OZ Blog #17 Swag Test trip. Emu Creek Camp, Chillagoe and Tom Prior,

After much planning and working out swag arrangements off I headed towards Chillagoe.

It was one of the guys at the Shed who suggested I put the swag on the roof for safety reasons and I thought it was a good idea.

I also made the ladder at the Mens Shed and used nylon bolts with nylon wing nuts to hold the swag onto the roof in adverse conditions.

It proved to be a great option, every night I went to sleep watching the stars and every morning I woke up well before dawn, sat up in my swag and watched and listened to whatever was around me.

I parked up at the Mareeba Rodeo Grounds for 2 days just to get settled into swag life, but unfortunately,

I awoke to a flat battery and had to get jump started by the caretaker.

I got the battery checked out, no problem with that. Not sure of the issue I purchased a jumpstarter kit, which gives me the ability (once it’s fully charged) to jump start the Ranger without the need for another vehicle.

This was the dawn view across the Rodeo Grounds campground.

I also purchased a 50 litre car fridge (after asking an auto electrician) making sure that running it from the cigarette lighter fitting in the car, asking if it would be ok for this vehicle. His reply was “ it would be ok if I used it only while driving and not parked up overnight”. This I did which worked well, but ideally now I need an extra battery and a solar panel to feed this then I’m good to go, but unable to do all this while heading for the Cape I just headed for Chillagoe. And the first camp was at Emu Creek camp, and what an amazing place to camp.

This was a camp driving though private property and they were in drought conditions with the creek water at very low levels. 

This exposed amazing rocks and structures in the river bed, which was this photographer's dream landscape.

Onwards to Chillagoe which is famous for its Copper mining, and some amazing caves.

But first these marks in the road, these are red dust which builds up on wheel rims on the road trains and trucks and drops off when they stop.

Truckies are advised to drop their dust before entering town.

The view from the pub while I have an evening meal and beer.

That’s quite an extra bit of weight on those phone lines.

Under these rocks are the caves, initially found by the Atherton family.

I went on two cave tours on different days, different caves. On these tours Greg, one of the National Park Rangers, was very informative and humorous too.

These are the roots of a fig tree which went down into the caves for water, literally hundreds of feet down.

I had been told to not miss the Tom Prior Ford collection in Chillagoe.

Tom has been collecting Fords and other cars and trucks since the 1960s, and is a real enthusiast.

He wanders around his collection talking to visitors chatting and starting the vehicles, each one he started for me started first go. 

 


This 1927 Model A pickup with a wooden tray, I think was built in Australia.

This is his daily transport vehicle.

Classic Aussie humour.

Tom met these Dutch explorers when they came through Chillagoe about 18 months ago and went for a ride with them.

He said the Model T handles these roads better than the modern cars.

The parts department including manuals - certainly quite like no other in the world IMHO!

This a rebuildt 1970 Ford Falcon XWGT which he put inside a plastic tent. He has been offered $1Mill but turned that down.

And outside is his wonderful collection of rusting vehicles.

It was a pleasure to meet you Tom. His parting words to me were

‘here’s my card. If you get stuck, I’ll come and pull you out’.

From here I started the trip to the Cape in earnest. The Telstra signal was very patchy up there at the best, so now back in the Tablelands I have a lot of Blog catching up to do.

Till the next blog,  Stay safe....be creative..... and have fun.

Cheers 

Jimu & Christine.