16-28 deg C, clear and sunny, another perfect day in Queensland
Greg did his usual walk before breakfast with Bob again. After breakfast Greg, Wendy and Bob rode out to the old copper Smelters. What fascinating ruins, with only remnants of some buildings and three distinctive chimneys still standing. It's all a reminder of the gritty, bustling workforce, heavily loaded ore trains and large scale innovative industry that gave life to the Chillagoe site between 1901 and 1943. On the return trip we visited Cairns Marble work site that had many nice-looking chunks of white marble, some already sliced into slabs. We also saw a lot of really old broken down machinery and steel structures from when the mine was operational and since. After visiting the local weir, it was back to the vans via the town centre for mornos, including some of Noeleene's freshly baked scones. Very nice! These were the first batch done in their new air fryer as their Swift gas oven is under recall, so they cannot use it.
Over mornos, we discussed the next couple of legs of our trip. Wendy suggested, after reading many posts on Facebook, that going to The Tip was probably not a good idea at this time as there are A LOT of people on the roads up there. In addition, it's going to be in the middle of school holidays when we are due, it will be even worse. Coupled with the fact the weather is forecast to turn nasty, we had a robust discussion and decided to call it quits on trying to make it to The Tip this time. We will go to Cooktown however, as we are guaranteed at least four nights there due to an earlier booking. We now have another 17 days to play with, so we will now be able to spend a little more time in other parts of the state.
After lunch we had our usual rest, that was cut short by our new neighbours trying to move in. We had to move our vehicle for them to be able to back-in to their site, and then they changed their minds and wanted to park like we are, alongside the site. Wendy jumped out of the van to tell them not to get too close as we need to connect the vehicle to the van in order to leave in the morning. That threw them into a spin for a minute, before lots of forwards and rearwards motion finally got them into the position they wanted to be, whilst leaving us enough room to hitch up and get out tomorrow.
After all that excitement we (Greg, Wendy and Bob) drove out to Mungana to do the self-guided tour of The Archways Caves. They were awesome in a different way to the Royal Arch Caves yesterday. Although we had no running commentary, the scenes were just as good. On the return journey we stopped at the old Mungana cemetery and Mungana rock art (aka Aboriginal paintings). Not that exciting.
Back to the vans for exercising/stretching, blogging, and dinner preparation. Happy hour was had at 5:15pm, followed by an outdoor dining experience to be remembered, complete with white table cloth. The sky viewing tonight was excellent, a little ambient light but we still managed to spot nine satellites, a few aeroplanes, and five shooting stars. Not a bad effort.
All in all, a jolly good day at the office.
The moon between the branches
The shed beside the old Chillagoe railway station
Cattle truck
Chillagoe Creek
Chillagoe Smelters
Cairns Marble work site
A little pink in this one
Dave the Elasmosaur
Domesticated Guinea Fowl
Chillagoe Weir
Old Chillagoe Railway Station
Our camp spot
Have been getting rainbow routes on Map My Ride lately
Cheeky Apostle birds around the van
Mungana - The Archways
Mungana Rock Art
Old Mangana Cemetery
Some very good-looking cattle beside the road, not at all perturbed by the vehicles
Look out for those cattle than want to head-but your vehicle
