Lake Callide, Gayndah and back to Mooloolaba And so we left Lake Nuga Nuga. Our track took us through small towns, some looking prosperous but surrounded by ugly mining areas. Here even the blacktop was rough and potholed, the natural legacy of the huge trucks travelling in large numbers to and from mining sites. Holdups on the road because of the constant roadworks were common and eventually irritating as the delays and waiting became longer and longer and the ...

Lake Nuga Nuga We discovered on a map a tiny National Park - Nuga Nuga - bordering a lake of recent origin and with fairly difficult access. We hoped that we might have the place to ourselves and be able to camp somewhere different from all our previous sites this trip. Well there were only a couple of others spread out over a large area so we were virtually alone, and we found a nice little position right on the shore and facing the setting sun. Nuga Nuga is...

Carnarvon National Park Salvator Rosa Section After the delights of the Blackall Caravan Park we were happy to find a nice little camping area in a national park again. Carnarvon National Park is best known for just one section - the Carnarvon Gorge. But this park is huge and extends across the map in a swathe of green that covers a wide area from west to east. The Salvator Rosa section is at the western end and can only be reached by a dreadful unsealed road...

Blackall After several nights bush camping, it was time to find some hot showers and a washing machine, so into the big smoke - Blackall - it was. We discovered that all this time we had been 'beyond the Black Stump' and that now we were returning to civilisation. The original Black Stump, as the locals tell it, is here in Blackall and was a real stump that the early surveyors of the region used to rest their theodolite rather than their heavy tripod. Anything...

Welford and Idalia National Parks Once more across the Barcoo (with water) and we were in Welford National park. We tried to follow some tracks to a waterhole and a lookout that were on some National Park brochures but to no avail. It seems that National Parks have been closing some of the tracks and scenic routes - is this cost cutting we wonder? Certainly there were no signs and we ventured up some tracks that only seemed to peter out and give us an uncomfor...