Distance: 59 km
Slept until 6.30am this morning. There was a lot of dew so I used it to clean the car windscreen, lights etc before washing yesterday’s clothes. I think I should have enough clothes to get me home now.
Because it is Saturday decided to go out to the Burdekin Weir first thing before the families get out to the picnic ground there. This is the source of Charters Towers drinking water. The original weir was built in 1902 but has been raised to its current level to increase the water available when the population increased dramatically during the Second World War.
This is a half scale model of the old and new weir.
On the way back to town I detoured past the Columbia Mine Poppet Head.
Followed that by a trip to the Zara Clark Museum. Strange place - absolutely jammed with stuff and vaguely organised into ‘rooms’ with a theme. Spent quite a time there because it covered anything from transport, communications, Flying Doctor, home furnishing to mining and agriculture. There was the occasional exhibit which reminded me of my grandmother’s and great aunt’s homes (the reason why I rarely visit country museums) but overall it was interesting.
The museum was very close to the centre of town so I retraced my steps to follow parts of the self guided walk that I missed yesterday.
I visited the Miners Cottage which was from the same school of curatorship as the museum. Room after room of objects piled upon each other, this however was a private collection with even less organisation and explanation than the Museum. The owner was a prospector who used a metal detector which he demonstrated – it can tell the difference between gold and iron. I had no idea.
Made a return trip to Towers Hill to have a walk to Clark’s Gold mine which I had missed yesterday. To be honest it was not a great miss.
Followed this up with a bit of shopping (postcards and biscuits) before returning to the caravan park in the middle of the afternoon.
Took down the gazebo as the sun went behind the trees, there is dew in the morning and I don’t want to pack it up wet; besides taking it down is a time saver in the morning.
At about 5.30pm decided that I needed a curry so drove to the Charters Towers Indian restaurant.
I had intended to eat there but when I entered it was one of those places designed for takeaway only - absolutely no atmosphere, flouro lighting, plastic tablecloths, bare tables, hard chairs etc so ordered take away. When it arrived (20 mins later) drove back to my site, got out the paper plates and had a delicious Rogan Josh with Nan bread - far more than I could eat. Had to throw half away but for $22.20 who cares?
Moving on tomorrow. This is really the start of the dash for home, I expect to be there by Thursday or Friday - crossing NSW will only take a couple of days I hope because it will be too cold to hang about.
