We are on the road a bit earlier for this trip, leaving at
0723. We are heading north again this
weekend, and take the highway up towards Gympie. The police are out in force this morning and
we see more speed camera’s than we’ve seen for a long while. Not sure what’s so special about this weekend
… perhaps they are broke? We also spot
the army heading south in tanks.
Once at Amamoor, we head west and then south, a distance of
approximately 18K. Our destination is
roughly 2 hours from home on a good day (according to the info), but these
things never go as planned. Today being
no good day alas. The highway driving is
fine, but we find it take us 2 hours on this alone, but the dirt road into our
destination is not something to be completed at 100K’s an hour, and this
invariably slows us down a bit more.
We reach the campsite of Amamoor Station at 1000. As per the phone directions, we’ve passed the
yards, we’ve passed the firing range, and we’ve continued up to the gorge. Or at least we think we have. There is no signage, and I only have a brief
conversation with the owner to go on … really wishing we had a mud map or
something … a phone signal would be good … I could give the bloke a call. From what I gather from our phone
conversation, he doesn’t live out here.
Shame.
The paddock track heads through some very overgrown cow
pasture, up a slight rise, through a gate that has stayed open for quite some
time, through more overgrown cow pasture and then goes a bit steeply up the
side a hill. Not sure what lays ahead,
we drop the camper.
Good thing we did as we could never have negotiated this
track with the camper on without requiring a good winching here and there. Some of the turns would have been rather
tricky and being alone, this is something you don’t want to try with such a
drop off beside the road. Lives versus
stupidity – happy that today lives have won.
At the top of this track, there is a gate. We open it and head through to park and
walk. We aren’t sure if we are still on
the property or not. From here we have
no idea where we are meant to go or whether we trespassing, or if we’ve made it
to the mentioned Gorge. The brief walk
takes us through a better cropped cow paddock with a stand of large eucalypts
(widow makers some call them), but the track has split in different
directions. At a loss as to where to go
now and believing we are trespassing, we return to the camper to try and find a
shorter patch of grass (hopefully there is one).
Perhaps this reported gorge is up another valley? Perhaps it’s where we might end if we go off
the track on the way back? We don’t
know.
It’s really hot today and our hopes of The Perfect Campsite
are rapidly dwindling, so we scout back the way we’ve come to find easier
access to the creek (where we are it’s a tangled mess of lantana) and a shorter
patch of grass. The only one we find
with shorter grass is less than 50 metres from the fence of the firing
range. Stray bullet anyone?
So we head back to the open gate and find a very small patch
of shorter grass and easy access to the creek.
Seems we are home. We consider
how to position the camper, Glenn in charge and before you know it, we are set
up and seeking shade. Yes, it’s really
that hot and sticky today. One downfall
of our site is that it’s nowhere near level and we can’t open the camper
properly. The floor is still a bit “up
in the air” so we have to tie it down … if we get a storm and lots of wind,
this will be first thing that goes pear shaped for us. Tied down, we’ll have to live with it.
Down to the creek, we see there is nowhere that we can swim
as such, but lots of shallow pools to sit in.
The water is very cold and running gently. I search up and down the creek looking for a
pool that my pup can get her feet off the ground, but I can only find one or
two that are about knee deep and she swims around over the rocks happily. She’s cool and wet … a happy thing for
her.
Back at camp, we sit around cursing the heat and wondering
if a storm would come to cool things down a bit. Humidity is high making things more
uncomfortable, but we make do with cool drinks.
As soon as the sun reaches a point where trees are casting shadows our
way, we seek them out.
Our dinner of a roast seems a bit out of place and we make
plans for cold meats and salads for future meals. The lack of a fire is something we’ll miss,
but it’s just too hot now that summer is here … well in temperature
anyway. Actual summer is still a good
week or more away. I’m pretty darn sure
it’s not taken any advice of the calendar as to when it would turn up and
summer is here with vengeance.
There is very little to do here it seems. If we walk back down the track we hit the
firing range. If we walk up the track,
it’s uphill all the way. Better to sit
in a puddle in the creek and enjoy the sound of nothing really. Not even the birds are out much today. It’s just too hot.
We tried to walk up the creek, but the way is difficult due
to downed trees, rain debris from upstream trees, and large slippery rocks.
I comment to Glenn that we should have bought the mower and
whipper snipper to make the campsite nicer.
Glenn says that would be impossible.
He’s showing little confidence in the site and I have to agree. But we are here now.
The owner said he’d come to meet us and show us around, but
he’s nowhere in sight and unfortunately for us, doesn’t show up at all through
our weekend.
There is a lot more sitting around trying to keep cool and
very little ball throwing. We do manage
to pick a few ticks of the dogs and one off Glenn who seems to attract
them. Much later in the afternoon, we
spot 2 cows in the paddock, but they keep their distance. I’m assuming they don’t get to see too many
people up close.
As the day disappears, we light the fire and get dinner
underway. Neither of us is really
looking forward to a hot meal, but we must eat.
Roast and vegies. We peel vegies,
get the roast cooking nicely and as the light dwindles, we are eating our meal
with gravy.
We’ve seen large anvil like clouds go around us and head
north east, but are yet to see one of them spill out their cargo of rain. As the night closes in, we can see an almost
fireworks like effect off in the distance.
We can’t see the clouds or the actual lightning due to the hills around
us, but we sure can see the fireworks it is producing. The flashing is almost nonstop and it’s
lighting up the sky in all directions. I
sure hope it doesn’t hit us with too much force or rain as we are on a black
soil area and the outcome could be bad for us as there are not many trees to
winch from here in this paddock. Pity we
don’t have a phone signal, as we’d be able to get onto the weather site to see
what’s happening.
Glenn has had a cool drink or two too many and it’s funny
watching him. He’s hardly ever this way
and I’m enjoying his lack of sobriety.
No doubt it will be an early night.
We listen to the UHF radio.
We’ve set it to scan to see if anyone is chatting, but all we get is a
repeating communication from Amamoor and the occasional call for a radio check,
but they can’t hear us. We’ve purchased
two hand held UHF’s as my other one’s aerial broke and it’s easier to have a
handheld when communicating around camp rather than set up the big UHF in the
ute.
After a shower, we head to bed. While Glenn sleeps very soundly, I watch the
fire show going on around us. About an
hour later, clouds now cover the sky and the light show just goes on and on and
on, but I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.
About midnight or so, I am awoken by what I guess is thunder
and then then heavens open up. The
lightning has reached us, but it seems we are just getting the edge of the
storm. Being unsure of the safety of
being in a canvas “house”, I urge Glenn and the pups into the vehicle, knowing
that this is the safest place in a storm.
There we remain for the best part of an hour, before the storm heads
further away and we can return to the camper to continue our sleep.
24.11.13
The next day dawn clear, hot and humid.
We decide to pack up camp early and head to Amamoor SF
campground for a swim and some lunch before heading home.
The creek has hardly risen so the shallow pools are still
shallow, but are just as cold and just as refreshing.
After breakfast, we get packing and are on the road just
before 1100. Heading back the way we
came, we pass the firing range and come across some cattle on the road. Long horns and lots of them. Most are sitting around and we disturb
them. Some are on the road and we must
slow right down so they can get up and move … something they don’t seem to wish
to do.
As we pass the last of them, a car comes up behind us
flashing the lights. This must be the
owner we think. Glenn hops out to say
hello, but doesn’t move from the side of the ute which is a bit strange. He is approached by a man and suddenly turns
to me, saying “Tracey has all the details.
Hop out please darling” so I grab my paperwork and hop out.
I come around the end of the car and hop over the draw bar
before I realise the man has a gun. He’s
just finished putting it in an under arm holster and is putting his hand back
down. I’m a little taken aback, but he
extends his hand and says “Hello I’m Bruce”.
I answer him with “Oh so you aren’t the owner then” and a discussion ensues
about the owner and his absence as well as his lack of mentioning visitors to
the gun club residents. Bruce tells us
that the Gorge and a nice camping area complete with BBQ is indeed up that
steep track and that we missed a nice camp.
Yeah right Bruce. Bruce thought
we were cattle rustling apparently. Not
sure how you come to that conclusion towing a camper trailer. I ask if that’s a gun he has and he says yes
it’s a 9mm pistol. I say I’ve never shot
a gun and he tells me that I’m missing out.
I highly doubt that. He mentions
that they get $44 for dog hides and they aren’t very fussy what kind of dog
they shoot … tagged or otherwise … so to be very careful with our dogs in
future. We say our goodbye’s as we are
leaving and he thankfully heads back to his car.
Talk about intimidating!
That little meet and greet scared me.
Once back in the car, Glenn mentions that the reason he didn’t move from
the door was because Rambo had the gun in his hand as he approached our
vehicle. I’m quite shocked and very glad
we are leaving. We discuss this for
quite a while on the drive out and happily agree he was an ass. An armed ass, but an ass none the less. I consider reporting him to the police, but
as we were on private property, don’t think they’ll take it too seriously. (Later discussions with my father make me
wish we’d just driven straight to the cop station – but the cop was probably a
member of the gun club – or Bruce was the Sergeant).
We make our way to the Muster campgrounds but decide not to
go into the actual campground, but rather take shelter under some shady trees beside
Amamoor Creek and see if we can find somewhere to swim. Which we do straight away. While wading in after walking downstream
after our initial dip, I spot a snake in the water and I exit the water and try
to get the dogs out of harm’s way … losing sight of the snake altogether. It was in ankle deep water and heading
downstream where the large pool was we were swimming in. Wishing I’d gotten a photo, I decide that now
is a good time for lunch.
We head back to the car for lunch. Salad and bread. Eating it whilst sitting in the shade is
wonderful. Glenn lays back and
snoozes. Poor thing must be feeling a
bit under the weather. Sitting back for
about an hour or so, we do another scan on the UHF’s and head down for another
quick dip before heading off just after midday.
Homeward bound.
Thankfully nothing as exciting as our morning happens again. Traffic is good, no accidents, no breakdowns
and we make it home early for a change.
The temperature goes from 35C to 27C as we head under a storm on the way
home and we can see more storms as we get closer to Brisbane, but alas nothing
at home, where the temps again rise to 35C.
Trip Kilometres: 420
Trip Duration: 48
hours
2 comments:
Crikey, thats a bit much with the gun. All sorts out there, always got to be careful. Pity you never found the right spot to camp in and it was so hot. Least the dog had a wee bit of water to cool down in. Keep up the great work :)
Tracey,
Thanks for your write-up on this one, I should have read more into it before, however we have just returned from Amamoor Station, and wanted to fill in more details that you possibly didn't encounter for the benefit of any future readers.
We booked two nights here, and had already done so and paid prior to seeing your blog. We also found that the directions were very poor. The directions consisted of little more than "continue to the end of the road then camp somewhere along the creek". Before leaving I contacted the owner and advised him that I had just read comments about a disturbing incident with a person and a handgun and asked if we needed to check-in or notify anyone of our presence I was advised that the neighbor ran a gun club and no, we did not need to let anyone know. Feeling reassured we continued out to Amamoor.
Firstly, at the end of the road we encountered the no entry sign, plus the shooting club signs and a few others, but none of the signs mentioned Amamoor Station, we proceeded through anyway as there was not really anywhere else to go. Inside we found the shut gate for the shooting club and a 'hand made' side track with an open gate, this seemed to follow the creek, so we continued up. We were towing an outback caravan (which we had notified the owner of) and so stopped just where the track turned to black soil, and found somewhere flattish to setup. Thanks to your blog, I actually brought the "whipper snipper" with me and cut back an area to occupy and proceeded to get fully setup.
A very short while later, we started to hear vehicles and then voices just the other side of the creek, and within about half an hour of this the gunfire started. Initially I was reassured as it was apparent that the shots were heading the opposite way from us, despite the fact that one of our two dogs by this time was trying to find somewhere to escape to. Shortly afterwards, the shots changed direction and the guns were clearly facing us, as not only the sound had changed, but we could hear the shots landing nearer to us than where the gun fire was coming from.
As you can guess, we packed up promptly and bailed out rapidly.
Duration of our visit, was about 2 hours. So far (48 hrs since writing) there has been a marked silence in response to my email to the landowner.
We did not have the opportunity to go over the hill so do not know how idyllic and peaceful it is over the other side, but based on your report plus our experience would not advise this site unless you are travellign with just a 4x4 vehicle and can get over the hill to a safe an peaceful place. Certainly not this side.
P.s. Didn't mean to hijack your blog, I know a lot of people read it and wanted to reinforce your comments for everyone else's benefit.
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