Denise and Barry's Caravan Travels: Duaringa

Friday, July 4, 2014

Duaringa - Cania Gorge

Sunday it was another sunny clear day as we headed back out to Clermont, after our four night stop at Theresa Creek Dam. We are heading south east, which means we will be back under the Tropic of Capricorn and the weather will be slightly cooler. It was a fairly uneventful drive south back to Emerald and then southeast on the Capricorn Hwy then stopping mid afternoon at Duaringa at a free camp that the local council has provided for RV travellers. We decided to set up for the night around the back of the camp area alongside a park and a lovely grassy spot near some Paper Bark Gum Trees. Sometime later I was reading in the Wiki Camps app that it is not wise to camp near the Paper Bark Gum Trees as your car and van will get cover in Bat droppings, oh well will just have to clean it off if that happens. Later that evening we were startled with a splattering noise on the caravan, thinking that the Bats must have all let go at once and doused our van in dung! Baz went out to investigate only to find out that the sprinkler system had activated and was spraying along the side of the van. Checking the trees the next morning we realised that the council had trimmed the tops which has meant the Bats have relocated elsewhere.

The last couple of days we have been in at Cania Gorge and staying at the Top Tourist Caravan Park so we can catch up with the washing and cleaning. Looking forward to being able to wash the car and caravan at some stage as both are looking very dusty. The caravan park is relatively busy as it is now school holidays and there are quiet a few camper trailers with young familys who come here to enjoy the wildlife, walking tracks and the relaxed bush camping experience. Today Baz and I thought we would do the 20 minute walk to view Big Foot, returning 2 hours later after deciding to take on one of the longer walks, of course we did not go prepared with water. The days here have been in the low 20’s but the nights drop very low to 1 or 2 degrees.

We have been cursing that we had not packed our fire pot which Baz had made out of a 9kg gas bottle, as we have been to many camping spots where we could have used it. We had decided when we get home Baz would make another one out of a 4kg gas bottle as it would be much smaller to find a home for, we had seen a couple of designs that would be ideal for our use. Lucky for Baz when going to the kiosk at Cania Gorge Caravan Park for our ice cream, they had exactly what we wanted, so it ended up being a very expensive ice cream treat. Of course we had to try it out, works very well!