Ceduna to Kingaroy

14th February – 7 March

Travelling back from Western Australia we stayed at Shelly Beach Caravan Park in Ceduna. We had stayed there on our way west, and decided to do the same heading east. It’s a good park a few kilometres out of town and only a short walk to the beach. I also took the opportunity to use the fruit I had to stew at the old Telegraph Station as we crossed the Nullarbor, (before going through the WA/SA border quarantine.) It wasn’t pretty, but tasted great.

After Ceduna we hit the road again, fresh and ready for a long haul.

We didn’t waste any time during the first week of travel, only stopping overnight and “bare camping.” That’s what we call it when we just pull up and only set up the essentials (like turning on the gas, making a cuppa and settling down for the rest of the day). This means that we can get up the following day, and be on the road in about ten minutes and still have a ‘coffee to go’. So, we bare camped from Ceduna to Cunnamulla.

For those familiar with remote Australia you’ll be impressed at how green the country was. There’s been an abnormal amount of widespread rain and the country is literally lush, almost every creek flowing with water and the dams full. It’s pretty amazing how quickly the parched, red soil turns comes to life after rain; it’s just a few days from red to a carpet of green.

It made an interesting change for us to be driving with a purpose every day and covering the map. We made the 1,756 km journey in 6 days, then had a rest.

We had time up our sleeves, so we stayed in Cunnamulla at the Warrego River Caravan Park for three nights. Last time we were here the place was teaming with birdlife, this time not so much but I was still able to give my camera a bit of a workout.

Cunnamulla is just the average outback Queensland town that suffers from mediocre management, limited opportunity, lack of funds and lethargy that’s common in those towns, but the Warrego River Caravan Park really is a nice oasis in the west and it’s worthy of being a destination in itself.

After a relaxed few days at Cunnamulla it was a short drive to Bollon (one of our favourite bush camp spots) on Wallum Creek. It was hot, 39 to 43 degrees, but the creek was full to capacity, so we were able to keep cool. Though to be honest, I think we’ve gotten a bit soft in our old age. This was the first time we’d experienced these temperatures (without air con) since we started travelling, and it was a bit draining. Not so much that it chased us away mind you, we stayed there for six nights.

We got the hammock up and the kayaks down and we did what we do best…enjoyed the serenity of the bush. We virtually had the place to ourselves, if you didn’t count the billions of ants, but they were too busy getting on with whatever they were getting on with to be a bother to us. The flies were minimal, and I only saw a couple of mozzies, but there were hundreds of crickets. I’ve never seen so many, it was pretty cool actually, somedays I’d go for a stroll, and they’d rise from the grass like a plague of locusts. Which I guess is what they were, sort of. The birds were enjoying them too.

Take your time with the photos and you’ll see why we love this place so much. It really is the idyllic outback camping spot.

Did somebody say birds? Of course, there were birds. Most were a couple of kilometres down the creek, but hey…that’s why we have kayaks.

From there we had three nights at St George, with air conditioning, right on the banks of the Balonne River, then one more bare camp near Dalby.

We arrived on schedule, at Kingaroy on the 7th March. Peter reckons we travelled at about our average rate of 117 Km per day. But if you take out the three night stay in Cunnamulla, six nights at Bollon, and three nights in St George, we actually travelled the 2,463 km in nine days, an average of about 275 Km per day – now I think that’s pretty darn good for us.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!