Were have we been lately? Well after the 125th Gulflander celebration we drove onto Black Bull Siding and caught up with the Gulflander and it's passengers for morning tea. We stayed at Black Bull Siding for the night with high humidity. The next morning we were leaving camp when the Gulflander arrived on it's return journey from Croydon..We moved on and explored Croydon, which has the Oldest Store in Australia. We stopped the night west of Georgetown, only to discover later in the evening, as our dinner was cooking in the campfire that we were camped on private property. The elderly owner and his offsider stopped by our camp to inform us that we were on their land. There wasn't any fences or gates, but after discussion on what was cooking for dinner and being fascinated with the choofer, they were ok for us to stay the night.

The next morning we went shopping in Georgetown before moving onto Mt Surprise, past Undarra Lava Caves and onto a gravel pit 22km south of the intersection towards Charters Towers. We stayed at this site for two nights, V8's were on, so a good lay up day.

Why were we heading south so quickly???? Well, one of Alan's mates were heading to Darwin and Al was getting worried about running out of the liquid substance that goes with the Pepsi. So he asked Laurie if he could kindly supply him with a few litres. We had to slow down abit, to met up with Laurie in Charters Towers.

We then drove down, past Greenvale (which was a town built in 1972 for the miners of the nearby nickel mine). The mine no longer operates and the railway has been pulled up back in the mid 2000, population of the town is currently only 150 people. We drove for kilometres alongside the disused railway. We also passed five camels, but they were behind a fence, so they must have been domesticated. 

Our campsite for the next two nights was 20km north of Charters Towers, Ana Branch. The first afternoon, yes V8's were on, so again time to chill out watching the race. The next day we went into Charters Towers, stock up on the essentials, water, food and of course, Pepsi.

The following day we met up with Laurie and Adlena at Trevor and Lyn's home in Charters Towers. Trevor and Lyn were kind enough to invite us to stay with them, so DABUS and Laurie's slide on camper were parked in the front yard. Trevor took us on a tour of the town, which was very interesting. A BBQ and pizza nights were the dinner meals, it was over the meals and into the evening the three guys would chat about their talents of making that liquid substance, as all three were brewers....

We left Charters Towers on Thursday morning and drove back north to the gravel pit that we had stayed at previously.

This morning we travelled onto Mount Garnet and stopped at Innot Hot Springs, were we dipped our toes into the hot stream... Lunch was enjoyed down at Millstream waterfall, which is Queensland widest falls... A kookaburra flew down and helped himself to some of Lorelle's sandwich, as she was about to take a bite of it..... Found yet another gravel pit for the night just 3km's west of Ravenshoe.... We'll explore Ravenshoe tomorrow......