Thursday, September 12, 2013

Laura and Mareeba

We had pre-arranged to meet Don at Laura and spend the night there. We booked in to the camping ground behind the pub. It seemed cleaner and quieter than the one on the highway. Our intention was to drive to Jowalbinna Station the next day on The Old Coach Road to see the Aboriginal rock art.

We made some enquiries re road conditions etc and were told that Jowalbinna was not registered, had no public liability and that the owner was often absent, so there was no guarantee that we would be able to the artwork.

The local cultural centre, however ran guided tours with an elder.

The camp ground turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The washing machines ate dollar coins, because they were on timers and the money would run out before the cycle finished. in the end after two hours and three attempts, we took the washing out wet and hand rung it!.

As the afternoon wore on, more and more people pulled into the grounds, all vying for sites right on top of each other. One group of Polish tourists with six tents opted to camp right up against and behind a parked car with rooftop tent!

There were only two showers and two toilets for about sixty people! Needless to say the loo paper ran out almost immediately and there were queues to use the facilities!

We made a great dinner of roast pork together wonderful crackling in the dutch oven, only to have crackling spoilt by this man who kept talking at us and at us for some two hours.

All this would have been perfectly ok but for the lack of sleep that night. The Poles kept talking in high pitched, very loud voices until 11:30pm. At 12:23 the roosters started crowing and continued to crow every two hours through the night. There was heavy machinery running all night as well as someone's sleep apneoa machine! So at first light we all took a shower and just beat the crowd. It appeared that no one had slept well, except the person with the sleep problem!

The view through our rear screen! The chook and turkey run just behind us!! But not many choices re other camp sites!

All the above was indeed compensated for by our tour of the Quinkin Galleries the next day. It was truly a fabulous experience.........

A very quiet and wonderful evening with Neil and Deb restored much needed sleep!

 

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