The conventional wisdom when heading north to Charters Towers from Moranbah would be to head south to Clermont and then north on the Gregory Highway to Belyando Crossing and then on to Charters Towers.
But, we decided to showcase a not-so-travelled route by heading north east to Nebo and then west towards the Bowen Developmental Road and then left to Belyando Crossing. This is all coal mining country and we were expecting many road trains and ”just a bit” of graded gravel road.
Great bitumen (and many road trains) to Nebo which has a fantastic roadstop café, toilets and a very welcome dump point. We should mention that we travel with a book called Camps Australia Wide 10 which, apart from listing all the economical campsites, has a great directory of Dump Points.
So we “dumped,” put in the appropriate chemical sachet, and headed west towards the mining town (strange that, hey) of Glenden where we reckoned it was time for the nosebag so we found a bit of shade and parked up for half an hour or so.
I took the opportunity to check my tyre pressures, particularly those in the van as we’d been travelling for a few hours. We monitor our tyre pressures by using the “four pound rule” which because our tyres are larger than a convention car’s tyres, we’ve changed to the “five pound rule”.
On the way we passed over giant earthworks preparing the railway line for the opening of the giant Adani Mine south of Belyando.
Left on to the Bowen Developmental Road towards Mt Coolon and found that the bitumen quickly ran out and was replaced with high quality, formed gravel road. We didn’t see this as being severe so we decided that there was no need to deflate our tyres to smooth out the ride. On more serious corrugations we let our tyres down, sometimes to 25 or 28PSI, travel more slowly and keep an eye on tyre temperatures.
Anyway, the gravel was so good that The Child Bride decided to take the wheel for a while and she absolutely nailed it, picking the ideal speed for the van and the Dmax ….and our backsides.
Then we drove into what appeared to be an almost deserted little town of Mount Coolon. I saw an old building that I immediately recognized as a pre-war (WWII that is) Police Watchhouse and a really old police station. The sign said it was erected in 1925 and closed in 1967. That Watchhouse was almost exactly the same as the one my old dad Vince had when he was the Policeman at Laura in the late 40s.
And just in case you thought that this must have been a rough town without any culture, a bit further down the main street were the remains of the old Lyric Theatre from the 20s.
On towards Belyando Crossing which is a fuel and tucker stop for truckies and travellers like us. Diesel was $1.77 per litre so we took on just enough to get us to Charters Towers. The Child Bride decided she’d like to camp in the van park behind the store so she paid 25 bucks for a rocky patch of unpowered and unwatered gravel road beside a whole heap of mining dongas. We didn’t need the power and had sufficient water for our needs, but it was somewhere to camp for the night.
Belyando used to be an oasis for travellers but has now turned into a very untidy donga camp for miners. Sad to see.
We parked up, opened the van after about 80km of gravel roads and found the floor covered with Trish’s magazines. Looked a mess but it really was only half a dozen magazines from an open locker under the table. And dust. Virtually none. A credit to Eden Caravans because this $75 thousand caravan is far more dustproof than a far more expensive van we’ve had in the past.
Any of the vans in Brad’s hire fleet at Caravan World on the Sunshine Coast will be perfectly capable of using this gravel road with no damage to the van. If dirt roads aren’t your thing, the bitumen road through Clermont and north is quite OK.
So we hit The Towers, filled up with diesel at the giant truck stop, bought a few essentials in town, found a really well set-up caravan stopping place just under the railway tunnel/bridge on the Townsville road. Dump Point, water for the tanks, heaps of van parking on bitumen bays, toilets and to top it all off, a great pile of “gold” beside the old gold mine. The Towers was a gold town in its heyday.
So, head north for 38Km and park up for the night at Fletcher Creek which seems to be Caravan central for van travellers out this way. Running water, yabbies’, fish, but I guess they’re all a bit depleted by now as until a week or so ago that place was a nightly parking place for up to 200 caravans.
We had no trouble finding a great spot and the Child Bride and I relived memories of 14 years ago when we passed through here on our way to manage Granite Gorge Caravan Park near Mareeba.
It really is worth a night or so here as there are toilets, showers and a dump point. All provided by the Council, knowing that we’ll spend money in Charters Towers.
Incidentally, this morning was the first time on this trip that we’ve heard the call of the Blue Winged Kookaburra which lives from here north. Nothing like the regular Kooka laugh. No shortage of other birdlife either…. Black Cockatoos, Crimson Winged Parrots, Peaceful Doves, Herons, Wood Ducks.
Getting the picture? Love the place …..particularly now that the southern hordes are thinning. We have a bit of a joke in the Caravan Park business……two days at 38 degrees and there’s not a Victorian in the park. No insult to Victorians because we couldn’t stand their winters. They’re tough buggers down there.
OK. Moving on. Heading for The Lynd Junction, Mt Garnet and the Atherton Tableland.
We’ll decide where we camp a bit further