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12/09/2013

A Secret

I have to tell you a little secret. You know our situation about the house in Holland and so on? Well, the only way we could get some extra money before we sell the house is, either to buy tickets for the lotto what we did already several times, or to dig for some gold of which we believe Australia has plenty!

Most probably our luck of finding some will be the same as the luck we had with the lotto but anyhow we bought us a detector, we are travelling around anyway so why not taking such thing with us.

We have been practicing in Ravenswood along the road and found a lot of beer tops haha. A few of the women we have met on our trip till now were running around with golden nuggets around their necks and a lot of these nuggets were found in Georgetown. Well well, Georgetown seems to be on our route so..........
I figured out that THE place to go to is Flat Creek Station, 45 k's from Georgetown in the middle of nowhere AND of which 30 k's dirt road. After investigation I found out that the road was in a good condition and us were told you could even get there with a normal 2WD. Our adventure had started!!

After the surprise of Mount Surprise we headed toward Georgetown and the station. 





When we drove a while on the gravel road Fred looked concerned to me and saw me sitting there with a white face. We were too far to go back and there were no real spots where we could turn and  I was very sorry I put us in this position because it was me who wanted this. The car is too low for this type of roads, it's not only the stones which hit under the car and caravan but there were low dry creeks we had to go through and we heard the tow bar scraping over the ground several times. I realised I had put our house and car in danger, we live in it, it's all we have.

After more then an hour of sweating we came to the gate which was closed and a sign said we had to call in at the homestead and so we turned and went to the homestead (we thought), we came again at a gate and I suggested I would walk to the homestead because this was not the only gate we saw so walking would most probably go faster. 



The heat was nearly killing and everywhere were cows but I kept on going. 



After three gates I came to a house, with a gate haha, and I yelled at a figure I saw walking. A guy came to me and it surprised me that he didn’t look like a farmer at all, especially not an Aussie Farmer!!  He seemed to be a backpacker who was looking after the homestead because the owners were delivering cattle somewhere and they would be back the next day, they would come and see us then at the camp ground.

So I walked back to Fred and we headed of to the camp. Coming there, there were a few other caravans and tents so we wouldn’t be alone in the bush, which of course wouldn't feel good. We first had a spot in the burning sun which was much too hot and then we got a nice spot (Warren, a fellow prospector pointed it to us) under the trees. During that switch we got stuck between two trees and again nearly damaged our little house. We had to take it off the car, turn it by hand, can you imagine half on a hill so we had to put a rock in front of the wheels, and then put the car back on again to drive to the other spot. All this under bloody hot circumstances. After setting up we plumped down into our chairs and were emotional exhausted. BEER Time!!

Look at all the dust, it creeps in everywhere;




Fortunately we had left early so we were there early and had some time to do a bit of prospecting (gold searching), of course no luck.


Being in the bush, far from everything, still having some people around so a save feeling, having a marvelous dinner, sitting outside till late, what a life!! We could even forget the trouble coming here for a moment. 






And look at all the wildlife you meet;









Next day we spent whole day prospecting and still no luck. Coming back at approx. 4 o’clock, dirty, sweaty, first having a cold beer and then have a hot shower through a donkey system; FEELS LIKE HEAVEN ON EARTH.  You gather some wood, start a fire under the barrel with water and everyone who passes just put another log on the fire to keep it running as long as its necessary.




We had just decided that we would stay the Sunday too and leave on Monday when we heard that everyone was leaving on Sunday. It’s not that we are scared in the bush but to be on your own at a place; no telephone reception what soever, were you can’t get help if something happens, no that’s not our cup of thee. Anyhow next day we found out that we didn’t had enough power left, the fridge draw too much power and we were under the trees, the solar couldn’t handle it so we had to go anyhow.

But before that, we had a very nice Saturday evening because the farmers were back and invited everyone at the camp to come to the hill and have a drink together and watch the sunset and because you could only come at the hill with a 4WD, Warren and Colleen asked us if we would like to come with them which we did! Thanks again guys!

















After the sunset we had our meal and lighted a fire, not because it was cold but just for fun





It was really beautiful!! What an experience again!

So, now I have a question to you dear readers; what should we do?? To buy another car with which we can go on dirt roads to go prospecting, we need to find gold, to find gold, which obvious you can only find at spots you can only come with a 4WD, you need……..?

Who has the solution!


07/09/2013

A sn(e)aky experience at Mount Surprise

OK mates, sit down, have your favourite drink and a cigarette if you smoke, but most of all, take your time to watch this;

You remember the road with the elephant bums? Well that's the way we are driving now again but instead of going down to Charters Towers, we now go towards the west. 




Our goal is Darwin but we hope we are not too late because what we experience till now is that we stay much longer in places than planned. Oh well we will see.

After Ravenshoe our first stop was Mount Surprise and Oh My God, it WAS a surprise !! We planned to stay at Planet Earth Adventures 





which consisted of a big shed and next/behind that there were powered and non powered sites in a paddock. 




Further there was a toilet/shower block in a real Aussie style of corrugated sheets.
Very nice showers by the way! In the shed was a great kitchen where the owner: Russell, could conjure a meal........ We had the best fish plate ever! 


In the mean time, the Savannahlander came into " town", this train still operates between Cairns and Forsayth, Forsayth is a very small town you can't even get to without a 4W-drive.









All passengers were somewhere having lunch.

OK guys this was the train, lets go back to Russell's;
One of the things he is famous for, is the snake show he used to give. We understood he doesn't do that to often anymore and we already wondered where the snakes would be till we came in one part of the shed which was established as a museum (OK, we don't like museums but this was a nice small one with things out of the past I could even remember!) 







and there they were brrrr!! 





At about 5 o'clock so called happy hour or sherry time, we sat relaxing in front of the caravan when we saw Russell cleaning the cages of the snakes and we decided to have a look at a decent distance, Russell noticed us and before Fred could even blink his eyes he had a snake around his shoulder, a python! 






And of course after a while I had to face the same fact brrrr. 



The treat for not killing us was a white rat, fortunately he wasn't hungry 



but that was no problem for Russel, he just grabbed another snake who did had appetite!





Sorry Russel but still I prefer this on my shoulder;



As I told you we had that last night a terrific dinner and a very nice time because again we have met lovely people with whom we had a nice chat!!




We will never forget Mount Surprise and Russell with his snakes!
(He had about 9 by the way) 

Cheers! See you next time!