Prenzlau, Minden, Marburg...

Well, you might think I am back in Germany, not so, instead I find myself southwest of Brisbane, in beautiful rolling hill country that has been settled by Germans, back in the 1870s.  These are all small townships with populations of a few hundred each, a highway passing through some of them.
Map in Marburg area....

Des, the man that comes around in the afternoon to collect the site fees at Marburg Sportsground, tells me that he is 100% of German heritage, both his parents, grand parents etc. are all of German descent and Des, with his bright blue eyes does look very German even though he is a dinky-dye Aussie. 

I had a great drive yesterday from the town of Esk, about 130km west of Brisbane, through the city of Toowoomba, finally arriving at Marburg.  Esk is a quaint small town to the west of Lake Wivenhoe which is hidden behind a range of mountains.  I did like the setting there, the weather sunny, a few small shops selling Antiques, others selling Motorbike gear and one shop with what I call Hippiegear, the smell of incence aesily identifyable a few shops away.  There were also, what must have been well over a hundred Bikies with their heavy motorbikes rolling into the parking lot of the local Pub and I am told, its a popular stop for the biking community.  I stayed for 2 nights.

Note that the State of Queensland has buit a whole lot of artificial lakes to provide water for the various communities.  They can be found to the West of the Eastcoast from about Bundaberg all the way to the border to New Sout Wales.  Many provide great locations and facilities for people in Caravans etc.

Since my last blog entry I have been travelling to yet another lake, Lake Monduran, just to the West of Bundaberg, through Biggenden, then on to the really beautiful area around Maleny, located in the Highlands, west of Noosa Heads.  The countryside a bright green after all the rain in previous days.  I really enjoyed being there, also catching up with 'old' friends, Babs and Klaus who have been running a great Bavarian Restaurant at Maleny for many years, called "King Ludwigs" .  I very much enjoyed their company and hospitality, allowing me to camp at their hillside property.

View from the Bunya Mountains

From Maleny I travelled a little further west to check out the Bunya Mountains which rise to about 1000m above sea level.  I did not put into practice my original intention to stay up there as I found it too cold, so, instead I stopped at Kumbia.  The next day I travelled back to the coast, spending the night at Tewantin, just to the north of Noosa Heads.

Chilling out at Lake Lenthall

Built in 1984, Lenthalls Dam was named after the pioneering family in the district, the waters created by the dam are called Lake Lenthall.  The lake has a relatively small surface area of 400ha, an average depth of 3.9 meters and holds some 28 000 ML of water at full supply level.
It's main purpose is for town water supply for Hervey Bay City Council.
Lake Lenthall is situated approximately half way between Maryborough and Torbanlea along the Bruce highway. A further 7 km off the highway along a gravel road will find you at the lake.

View across the lake from my spot

Map of Lake Lenthall 

 I kind of discovered this place by accident, having checked my maps and then following my GPS at first, down some rather ordinary tracks which turned out to become undriveable for my Motorhome, endig in a rather boggy creek crossing I decided not to drive through, turning around instead.

They have RED dragon flies here

I finally did find a dirt road that led to the lake.  What a lovely and peaceful spot!  Apart from myself, there is only one caravan on this site, no generators anywhere and my Solar System is now working perfectly to supply power for all my appliances without any fuss.  What is even more surprising is that I can receive a whole lot of TV channels, both analog and digital, not that I watch a lot of TV, but this morning it was nice to listen to the news of Deutsche Welle, transmitted by SBS.


It is wonderful to spend my day surrounded by nature, sitting in the shade listening to the sound of birds all around me.  I feel very relaxed....

Trying to escape a very wet South East Coast

Sapphire, a town where people are still searching for (and finding) Sapphires in a whole range of colours, yellows and pinks as well as the traditional deep blues.  Eck and Suki have set out to do a bit of fossicking around, so now I am happy to report that they have found a number of stones that look absolutely fabulous cut and polished.  Congratulations!!

I must admit that this kind of activity is not really my personal preference, so I am happy to leave that to those that do enjoy it.  From Sapphire its back to Emerald for some shopping and then a drive on to Duaringa, on the road to the east coast, where I spend the night at the town’s lovely rest area.  In the morning I continue to Rockhampton and on to Yeppoon to put up camp at a nice park right on the beach.  Great to feel a cool breeze coming off the ocean while I spend time chatting with my neighbors.

Back on the road through Rockhampton where I remember their perfectly timed traffic lights all the way through town.  After waiting at a traffic light to change to GREEN I get to the next light to turn RED right in front of me, every time.  Great for traffic flow, if start / stop is what you are after, but then, why would you hurry ?  Queenslanders are so lay-back.

A great camp spot on the Caliope River

There have been extensive rainfalls in the area, so the landscape is green, a sight I have not seen a lot of during my travels across Australia.  My next stop is right by the Caliope River, about 15km west of Gladstone, a great spot, where I intend to spend at least 2 nights.  The weather report advises rain all along the east coast to my south, with some heavy falls north of Brisbane in excess of 200mm in just a few hours.  I best wait that one out!

 I am also enjoying my stay at Caliope River

Just a bit more beach, then heading back in-land for less humidity

From Mission Beach I drive back into the foothills of the Tableland, threading my way along backroads, fields of sugar cane and the many narrow gauge railtracks used by cane trains for the transport of the harvested cane to one of the many sugar mills.  Eck had recommended to come see Paronella Park, a private property that has been developed by a well to do man from Spain.

 José Paronella’s dream was to build a castle.  He chose a special part of Australia and created Paronella Park.  On 5 Hectares beside Mena Creek Falls he built his castle, picnic area by the falls, tennis courts, bridges, a tunnel, and wrapped it up in an amazing range of 7,500 tropical plants and trees (now a lush rainforest!).  It opened to the public in 1935.

Various cyclones and floods have done major damage to a large part of the property, being in the Wet Tropics obviously adds its own measure of destruction as most of what is left standing is covered in green moss and lichen, also adding to a sense of eeriness.

I have spent the night at their Caravan Park but leave the following morning to head once again closer to the ocean, to the town of Ingham. While I am at Ingham I drive back into the hills to take another look at Wallerman Falls as it is more than 2 years since my last visit there.  Its a steep and windy road that takes me to the top of the Falls and I am rewarded with a much larger amount of water rushing to drop about 270 metres into the valley.

 Wallerman Falls

I stop at Balgal Beach, about 45km north of Townsville, staying for two nights.  During the day, a Minibus arrived with about a dozen geriatrics, probably from a home for the elderly. They were accompanied by two ladies who worked with them, throwing a ball to one at a time and them having to do simple arithmetic calculations, like adding 10 to the previously called number.  Obviously there were a number of variations to that game and it looked as if most of the oldies seemed to enjoy it.  Eck and Suki had also arrived and we all had a good laugh with the players.

 "Oldies" having a bit of fun with a ball

I have had some difficulties with my house batteries not holding proper charge, so the first thing I do when I get into Townsville, is to drive to Battery World the same company I had bought two new batteries from back in Sydney last December.  Turns out that one of the two was not holding charge and they replaced it under warranty.  It also turned out that the 240V power unit supplied with the Motorhome only has an output voltage of 12V, not nearly enough to properly recharge my house batteries which require about 14.2V.  I invested in a new power supply to take care of that part into the future.

 

The battery on the left is new

This is my wonderful new power unit

The following morning I drive by the Post Office to collect my forwarded mail and leave Townsville for Lake Carlyle a fairly large lake, about 120km south off the main highway to Charters Towers.  Two lazy days above Burdekin Dam in a near empty Caravan Park provide a good opportunity to give my Motorhome a good wash on the outside, finally getting rid of a lot of dust and grime.  Being Friday, by late that day quite a few new neighbours arrive, all of them with large powerboats in tow and all of them setting up large tents for their families.  All of them are really looking forward, to a day of water skiing on the lake. 

 Damm wall at Lake Carlyle

A very colourful character strolling around the park

The drive to and from the lake crosses several cattle properties, as I count 22 cattle grids which separate different property pastures.  There is lots of green grass after the recent rains and also many stray cattle all over the road at various places.  I keep an eye on my speed as I do not want to end up with a dead Bull across the front of my vehicle.