Mitchell - 3 August 2014

The cold came back with a vengeance this morning. It was -2.9 degrees this morning about 7.30. It was supposed to get down to -4 but I don't know whether it got down lower than that. The fellow next to us said he turned the tap on inside his camper this morning and ice came out. He went up to the amenities block but when he turned the tap on, nothing came out. See what tomorrow brings. But the day was a beautiful day after the cold start.

There is a River Walk that follows the Maranoa River right around the edge of town so after breakfast, we did that. It was about 8 kms. There are only pools of water in the river and you couldn't see the river from the track, which was a shame. However, it was still a lovely walk. In some spots, the cliffs along the path of the river were very steep and high.

You could see evidence of the floods, with vegetation caught in the fences and high in the trees. There were also quite a few new houses close to the river.

The River Walk took us to the Neil Tanner Weir. There were lots of vans free camping there, with toilets provided. It was a lovely spot and one we would use next time we come through. We will look at getting some sort of container to take with us next time to light a fire in.

After morning tea, we headed 35 kms out of town to the site of Major Mitchell's camp during his 4th Expedition. What a lot he brought with him. No Coles, Woolies or Bunnings down the road. He had 8 drays pulled by 80 bullocks, 2 boats, 17 horses and 3 light carts. They had to take enough supplies to last them a year in the wilderness. How would you be able to plan that?

It was a lovely spot and you can free camp there, with toilets provided.

When Mitchell camped there in 1846, he camped by the banks of the Maranoa River, and there would have been water in it. It was bone dry today and looked like there hadn't been water in it for some time.

After lunch, we went out to the site of the Kenniff Brothers capture and arrest in the early 1900's. There was a plaque out there with the story of what happened leading up to their capture. 2 policemen had gone out to arrest them and the Kenniff's had shot and killed them. The hunt was on and they were caught and arrested.

We had afternoon tea and then packed a few things away as we are leaving here tomorrow. I noticed a lady a couple of vans up doing some quilting so I wandered up to investigate. Her and her husband had just about finished making a quilt top. There is a group of them together and they are all from Ballarat. They have been coming here for 7 to 14 years for a month. They all do craft of some form or another for quite a bit of the day.