Day 5 - Emerald to Charters Towers by Danny and Paddy

Today started with a bit of a hangover from last night (not an alcoholic one) whereby we were trying to avoid the caretaker of the Showgrounds. Last night it was on a knifes edge whether or not he would kick us out. He arrived after dark to our camp and he made it pretty clear there was no camping - it was also pretty clear that he was a bit of an odd bod. It was clearer still the strange bastard was in love with his dog - and that was our in…we poured on the shmooze and patted the bloody dog and within a short moment Robert was our new best friend. Hedging our bets still we poured on a line that we were in a horse float because we were expecting the delivery of 2 horses the next day - and with that line I held my breath everytime Caroline spoke - as she still hasn’t mastered the art of deceit! It is either a little known rule or at least a common courtesy that Showgrounds don’t refuse you if you are travelling with or have commerce with stock. As we are always travelling in a horse float, albeit empty, we pull this one regularly.

After we got ourselves together this morning we had a look at the Emerald cattle sale which was adjacent to the Showgrounds. Bill was keen to get a Brahman calf but it was a very small sale. Anyway, before we felt compelled to pat Roberts pan licking mutt again we filled the ablution block and bolted for Charters Towers (here we were met by the single nicest Showgrounds caretaker).

It was a reasonably big day steering in an effort to get to Weipa as quick as we can. Our mates there have organised mustering at Watson River Station, a fishing trip, and a hunting trip of things we can’t commit to writing! 

We entertained ourselves through the day with a game of wave cricket (I beat Jess 50 runs to 28!) and listening to Truckies converse on the UHF where the ‘F’ word is used in every sentence to replace punctuation. Sometimes it is used in place of commas; sometimes exclamations; and sometimes even question marks. I’ve heard it said that the measure of a true linguist is being able to describe Dolly Parton without using your hands - these blokes are truely masters of the English language.

Anyway another town another Showground - We got to the Charters Towers Showgrounds early evening (expecting another load of horses!) and the caretaker couldn’t be more obliging. After setting up camp we had a thorough inspection of the float on suspicion of broken springs. These suspicions were confirmed which got me thinking how lucky we have been in this floats travels. It is the 5th time we have near lost one of the 3 axles whilst in transit and the problem has been realised while stationary. I’d hate to think how it would unfold if we lost an axle while doing 120 km’s per hour overtaking a road train.

I have become reasonably proficient at changing the springs over but that task has been made infinitely easier now we have kids old enough to handle themselves with tools.

After getting the float back together we headed off into town for tea. We pulled up at a pub in the Main Street and before we could order I heard my name called across the bar. I had a couple of beers with Jack Kelly while on the big screen Lauren Jackson was being interviewed. It felt like we were still at home.

We are now back at camp and are making a series of plan B’s for tomorrow’s trip to the gulf. We think we might leave the float here and spend 2 or 3 days in swags to head across to Normanton and beyond to ensure we don’t knock the float around too much.

Paddy was desperate to contribute to this blog but I can hear him fast asleep. here he is sporting his new jeans (we made the wrangler shops day with all the gear we bought in town).

Good night