Tuesday 13th September - 1 big banana & a crick neck

Day 11

We packed up the Hobbit Cabin and headed to the Big Banana for a photo.
Carnarvon's Big Banana was originally built for a Northam service station - video store in 1988. The creator of this Big Banana was a Queensland boat builder, Michael McEvoy. In 1986, he built the first Big Banana in Mackay, Queensland, as a gimmick to attract people to his fruit and vegetable shop. The idea was so successful he moved to Northam to erect another Big Banana. The vertical 10m x 2m
Big Banana was not so successful in Northam and was later sold to the Tourist Bureau as a promotional icon for Carnarvon.

My fish was this big

We headed down the highway piloted by Bugsy, CoPilot Sue put her pink toenails up and read the Countryman, whilst Tez cruised along to her own music and Mags snoozed on the sunny side of the bus.

Pink toenails and a paper

A quick pitstop at Overlander for Magnums and morning tea. Tourists were everywhere and we were all served with a smile which was a lovely change from some of the places we had been.

On the road again, listening to some new cd's, filling in crosswords as we were passing lots & lots of grey nomads heading down south,  along with a few trucks and some pushbikers doing the Aussie trek.

Wildflowers started appearing in droves and poor Sue was getting a crick neck as they were on both sides of the road. We were all getting a lesson from our enthusiastic "on board" botanist who informed us all that there will be a test later.

We rocked into Northampton for fuel, lotto and the butchers. What a great little place, with good service. Checked out the tourist bureau for some wildflower information before heading to the turnoff  to make our way to Coalseam Conservation Park which would be our home for the night. Hoping to make it in daylight hours so we weren't setting up tents in the dark,  there was no time to stop for photos.

Albert found a good use for Timmy

It was a quiet trip as we travelled through the Chapman Valley filled with bright pink, blue and white everlastings. The area between Nanson and Yuna was had some beautiful displays of wildflowers.

We saw the flat-topped Moresby Ranges and Albert waved as we drove past a few of his friends on station grazing properties. A lot of farming history in this area with some old colonial buildings still standing and there was a beautiful stone church in Nason. This area would be well worth coming back to explore.

We found our way to the Coalseam Park turnoff and travelled about 8kms along a corrogated gravel road before we arrived at this little gem.  We were very lucky to get the last camping spot available at the Miners campsite, where the volunteer campground hosts came and collected our fees of $7.00 per person per night.

With the tents up, drop loos located, it was off for a bit of exploring and you guessed it, more photos.

Taking in the sunset and beautiful everlastings, we headed around the walk trail, finding Johnson shaft (no relation to Bugsy) before getting back to camp to prepare dinner with the meat we had brought in Northampton. The bbq's were free to use, so with headlamps on, sausages, chops and kebabs with corn on the cob and potatoes were all cooked up, thoroughly enjoyed with a little drink of port to wash it all down. Mags supplied a delicious dessert of big white chocolate freckles from Northampton. Yummo.
As we watched the moon come up, the layers started going back on as it cooled down pretty quick. We all hit the deck pretty early so that we would be energised for tomorrow's wildflower adventure.