On the road again

We left Townsville and drove about 40kms. to camp up again.  From a lovely creek side camp spot, we took a drive up thru the rainforest to Paluma.   An incredibly narrow, windy, hairpin type of road, the sides dropping away to nothing.   The views, when you dared to look were fabulous.    The 18km stretch we took to get to Little Crystal Creek was built in the Great Depression of the 1930s.    Single men were employed for 6 weeks, married men for 10.   This road was handbuilt using hand tools, two tractors and two trucks.    Massive hard labour.  The bridge over little Crystal Creek, all stone, took 2 years in itself to build.    Beautiful little spot, the small waterfalls were lovely, the water clear and cool.    Some people

were game enough to jump in.   You could see lots of fun could be had because there were lots of small waterfalls, all over very smooth rock that kids could use as waterslides.   The water pools just deep enough.

We also took a drive from our camp spot, back 4 kms to Balgal Beach, you can camp here, but it was chockers, as is virtually every camp we come across now.    We had fish n chips on the beach, had a walk, saw warnings of a croc that is hanging around the boat ramp.   Happy hour was spent with friends who are motorhomers from Moama NSW.   We wandered down to the creek and spent ages watching a family of turtles swimming in the clear water.   Its so nice to see Mother Nature at its best.