Dramas with Damper

Camp Oven Cooking

Nothing beats the feeling of satisfaction that you get when cooking bread over an open fire. This is a skill that over the 12 week trip I attempted with often chewy results!


If you know me then you'll know that I always love to experiment with cooking, so it should be no surprise that I wasn't content to follow the basic damper recipe from our Outback Way book. It goes something like this:


2 cups self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk

On the first attempt at damper my children said to me

Add two spoons of sugar and and a partridge in a pear tree!!

Well it certainly seemed like the saga from the 12 days of Christmas at times!! I tried to make the first damper sweet by adding cinnamon, raisins and sugar. It came out very stodgy and dry, with a black base, but everyone was desperate and ate it anyway!!


The second damper had even more stuff in it like coconut, seeds, fruit and nuts. It pretty much suffered from the same diagnosis as the first, overweight, dry and flaky with an unhealthily black bottom! But eager to please the kids did their best to eat it (with a litre of water each) and kept smiling!


Finally my moment of glory arrived!! I made a savoury damper, and followed the recipe almost to the letter, just adding some dried rosemary and a squeeze of garlic paste. It was amazing!! We cooked it on the tripod over the fire and the bottom was golden brown. It was so good we even took pictures...

Lentil soup and the best damper!

It was nearly all gone before we remembered to take a photo!

The Plenty Highway; Winton to Alice Springs

Back on the Dirt

17th to 20th   September

Road trains

We didn't meet as many of these as we thought we would, but when they came it stopped us in our tracks!! They thunder past creating a complete white-out with their dust and visibility drops to zero! Best thing to do is pull over, do the windows up, turn air con to internal circulation and wait for the dust to clear!!

 

Road train dust storm!

 

Middleton Hotel and Geocaching

 Having read about this tiny town we decided to drop in for a drink and a chat. Middleton used to be a stop on the Cobb & Co. mail run back in the day and had a population in double figure, now it’s just made up of 2 people! The hotel is very rustic and the toilets are authentic outback style! The proprietor Leister Cain and his wife were good for a yarn, and the boys did their first Geocache at the Middleton Hilton Hotel!

Middleton - Population 2 people (and 1 dog)

This is the affordable version of the Hilton sans facilities!

Original mail coach

Geocache was a good way to keep the boys on their toes!

 

Boulia

We skipped though Boulia, which is famous for the MinMin light. This ghostly glowing orb of light is the towns supernatural claim to fame, and provided a good stimulus for a bit of story telling in the car!




Lookout on the Plenty Hwy

 

Back on the Dirt Again!

After Boulia the plenty Highway took its true form, a corrugated dirt road! It wasn’t anywhere nearly as bad as some other outback roads we had driven on so that was a pleasant surprise! We camped at a great spot on the Georgina River and were literally miles from anywhere or anyone. The stars were awesome and created a spectacular dome from horizon to horizon in every direction. Wow, bush camping at its best!

 

Classic outback view

 

Fire building never lost its fascination - this was a new
technique tepee inside temple which proved the most successful!

Lots of flies at this camp

Complete isolation

 

Too Close for Comfort

After an extremely long day of driving in harsh conditions we had a very close encounter with a floodway sign. I asked Simon a question about the odometer at just the wrong moment and a glance at the reading as we hit a bend took us into a skid. With the trailer up on two wheels everyone’s heart rate doubled but Simon, calm under pressure, got all wheels back on the ground with only a little damage to the tyres…although the same cant be said for his jocks!! With a sense of relief we decided to make camp that night ASAP and headed for the gem fields fossicking area for a free camp about
100km east of Alice.

Fossicking campsite

Sunset on the gem fields

 

Alice Springs

Treating ourselves to a Big4 campsite and enjoying unlimited hot water and the use of the washing machines we re-stocked in Alice Springs. The centre of Alice is has a high level of security around the purchase and consumption of alcohol, so we had to time our bottle stock-up within those limits. We did not see any sights in the town itself, but utilised their excellent visitor information centre to plan the next part of our trip into the red centre.

 

Charters Towers to Winton

Inland Queensland

Monday 15^th to Wednesday 17^th September

 

Winton

The journey to Winton signalled the beginning of the Outback Way and our road home!

 

The information boards along the Outback Way

Dry as a bone!

The reviews for Long Water Hole all said that the place was very dry, but I don’t think us Poms could actually imagine what that would really look like. The camp area looked like a dry riverbed with a cracked mud base with large splits between each mud plate. Cows wandered in their aimless way around the area and emus darted between the campers. There was a waterhole, (although not so long as the name suggested) and that attracted lots of little birds too.



That emu stole our bread!

Life and death in the drought

 

Choose your spot Wisely!



When we went looking for a place to set up the camper we saw the unappetising consequences of no toilets! Bits of toilet paper stuck out like flags of surrender from every crevice behind every bush! We camped as far away as possible from the white flags but you had to be very careful where you stepped in the dark!! There were free toilets and hot showers in the BP garage in Winton and these were a bit of a life saver!

 

Cows came very close to camp

Not the nicest surface to camp on!

Winton – the best outback town we’ve seen!

We spent a day exploring Winton; the town is working very hard to capitalise on it’s heritage and natural discoveries and is well set up for visitors. Our highlights were the Australian Dinosaur Centre, the Waltzing Matilda Centre and Arno’s Wall!

Good food in a country tavern



Australian Age of Dinosaur Museum

We all approached this with huge reservations after the extremely dull day at Riversleigh (see Lawn Hill post), but this place totally blew us away! The centre is out of town and you get a very personal tour of the behind-the-scenes reconstruction of real dino bones. This is an agonisingly slow and painstaking process, run by a devoted team of researchers and volunteers. I was amazed to find out that there are more dino bones than people to deal with them in the Winton area!! Two new species of Aussie dinos have been discovered in Winton at the centre and they are set to become a dino mecca for enthusiasts!

                                   

Dino bones encased in plaster - it will take the team 10 year to sort these & they only dig for 3 weeks a year!

Real dino bones you can touch!

                                                        

 Arnos Wall

 

Arno’s Wall was a crazy collection of human detritus gathered over many years and transformed into art!!

 

 

Charters Towers

Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th September

 

 

Scenic Route

We decided to cut across country to get to Charters Towers from Eungella, and this was a very scenic and long route!! We drove all day and decided to bush camp on the roadside just south of the town.

 

Bush Camp

Bush camping allowed Simon the opportunity to use his new chainsaw, (a father’s day present), for the first time. The camp was lovely, with lots of dead wood that could be chopped into logs for the fire.

You can only play with my new toy if I can hold it too!

Chainsaw madness

The camp...in the middle of nowhere!

The boys became expert fire builders and this is their work

The cows were attracted by the noise of the chainsaw!

Camp Oven Stew

 

We cooked one of the best camp dinners of the whole trip on the fire that night, beef stew! We found that if we used the tripod it didn’t burn on the bottom so easily, and of course the coals on top of the pot create the oven effect.

Beef stew cooking with coals on top of the pot

Aussie Outback Oasis

Although we had planned to see Charters Towers on the way through the following day, we sustained some side wall damage on the tyre and decided to stop at the local Big 4 for the following night to give us time to sort things out. This is one of the most authentic Big 4 sites that we have stayed in, managing to combine natural bush surroundings with modern facilities and entertainment for the kids. I loved their take on the ‘bush kitchen’ with fire pit and pizza oven to boot!! It’s very rare in a commercial campsite to be allowed fires so this was a little gem!

Original and authentic bush feel

Fire pit area

The bush kitchen

Our spacious site

Charters Towers

 

Charters Towers was originally a gold rush town and it’s prosperity was legendary, at one time in it’s history it was the second largest city in the state of Qld. Locally known as ‘The World’ it reached it’s peak in 1900 when there were 892 hotels in the city, today there are (sadly) only 8!! We visited the town on a sleepy Sunday soaked up the historic atmosphere visiting the Stock Exchange Building, Towers Hill lookout and WWII bunkers.

 

 

View of 'the World' aka Charters Towers

Drive in Movies

We spent the evening re-living yester year at Tors drive in movies. We were a bit confused about where to park but direction was at hand and the kids enjoyed ‘The Expendables 3’ although it was a bit of an endurance challenge for me! Tors show a movie double bill, but it was way past our usual bedtime by 9pm so we only stayed for the one!



Eungella National Park

Platypus Bush Camp

Thursday & Friday 12th  to 13th  September

 

Leaving the thriving backpacker and holiday community of Airlie Beach we arrived in the mountainous Eungella National Park near Finch Hatton Gorge. We stayed in a unique camping and tree top retreat ‘Platypus Bush Camp’.

Rainforest Retreat

The camp was extremely laid back, owned and run by Wazza whose hippy heyday lives on in the amazing bush camp he has created. Tree top accommodation open to the sights and sounds of the forest is tucked away in secluded spots amongst the trees, whilst campers have a small number of sites to choose from. The swimming hole is crystal clear and the rainforest showers are really something else!!

 

Swimming pool!

'La Casa de Wazza' !!

 

 Back to Nature

 

Platypus Bush Camp is all about getting back to nature, and the showers are the epitome of this. They are housed in a regular style closed building from the front, but the back of the shower literally opens straight into the rainforest!! This isn’t the place to be prudish, and if being overlooked in the shower bothers you then take the ‘clothing optional’ advice from the swimming hole and shower with your bathers on lol!!




Front of showers look very ordinary...

...but open the door and you are in the forest!

Gecko in my Pyjamas!

We enjoyed two tranquil relaxing nights here, building fires in the communal pit and cooking damper in the camp oven. There is lots of wildlife, but unfortunately we didn’t see the resident platypus family that lives on the property, but I did get up close and personal with a gecko! After putting my pyjama top on I lay down to sleep but felt something flicking behind my left shoulder. I thought it was a twitching muscle for a while but when we investigated a terrified gecko ran out into the bed! That certainly caused some action in the camper trailer, as we scrambled to send our uninvited visitor on his way!



Eungella is over 800m above sea level in the mountains of Qld

Wonderful Whitsunday's - day 9 & 10

Last Days in the Whitsunday Islands

9th - 11th September 2014

Day 9 - Hayman Island

Saving the best till last we were all very excited to sail to Hayman Island for the day, having heard that Blue Pearl bay offered some of the most impressive snorkelling in the Whitsundays. This area was pretty busy, and we were lucky to get a mooring within 10 minutes of arriving. It’s a bit like driving round the Westfield car park, you just have to wait for someone else to go! Blue Pearl didn’t disappoint, the snorkelling was good from the beach, but really great towards the south of the bay near castle rock. Simon stayed in the tender so that we had support as the water was pretty deep with some strong currents at times.



Looking from Langford to Hook Island

 This area is popular with large party style boats, and a few of them erected huge inflatable slides from their masts. Our kids looked on enviously, but it was strictly over 18s!! To add insult to injury a large flashy power boat moored next to us for the afternoon, and the boys couldn’t believe their eyes when 20 bikini clad girls surrounded one bloke who took them out to splash around!!



Langford Island

After lunch we moved to Langford Island, which has a huge sand bank exposed at low tide, and although the plan was to go for a walk, I couldn’t resist another snorkel!! It wasn’t long before the whole family joined me for one of the top snorkel experiences of the trip! The coral was truly amazing, with vast forests of staghorn coral, brightly coloured blooms flowering everywhere, and lots of colourful fish species. We spotted a few large fish, but they weren’t as prevalent as the brightly coloured reef fish. This was our last snorkel of the holiday and it was a great note to finish on. Strong winds were forecast for the evening so we headed into Stonehaven to weather the storm.



Getting a bit arty!

Day 10 - Wet and Wild on the Trapeze



A big swell ensured some great waves!

With a strong wind we headed out for a sail, with no particular end destination we challenged ourselves to get the fastest speed from Mintaka. The kids were roped onto the trapeze for a wet and wild ride and we reached over 5 knots under sail!! 

 

What we didn’t anticipate was how far we travelled and before we knew it we almost reached the limits of the charter zone!! Heading back into land meant going up wind and the cat was sluggish and unresponsive to these conditions, with speed dropping to 2 knots or less!! So on went the engines and we motored a couple of fuel guzzling hours to reach Nara Inlet and anchor overnight.

 

 

Last Fish of the Holiday

We had expert advice that Nara was going to be a fisherman's dream, so everyone went off in the tender with high expectations. However it was a snagging nightmare and with the engine running on fumes alone we weren’t able to head towards the end of the inlet where the large fish wait at the drop off. So no fish for tea again!!

 

All good things come to an end…Boo!!

 

 

We set off early having organised and packed first thing, sailing as much of the way with a light wind. However, we had to turn the engines on when Daydream Island stole our wind and our speed dropped. It turned out that we had used much more fuel than we had realised on our previous day, and the port engine actually cut out just outside of Shute Harbour!! When we handed the boat over and re-fuelled I was glad that I had been blissfully ignorant of our empty fuel tanks, otherwise it would have been a nail biting journey back to the mainland!!

 

There isn’t a fuel gauge as such on the boat, but you calculate your fuel consumption from the engine hours. A full tank which can do 25 running hours . As we had re-fuelled at Hamilton we thought we had put in a full tank, but the pre-set payment required meant we had under estimated how much fuel to put in and therefore ran Mintaka dry on the home run!!

 

So handover was very smooth and easy, we said our farewells to the fantastic Cumberland team and re-loaded everything back into the camper trailer ready for more adventures.