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Charters Towers

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    • Day 97

      Adventure down the Gregory Highway

      June 19, 2017 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      I've been pondering how I want to head south. Last night I still had 1400 km (870 miles) to Brisbane taking the most direct route down the Bruce Highway which follows the coast. It's the most popular tourist route. But my heart yearns for the outback, for kangaroos and emus (though I did see my first live kanga yesterday near Mission Beach - hoorah!)

      So I have decided to take the more inland route, and have just arrived in Charters Towers, 204 km from my site last night, where I pick up the Gregory Highway. It's a well-used road, so I'm not doing anything risky, but it's about 470 km (292 miles) to Emerald which is the next town. There are basic pull-offs to stay overnight, so it feels more adventurous 😎

      Once I get to Emerald I'll decide whether to head more directly towards the coast or, if this is as much fun as I hope, carry on on the inland route. I think most of the traffic will be heading north as Aussies head away from the winter cold.

      Update
      The drive down the Gregory Developmental Road was all I hoped - beautiful bush all the way, hardly any traffic and most of it heading N against me. Joyous 😎
      I found my overnight spot - a pull-in off the road called The Old Dump, so I wasn't expecting anything glamorous, but I got everything I'd hoped for - space, feeling connected with the red dust, then a lovely dark night sky and the Milky Way.
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    • Day 201

      Marathon-Training

      July 30, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

      Bei Aron schlummert bereits seit einigen Jahren eine verrückte Idee im Kopf. Er läuft schon sehr lange, mal mehr mal weniger intensiv. Er hat schon an verschiedenen Wettkämpfen teilgenommen und sogar zusammen mit Lara einen Halbmarathon bestritten - aber wovon er schon lange träumt ist den Sydney Marathon zu laufen.

      Dieser Traum wird nun bald wahr, denn er hat ernst gemacht und sich letzte Woche zum "Blackmores Sydney Running Festival 2019" für die Marathondistanz angemeldet.

      Im ernsteren Training ist er schon seit Indonesien/Bali und kämpft sich nun mittlerweile auch an die 30km-Marke heran, damit er dann am 15. September 2019 in Sydney die vollen 42,195km laufen kann. Die Strecke führt zunächst über die Hafenbrücke, einmal quer durch die Stadt um die eigene Achse, um dann schließlich unweit der berühmten Oper an der Hafenpromenade in die Zielgerade zu gehen.

      Das Training hier in Australien könnte nicht vielseitiger sein.

      In Cairns ging es in der Stadt über toll ausgebaute Asphaltwege, die abends sogar beleuchtet werden. Hier steht dann sogar alle paar hundert Meter ein Wasserspender bereit, an dem man sich erfrischen kann.

      In den Nationalparks und Regenwäldern ging es teils über dichtbewachsene Wanderwege vorbei an stacheligen Büschen, wobei sogar mal ein Cassowary aufgescheucht wurde. Auf den Dirt-Roads, die man in der Morgen- und Abenddämmerung mit Kanguruhs, Wallabies und Schlangen teilen muss, ist man danach selbst und auch die Laufkleidung komplett mit rotem Staub belegt.

      Im Outback ist es auch schon morgens brennend heiß und wegen dem Staub ist das Laufen dann nur mit Halstuch vor Nase und Mund möglich, damit man überhaupt atmen kann. Die Laufwege muss man sich dann auch noch mit den über 50m langen Roadtrains teilen.

      Eine bestimmte Zielzeit hat er sich für den Marathon übrigens nicht gesetzt, Ankommen und dabei gesund bleiben in die Devise! Man ist ja auch nicht mehr der Jüngste :)
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    • Day 642

      Camp 7 - Charters Towers (+182=968km)

      June 2, 2016 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Puma Roadhouse

      Route: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1S6eVr…

      DE: Charters Towers hat sich zu Zeiten des Goldrauschs als "Die Welt" bezeichnet, da es in dem Ort alles gab was man brauchte. Sogar der Goldpreis für den Weltmarkt wurde hier einmal festgelegt.

      Danach zum ersten Mal ins Drive In Cinema gefahren - Zwei (topaktuelle) Filme für $8! In einem normalen Kino kostet ein (!) Film in Australien um die $18...

      Tolles Kino und Ambiente unter den Sternen. Jetzt schlafe ich nicht nur noch im Auto, sondern fahre gleich noch damit ins Kino... :)

      Die Nacht auf einem Rasthof mit Road Trains und Zirkusleuten zu verbringen, war auch eher ungewöhnlich :)

      EN: The people of Charters Towers called their town „The World“ during the gold rush because you could get everything you needed there. Even the world market price for gold was set in this town once.

      After this we went to the drive in cinema for the first time – two brand new movies for $8! In an ordinary cinema in an Australian city you would pay around $18 for one (!) movie…
      Very nice cinema and atmosphere. Now I don’t only just sleep in the car, but also drive with it into a cinema… :)

      We spent the night at a road house with lots of road trains and show people camping in the yard. Quite unordinary :)
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    • Day 201

      Charters Towers - Goldgräberstadt

      July 30, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Townsville hinter uns gelassen, wird die Landschaft immer karger, die Flussbetten langsam immer trockener und es kommt nun an manchen Stellen auch der berühmte rote Sand Australiens zum Vorschein. Wir kommen dem Outback näher.

      Etwa 1,5 Stunden Fahrt von Townsville entfernt liegt Charters Towers. Diese ehemalige Goldgräberstadt hat es einst zu beträchtlichen Reichtum geschafft. Hiervon ist heute nicht mehr viel geblieben, die Goldadern sind erschöpft, aber zahlreiche Gebäude zeugen noch von den guten alten Zeiten und die Stadt hat somit einen ganz besonderen Charme.

      Wir können mit unserem Pajero wieder direkt auf den Showgrounds stehen, freuen uns über saubere Duschen und auch mal wieder einen Stromanschluss, des Campers Luxusgüter :)

      Gearbeitet wird diesmal bis spät in die Nächte, denn es ist einiges los. Viele Veranstaltungen scheint es hier über das Jahr nicht zu geben und so lässt es sich kaum einer nehmen der Farmershow und dem Rummel einen Besuch abzustatten.

      In einem Park in unmittelbarer Nähe zu den Showgrounds entdeckten wir (naja, eigentlich nicht zu übersehen bzw. zu überhören) noch einige tausend Flughunde, welche am Morgen und Abend ihre Runden drehen und so gut wie jeden Baum im Park auf dem Kopf hängend besetzten.
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    • Day 166

      Charters Towers, north QLD

      August 3, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      We were due to head to Townsville on this date, but were re-directed further west to Charters Towers, by Titan Caravans.

      A mystery leak had spung up from under the kitchen area a few weeks back. It was only a small puddle back then, but I'd been nagging at them to book me into (yet another) repair centre. Leaks don't tend to go away by themselves.

      They couldn't seem to find a single repair centre in the entirety of Townsville, Cairns or anywhere inbetween, an area several thousand kilometres square, to book me in, for reasons that became clear later on. So, they sent me to Charters Towers where there was a little one man show, a builder by trade, that dabbled in caravan repairs.

      Jamie from 'Dealz on Deane' finally popped out to see us at the showgrounds a week later. He ripped the van apart , found that the roof of the van was flooded due to a faulty aircon outlet, found water was leaking onto an electrical light casing, found a crack in the waste water pipe, broke the toilet cassette door, destroyed some laminate in the kitchen - but could not find the source of the original leak. Massive eye roll.

      Cue some serious talks with Titan. We couldn't continue with the leak getting worse by the day, and nowhere north of us that could investigate or repair it. They wanted me to return the van to their workshop in Brisbane. I didn't want to waste time on my year off, doing a 2650km round trip with a car sick dog.

      It was eventually agreed that I would have to return the van to Brisbane, but on the basis that they would replace the van this time, not repair it. It had suffered too much water damage to the floor. I reluctantly made the arrangements and sedated poor Dick, for the week long journey.

      Charters Towers was a lovely big outback town, with yet more gold mining history and another fascinating cemetery. I went along to a ghost walk and talk there one night, to hear the historic tales and gruesome murders as a result of squabbles over gold.

      I have come to the conclusion that gold mining itself is not the most dangerous part of this occupation, it is the violence that humans display towards each other over it.

      Back to Brisbane we go.
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    • Day 6

      Emerald to Charters Towers

      August 6, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      We had a fair bit of rain last night, we kept dry and bloody glad we decided on the rooftop tent instead of going with the swag like originally planned, massive puddles everywhere. The rain slowed down briefly so we quickly packed up and were on our way. Stopped off at the Sensory Cafe in Emerald, but weren't feeling the menu afterall so I grabbed a coffee and off we went. A boring, wet day on the road. We stopped off briefly at Clermont to see the piano in the tree, a replica of the one that got caught in the 1916 floods. Back on the road, I was singing and doing puzzles, very entertaining for Ben I'm sure. We stopped at Belyando crossing, the only sign of civilisation, if you can call it that, for quite some time. We shared a burger and chips then back on the road to Charters Towers. After what felt like a lifetime, we arrived and took a wrong turn to the Towers lookout, thanks google. Tracked it down and it was much more established than we expected, we thought we'd be standing on a dirt hill like most lookouts, but it had an Amphitheatre and proper seats for whenever they show whatever they show. We went for a walk to the Pyrites works ruins before jumping back in the car. Checked out the visitor info centre and had a chat to Mac, the fella working there. We popped into woolies then found our next stop, set up and aired out the tent, it's bloody hot here so it dried out pretty quickly. Went for a wander not long ago to grab the new maxibon to try, now we're just relaxing in the shade until we're ready for dinner.Read more

    • Day 18

      Charters Towers

      June 7, 2015 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Carnarvon Gorge to Charters Towers

      HW. On the road again, heading for Emerald through scrubby countryside. Our drive out of Carnarvon along the dirt road was a lot less eventful with little dust inside the van and no disasters in the fridge! We stopped the night in a van park in Emerald and headed off again next morning – our mission being to get to the Cape within our time frame. More exploring of inland Queensland will have to wait for another trip. On the Friday night we free-camped beside the road along with at least a dozen other vans at a truck roadside stop with toilets. Met more nice people. Luckily there weren’t too many B-triples carrying cattle passing by in the night. (They sure are noisy and very smelly!)

      We arrived in Charters Towers late morning on Saturday 6th and the centre of town was bustling with people and traffic. After setting up at a van park just out of town we drove back to the centre mid afternoon and because it’s a country town, almost everything closes after midday on a Saturday and you could have fired a gun down the main street and not hit a thing. There are some lovely old buildings in the town which is famous for its gold mining and for having the first stock exchange in Australia. We drove up to Towers Hill nearby which overlooks the town and the surrounding countryside which is flat as far as the eye can see. As luck would have it there was a motor show and swap meet at the local showgrounds over the weekend so guess where we spent a couple of hours on Sunday?? We looked around some of the old beautifully restored cars and Frank had a fossick through the tools (both old and new) and got a couple of bits he needed. We had a nice relaxing stay here.

      FW. Including a few photos from Towers Hill (approx 300m high) where the view to the Nth, Sth, E, W is similar, flat right to the horizon. A lot of the buildings in the town have been restored and look fabulous, including the Police Station, a Mural depicting the town’s history and the Stock Exchange building which was supposed to be the first in Australia and the largest in the world in its time.
      As Heather mentioned she took me to the local swap meet and I am including a photo of some Fergi’s and other farm machinery for your interest Max.
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    • Day 40

      Charters Towers- The Caravan Park.

      June 2, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Well not much to say as we spent 3 nights 2 full days with a van and no car -I'm sure Slim Dusty ( if he was still alive ) could change the words of a pub with no beer to a van with no car !!! We broke the car's engine drive belt 160ks inland between Richmond and Charters Towers-fortunately recognising a problem quickly and not causing engine over heating consequences. We have NRMA premium membership, so loaded car on back of a tow truck and hooked on the caravan, we hopped in the tow truck too, into to Charters Towers. The driver took our van to the caravan park and backed it perfectly into the site before dropping off car at a mechanics- our membership covering it all. We had to wait till new belt was delivered from Townsville - therefore we saw heaps of the caravan park and not much else. Car good to go at 3 .30 pm so we did a shop and a lightening trip around town .Read more

    • Day 39

      Charters Towers.

      September 8, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      We have come into Charters for supplies and fuel. Just sitting nearby to the memorial and the hospital.

      We have been here before and Charters Towers is well worth a visit. Mining history abounds and the more recent longhorn cattle is interesting. The nighttime ghost tour was an unexpected highlight last visit.

      A drive up Tower hill is a good view over the town. Unfortunately, not with a caravan in tow, so not today. We are about to head to our next destination.
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    • Day 70

      Charters Towers

      June 29, 2021 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      On the way to Charters Towers we stopped at Greenvale and had lunch at the Three Rivers Hotel. (One day we will stop somewhere and not go to the pub). This pub was made famous by the Slim Dusty song.
      We spent a couple of nights in Charters Towers before going onto Home Hill. I wanted to spend time in a powered sight incase the lock down was widened we were close to Townsville when it went into lock down.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Charters Towers, CXT, ჩარეტერს-ტაუერსი, چارٹدز ٹاورز, Чартерс-Тауэрс

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