Free camping

We had a lovely drive from Wongaling Beach to our first stop at Macrossan Park just outside of Charters Towers.  Mal is driving really well...no major dramas at all!  The ute is towing like a dream  and we have worked out how to use cruise control which is fantastic.

Its pretty barren up this way and very dry - no sign of all the rain over the last couple of weeks falling anywhere near this area.  Was amazed by the size of ant hills in the paddocks..have a look at the photo taken out the car window

We arrived at Macrossan Park late afternoon.  Its a free camping spot just 1km off the Flinders Highway.  Its quite well set up with toilets and cold water showers - though I didn't venture in either rather preferring the luxury of the van amenities...thankfully as Mal used the toilets in the morning and unbeknown to him had two toads a few inches away from his bottom..they came out to play when he flushed!!!  There are also picnic tables and wood BBQs. 

Our spot in the park.  In the rear you can see the railway bridge across the river....it looked inviting but we didn't let Chip venture in as there were crocodile warning signs up!

The van is working well on 12 volt and LPG gas now that we have worked it all out.  I even managed to cook a tasty frittata for dinner.

We were a bit worried at night as a scrub fire started at the other end of the park...we weren't sure if it was a controlled burn off or not...we found out in the morning from other campers that had been woken up early to move their van that it was a burn off that got out of control...it was all out by morning.

We drove in to Charters Towers today to check it out - not a bad sized town with a reasonable shopping area.  Managed to buy a 12volt adaptor so that I can plug my laptop in which went flat in no time at all last night when I was chatting to the kids on skype (can't be without my lifeline).

We are heading to Clermont today and another free camping spot.  Its a very bumpy undulating deserted road so far!