This is Emu Creek up on the Atherton Tableland behind Cairns in Far North Queensland. Of course Emu Creek runs through a valley; but the nearby mountains are around 850 metres above sea level.
I'm not used to camping beside creeks - being a desert country man - but my brother and I decided to go camping for my birthday at one of his favourite spots, so I flew over to Cairns, where he lives. We spent 3 nights beside Emu Creek. We were out of mobile phone range so, on the day of my birthday, I had to use my new Thuraya Satellite Phone to call my family so that they could wish me Happy Birthday!
By the way, the exact location of this particular spot is a well kept secret so I won't give you the GPS coordinates.
My brothers rig, a Toyota Landcruiser, is really well set up for camping. He has a Dobsonian Mount solar panel on the roof of the rear canopy which captures energy to power the fridge/freezer which is in the back of the truck. He is able to rotate the solar panel and adjust its angle quite easily in order to face the sun. My sister in law had packed the fridge with frozen food so all we had to do was defrost and then heat, and eat. I'm not used to that kind of camping - being of aboriginal mind - I don't take anything which needs refrigeration when I go bush. I asked bro how much the solar panel and fridge setup cost and then decided that I would stick with my old ways, now that I am semi-retired!
We did two short day-trips while we were up on The Great Dividing Range. The first was to Irvinebank which had been a tin mining town in the past. We had lunch at the bar of the local pub where I bought myself a birthday present of an ingot of tin. I've always had a bit of a geological and metallurgical interest in things and now I've got an ingot of tin to add to my collection. If the tin were gold it would be worth about $3000. You'll be able to tell how big the ingot is by comparing its size to the leg of the camera tripod seen at bottom right. That tripod leg is 16mm in diameter, so you can see that you don't get much 99.9% pure tin for $15 - especially when it is sold as a souvenir. Anyway, I'm happy.
On our second day-trip we went to Almaden - a town of about three houses, one pub and a railway station. Lunch at the Almaden Pub was a mushroom pie, held in the hand, and a glass of white. That's called sophisticed dining!
Almadens' main claim to fame is that it is a stop on the route of the tourist railmotor - The Savannahlander. I got close to the track with my camera on its tripod as the railmotor pulled into the station. The driver was about to signal me to move away from the track but she changed her mind and let me get the 'moving' shot below. She was a trainee driver and may well have been fooled into thinking I was taking a promotional photo. Well, I guess I did, for here it is!!
Early in the morning of our last full day at Emu Creek a battered ute pulled up near our campsite.
Blue, who was driving, was accompanied by his yappy little dog Priscilla. Blue explained that his previous dog was a male named Elvis; so seeing he now had a female she had to be called Priscilla.
Blue set up camp nearby and we exchanged yarns throughout the day. He was a local, and often came to Emu Creek to set Yabbie Pots for the local "Redclaws". Turkey necks chopped into small lengths were his favourite bait - and I would have to agree with him given the success he had after leaving the traps in Emu Creek overnight. You can see one of the mesh traps in Blues' right hand as he climbed out on a branch of a melaleuca to set the pot in the water. He had about four or five others which he set in different locations.
You can see the results in the bottom of the blue bucket. Unfortunately we were leaving that morning and didn't get a chance to hang around for a tasty morsel; but I guess you can't have every thing.
All three of us agreed that making camp was always easier than breaking camp, as bro and I set to work packing stuff into the Cruiser. Well he did most of the work as he was not sure where everything went as his wife normally packed the kitchen side of things back into the truck. Everything eventually fitted and we set off down the mountain range to Cairns.
One day I think I would like to return to Emu Creek armed with a half dozen yabbie pots of my own.
Great way to spend your birthday. Hope you continue to enjoy your break.
Posted by: Jude | April 15, 2009 at 10:04 AM