Winter Madness - Part 2

I made my goodbyes to the Camper Trailer Group just before lunch.  I had no firm plans for the next few days before I met the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club at Kenilworth on Friday.  I had originally intended to camp in different places each night but really just wanted to go some where quiet and "veg out" for a few days.  I headed north from Atkinson's Dam and parked my rig a Esk  about 35Km north and stopped for lunch.

Margaret and I had camped at Esk in 1999 in our caravan.  We were in a Caravan Club and joined them for a weekend get together and took our big black standard poodle, Pierre.  We enjoyed the place.  I walked up and down and looked in at the local caravan park where we had stayed.  I was tempted to book in for a couple of nights but finally decided to move on.

About 80Km up the road was a little town called Yarraman where we had also camped back in 1999 and I remembered that it had a quieter caravan park about 2Km north of town.  Margaret loved it because we had our own "en suite" shower and toilet facilities.  Yarraman was the base for the construction of a large coal powered power station and the caravan park was the workers  camp.  It had blocks of four shower.toilet facilities with workers cabins in between.  The cabins had gone by 1999 and caravan sites set up instead.

My route for the day.

I arrived at the caravan park about 3.00pm and checked in for two nights.  There were relief managers in place as the owners were taking a break but park was still in the same hands and was much as I remembered it.  I decided that I didn't need my own facilities and was given a nice powered site near the camp kitchen.  As I intended to only stay two nights I set up my tent trailer and put up my annex roof but not its walls.  I intended to use the cap kitchen for cooking.

As I set up a large caravan towed by a four wheel drive pulled in on the adjacent site and began setting up.  I called out to the bloke setting up that he was giving my little set up an inferiority complex.  He introduced himself and his wife.  They were from Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast and were just away for a few days and would be staying three nights before moving on.

My set up without the annex walls

At about 5.30pm the managers lit a bonfire in a fire pit just across the road behind my set up.  I sat there for a while chatting with my neighbours and having drink.  At about 7.30pm I cooked my dinner on the camp kitchen's barbeque.  Sausages and onions together with boiled potatoes, peas and brown gravy cooked using the camp kitchen stove.  I ate my dinner under my tent awning as I was only about 10 metres away from the kitchen.  Of course I accompanied it with a nice South Australian red wine.  I was tucked up in bed by 9.30pm having warmed up my tent with my  electric fan heater.  Ah! the luxury of a powered site.

I had a comfortable night and had my breakfast under my awning.  My normal breakfast of orange juice, toasted fruit loaf and a cup of tea.  I had brought my electric kettle and toaster with me.

I decided to walk into town and took-the foot path along the Old Yarraman Road which ran parallel to the new highway.  It was really overgrown and quite steep.  I had brought my walking stick with me and was glad I had.

The old Yarraman Road

There is the original white line!

I had morning coffee and a custard tart at the local bakery before exploring Yarraman and returning back to my camp.

I decided that I should have lunch in town and drove down the highway for a big steak smothered in sauce and covering my chips and salad at the Yarraman Hotel.  As I was driving I had to wash it down with diet coke:(

The Yarraman Hotel

My T-bone steak.  It actually tasted great

After lunch I had looked around the local historic house but was not impressed so I went back to my tent for a snooze.

I had beans on toast for dinner with a white wine.  My neighbours were away for the night so I sat in my little tent and updated this blog about Life With Bella before going to bed.

I had decided to stay in Yarraman until Friday and had paid for another two nights.  I really like the caravan park and prefer my annex without its walls.  I have to close the fridge locker's lid at night in case it rains but can sit beside it against the tent in quiet windy wet weather.

The next day, Wednesday,  I took another walk into town via another path with more open views of the area.  I had coffee and another custard tart at the bakery,  they make lovely custard tarts, before walking back to camp via a longer route.

Yarraman's water tank just above the caravan park

Looking down on Yarraman

 I drove about 30Km north to the town of Nanango where I bought lunch and explored the town on foot.  It is a much bigger town than Yarraman and actually had a set of traffic lights.

Back at camp my neighbours had returned so we had another bonfire with drinks.   The weather took a turn for the worse.  We prepared our meals in the camp kitchen and ate them under the veranda of the community room.  There were power points so we had our fan heaters on under the tables to keep warm.  After dinner, I had cheese sandwiches and white wine, I sat rugged up under my awning watching the storm.  I was quite dry but was glad that I had my heater to warm up the tent.

My neighbours packed up and moved on today.  I decided to take a forest drive to see if I could find the huge open cut coal mile which is nearby and perhaps get as far a the power station. I got to the edge of the mine but a new fence stopped me taking any good photos.  The road got too rough and rutted for my little Jazz so I had to turn back.

The local coal mine and power station. I was over the back.

I continued on past Yarraman to the little town of Cooyar where I stopped for a bun and a coffee.   Then it was across country via the Cooyar to Mount Binga Road which had a long gravel section and finally ended up in Blackbutt.  This was 40Km of isolated road but quite drivable except my little Jazz was covered in red dust.

At Blackbutt I had lunch at the Bunya Nut Cafe, a local meat pie and chips.  Then it was back to Yarraman.  I had a snack for dinner before going to bed.

Tomorrow I start Part 3