We opt for a long drive today but an adventurous one. 

First stop is the old mining town of Ravenswood. This is a town full of interesting history and grand old buildings. We have coffee at the Ravenswood Railway Hotel and the owner shows us through some of the old hotel. The building is timber and brick and has beautiful stained glass windows, high ceilings and 22 accomodation rooms.

Onto the Burdekin Dam which is massive. The day area is well kept and landscaped. You have to travel along the bottom of the dam wall along the spillway. This is the only way to continue our journey South and its only open when water is not coming over the spillway.

The journey through the range is dry but it’s interesting and free of traffic. We saw only a few vehicles. The only disappointing part was the 1000’s of hectares  pulled down by dozers as we approached the development road. This all occurred during the reign of the last state government.

We motor onto Blackdown Tableland passing kilometres of coal trains. On arrival to our booked campsite we find it occupied. This was no issue as they had a roaring fire, there was plenty of room and as fate would have it the occupiers were fellow subscribers to VKS 737 (HF radio network.),  we had a great night.

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