suddenlyto life as we walked past it though. From their ‘hiding’ place unseen, their was an exodus of Zebra finches, many hundreds of them formed a long cloud as, disturbed by our presence’ evacuated the bush for another further away. It was almost unbelievable that so many, small though they are, could inhabit the modest sized bush. That we could not see them in this bush, which had no foliage, was testament to how well camouflaged the bright little crowd was.
Zebra finches
Bog. There were areas like this with thick grass on on it where you could walk (carefully). Felt heat through soles of shoes & unsafe so didn’t persist.
Seepage from mound & much evidence of dried minerals which formed a thin crust above talcum -like powder.
One of the natural ‘ponds’
Once at Boulia, we briefly enjoyed the driving through a familiar place before setting up camp down at the Burke River just outside town. It’s been a hot couple of days here, 37degrees yesterday & very windy for most of yesterday & last night. Apart from a little shopping in the small supermarket come hardware store, & utilising the free washdown facility to get rid of much of the red dust build up on the Patrol (up to an inch thick in places) we have enjoyed more ‘visits’ from larger budgie flocks ( lightning quick acrobatics under the trees & through our camp) as well as the phone signal which facilitates my writing & posting of this blog.
We will be heading south for a while from here, as far as Camerons Corner we think, before cutting back across Queensland.
Thank you yet again. I look forward to your updates. Learning heaps already in preparation gor our soon to commence trip. (6 months to go). And my bucket list keeps growing. Seeing those flocks of budgies is definitely on it.
Keep on having fun and stay safe.
Brilliant stuff, like a good book, keep sharing. very best to you both, out there living the dream.
Thank you Cuppa and Mrs Tea for showing us what it is like out there it’s just not motorhome country
Fantastic stuff Cuppa, just love reading these blogs of the countryside we would all so love to see. Thanks for taking the time to produce them!!
Keep up the good work, you two. It’s so great having you live vicariously in the high heat and flies, so we can all enjoy the fauna and flora and scenery you share with us.