Wednesday 17th July, 2024
On Tuesday morning we walked to the waterhole after breakfast. We thought it was a bit more than the official 2kms there, and we had to cross little creeks a couple of times. The warterhole was definitely worth the walk, very peaceful, with a bench to sit on, and some birdlife, including a bird of prey which we haven’t yet identified.
Stephen said that he saw many gannets on the little cliff overlooking the water, but he had to go to some rocks which allowed him a better view than ground level where I took the photo.
One of the staff came out in the little quad bike and spoke with Stephen. He said he wanted to chop down a tree and there was a van parked all by itself, he wondered if it was ours. Stephen didn’t think it was, and told him ours had Sherwood written on it. The man did the round trip again to tell us that it was indeed our van. So, I got to ride back to the caravan park in the quad bike, which I secretly wanted anyway.
I shifted the Sherwood to another area, as directed by the manager, and then went to watch the tree being chopped down. I tried to video it on my phone, but managed to miss the vital moment when it fell. The tree looked interesting, but was actually dead, and possibly dangerous if blown over when the area was full of vans.
I was offered a lift back to the waterhole, but decided to do one last load of washing instead, this time our towels, face flannels and bath mats. I then made a cup of tea and Stephen arrived as it was ready. He checked that we could go back to our original parking space. That’s when it became exciting. We tried a couple of places, but the Sherwood still wasn’t level. As I was driving back across the lawn I managed to drive straight over a reticulation post, with a rather nasty sound.
I had to finish the run, with the awful sound still happening. Fortunately the reticulation was undamaged, it was just the plastic post surrounding it that was toast. I didn’t think to take a photo as I was feeling a bit shattered. Later, the plastic was replaced and all was well.
We settled on a different spot in the park with better sunlight and had a peaceful afternoon and evening.
The reason Stephen came back a bit earlier than I expected was that staff drove the quad bike back to the water hole to pick up the rubbish from the bin and offered him a lift. He went about half way, past the water crossings, and then walked back.
Each day in our section of the park we had different neighbours in different rigs. I noticed that there were a few women travelling on their own, in campers mostly, though there was one younger woman travelling in a car and camping in a swag. She had two dogs with her.
This morning we were packed up and ready just before 10.00 a.m. All of the other campers in our section had left at least half an hour before. It was a good feeling to be on the road again.
We stopped a couple of times at roadhouses: for toilets the first time at Renner Springs, then fuel and a bit of shopping in Eliot. We are camped about 20kms north of Eliot in an unofficial campsite 3kms south of the official 24hr camping place. We’ve read that the official site gets very packed out. This is better, we have a few vans around, but plenty of space to spread out. We have a view of a muddy dam from our back window.
The days have been windy and almost completely cloud free for the past few days. Overnights are very cool and the wind can be make us feel quite chilly. But, by afternoon it’s usually a bit warmer and the wind can drop, though it hasn’t so far.
Some photos from Newcastle Waters Rest Area (South)
