Charters Towers – Wednesday

There was no sign of firing up the Steam Train this morning so I didn’t feel we’d miss anything by leaving today, I guess the pipes we saw lying on the ground still had to be put back into place. Ravenshoe was a lovely friendly town and the station Caravan Park was a good place to be but we were ready to move on. There was quite a line-up leaving.

It didn’t seem to take long for us to be into the dry zone with heaps of termite mounds, some were “Mr Blobby” shaped others cone shaped. There were different colours which would have been determined by the soil type and I guess the shape varied with the species. In some areas I couldn’t help but wonder what an underground view would look like, it seemed that with so many mounds it must be like honeycomb.

There was a lot of roadkill mostly kangaroos and wallabies but also a feral pig and a very BIG snake with a body as thick as an adult’s fist.

A lot of the Gregory Development Road had a parallel line of dark red or black rocks, in some places piled quite high. I decided that no matter how many were taken for urban landscaping no one would notice the difference. The road between Charters Towers and The Lynd is being improved but only some sections have been completed and it changes from double lane tarmac to single lane with dirt shoulders. The big rigs have priority. There were a few of the bridges that give Alex the heebie Jeebies, those with no side barriers, he has to “put the blinkers on” with those.

There were lots of cattle along the way mostly the grey Brahmans or Santa Gertrudis, I think, but we have learnt that there is also an Australian breed called, “Droughtmaster”. There is a statue of one here in Charters Towers. We were also surprised to see a sculpture of country singers, we thought Tamworth had the monopoly on Country and Western music.

I’m having difficulty controlling Alex, the “old codger” has taken him over again and the terrible thing is I’ve caught myself talking like his “missus”! Maybe it’s just as well we’re heading for home now or we might be beyond recovery.

A conical termite mound.

Dry woodland, no more lush rainforest.

Big rigs have priority on the narrow road.

Charters Towers

Droughtmaster, Charters Towers.

Charters towers, a country town.

Great spot to eat, $6 for 2 scoops of icecream in a cup & a flat white coffee!