Day 66 – 67 29th – 30th May:- To Sapphire

We bade farewell to Carnarvon Gorge National Park and idled out on to the dirt track that leads some 44 km’s out on to the main highway. We were making our way very smoothly towards the town of Rolleston and more fuel. It was pleasant drive through the valleys that led us northward. We arrived at the afore-mentioned town without having to use the $2.50 per litre fuel that I had sitting in my “gerry” can!!
Once again the phones went off like light bulbs as we came into range of the nearest mobile phone tower and all those with phones, buried their heads in them whilst trying to retrieve messages.
On to Springshure after this for a quick lunch stop, then on to Emerald which is in the heart of Queensland’s black soil plains area. Emerald is a large, well-serviced town on the Capricorn Highway. Here we needed to stock up on some supplies, so we all piled out of the Pajero and marched into the Coles supermarket, just as it began pelting with rain.
We emerged about 45 mins later and it was still raining heavily and was only about 3.30 pm. We all didn’t fancy setting the trailer up in the rain so we decided to push on westwards along the Capricorn Hwy taking the chance that we would drive out of the deluge. Sure enough, within 15 minutes we were in the dry. We pushed on and seeing as though we weren’t going to make a major town, decided to consult the “Camps 4 Booklet” and take a punt on some free camping.
This we found it at a place called Sapphire, which is about 10 k’s off the main hwy. Sapphire is the centre of the gem fields in this region. We found the camping spot, which was in the middle of a paddock opposite the general store in the “town” and once again set up camp. There were about 8 – 10 other campers using the same spot and there was a public toilet for all to use. Quite serviceable. The only disadvantage to the site was that there was an extraordinary number of bindies, which duly found their way in to every little nook and cranny within the camper and might I say upon the inhabitants of that said camper!!!
Rang sister Maddy for her birthday that night. Happy birthday Mad!!!
The rules are that you can stay at these free camp areas for 24 – 48 hours depending on the site. This one was a 24 hour site. This was all that we needed, as we wanted to push on to Longreach the next day.