Day 33- Charters Towers

Jordy was up super early this morning and knocking on Grandma and Grandpa's van at 6am wanting his breakfast. hehehe.

Another relaxed morning. We found Jordy's lego when we were digging the ice-cream machine out last night so Tim and Jordy played for ages building helicopters and tractors.

Then we drove into town and up to Tower Hill. The countryside around here is all really flat but right on the edge of town there is one big hill which is where they found gold in 1871. From the top of the hill you can see 360' views of the plains and the little volcanos in the distance. Tim reckons that this is his kind of country (instead of the rainforests that i like).
There are some short walks around the hill but Mum and I are talking about coming back for sunrise or maybe watching the Ghosts After Dark film that they show up at the hill so we will do the walks when it's cooler.

There are 21 bunkers from WWII scattered around the hill as well. And seismic stations and all sorts of things there now.
We wanted to see the Historical Ambulance Museum but we were on our way out of town when we realised that it shut at 12 and is only open on Wednesdays and Sundays so we are hoping there might be a way to see it tomorrow. Fingers crossed.


But we got out to see the Burdekin flood marker about 20km out of town, I think it was at Macrossin Bridge or something like that, but it had a record of all the major floods and some of them are BIG ones. There was a road that we could see on the other side of the river so we went for a drive to check it out and there was actually a freecamp area over there. A bit bloody hot and too far from the river for my tastes but quite nice. Lovely old train bridge across the river. Interestingly enough a bloke that we chatted to out there said that three weeks ago the water was only 18inches from the bottom of the train bridge which just seems incredible but you could see the debris everywhere and the sandy road was all torn to pieces where the council have not yet had a chance to get out and fix it. But Dad got to do some 4WDing so he was happy. :)

Home for a late lunch and a swim in the pool.

Tim jumped on his bike and rode into town for his own personal pub crawl. I think he really enjoyed a chance to sit and chat with some locals (even managed to get himself offered a job!) He was weaving a bit on the ol' bike as he staggered home.

Chicken, some Mungali cheese and risotto for dinner and we all crashed.