ON THE WAY TO THE BURDEKIN DAM

Cattle trough makes a good camp as long as you leave room for the cattle.




All lined up and ready for a day on the trail. (L-R: Con Man, Tikkaboo, Blue and Peril)

Mount Ravenswood Station - cattle yards and dam...good grass for the horses, and good swimming for the riders!

RAVENSWOOD

The historic town of Ravenswood.

The showgrounds provided a good camp with room for the horses. Pity they had had a burn
off the day before!! A bale of hay was welcome thanks to a helpful traveller who was heading
to Townsville for the day.
The camp was shared with 20 kids on a school excursion. They were treated to a pack horse demonstration the next morning.

Right behind Ravenswood is a big gold mine. This is breathing new life into the little town.

The Adventure Continues

At the beginning of September Coralie met up with Jenny and they ventured out on the trail again. Leaving Mingela around the second, they travelled to Ravenswood, then to Burdekin Dam, Bowen River then on to Isabella Creek. All is going well and I will have a couple of new pics to post soon. Good luck ladies and stay safe :)

The Mingela Hotel provided the perfect venue to begin the second leg of the trek. Everyone in Mingela were friendly and helpful...and the hotel sells the coldest beer and the best food!!

Beginnings and Ends

After an amazing 500K it is time for a rest. Anni has returned home to her family and we are all very proud of her achievements. Coralie is taking some time out while she awaits the arival of her next travelling companion. In the mean time, Con Man, who was temperarily care for by RDA NQ, will be rejoining the group. And Aussie will take his new found knowledge and experience back to Gympie RDA. They plan to set off again around September 1st. We wish them all luck in the adventures they take, both Coralie on the trail and Anni with whatever direction life takes her. Stay tuned for more updates on trail adventures here soon.

Hi Ho the dairio, a trekking we wil go....

Day 22: Camped near a dam about 20K from Running River

At Kirkland Downs Station they camped by the creek as they often did. There were no fish to be caught but not from lack of trying. The prickles and burrs were everywhere and the horses manes were natted thick the next morning. Boo lost a shoe but was fixed up the next morning at the homestead. They also received some much welcome fresh fruit.

Walter Plains Lake... not sure exactly at what point they passed by here but it is another of those beautify hidden water ways.

They found some very curious cattle...

and even more. They cattle had been mustered that day with horses, which is very rarely done these days

Route changed due to military taking over heaps of the land but they got permission to camp by the dam on Paynes Lagoon and took a day off to prepare for the next 3 big days to Mingela.

Boo was feeling a little lazy and over relaxed. He ended up sleeping most of the day.

The road to Mingela... I'm told if you look close enough you can see a Telstra tower. This spared some excitement as it meant they would soon have phone reception. Wow...

Odd pieces of tar surface meant civilisation was getting closer.

More trekking we will go....

Rhonella station is only used for mustering and maybe not much at all these days but at least there was power and a hot shower.... heaven.

















Boo's Eye View as they head towards Camel Creek














Grids and grid bridges can be challenging if there are no gates handy. This one near Camel Creek meant riding down a queer gully, down the fence line and back up again.








Day 18: Aussie packing as they ride through Kangaroo Hills













Day 20 at Zig Zag Station. The day before they road 35K as new mining roads had changed route. A big day but beds and hot showers and a day off followed.

And the horsed welcomed a well deserved rest too.

Survivor made new friends with the local cattle... can horses say MOOOO??

A trekking we will go....

Day 9: From Martins Swamp to Minnamoolka station. there was a bush lemon tree which made great lemon drink later on.













Minnamoolka Hilton: Better if the picture stays blurry, but at least there was a roof and a chair and they found the pipe for the bore

Camping beside Burdekin River there was tall bladey grass that the horses surprisingly loved eating.

Upper Burdekin River

Day 13: Boo took a short rest while packing from Burdekin to Junction Dam

It's amazing the beautiful water ways you find hidden amongst the dry bush backdrop.

Camp at Junction Dam

Follow the.... dirt horse track ???

The journey has continued and all is looking well so far. Here is a list of places they have ridden through on their travels over the past week.

• Martin Swamp
• Minnamoolka
• Walters Plains Lake
• Wairuna
• The Junction (near Lake Lucy)
• Rhonella Park
• Camel Creek

I hope I got the spellings right. Most of these places you can find information on through Google. Happy following :)

Well Deserved Rest

After nearly a week of riding, Anni and Coralie took a well deserved rest stop at Herbert River. You can see the beautiful view from their camp in the top photo. They ended the break with a camp at Rudd Creek and then headed through Gunnawarra Station.

And Away They Go....

After many dress rehearsals and fine tuning, the time finally came for them to pack up their camp at NQ RDA and head out. First stop was Mt Ruby Station and then it was off to Wild River...

Camp at NQ RDA was all packed up. You can see where the tents once were.




















Coralie and Anni's horses settle in at Mt Ruby Station as others get broken in.

On day 3 they camped at Wild River, making a fire to keep warm as winter slowly sets in.

Take 217....

Dress Rehersal #2 was not so successful as a big truck cam speeding along the road and the last horse bucked all the packs off. So they reloaded and went on. They have redesigned their tie downs and all is looking good again.

Insert right: Anni riding Q with Survivor packing

Left: Photo taken by Coralie riding Con Man

Forever Learning

Survivor on the left and Aussie on the right

Coralie and Anni met with Tim Daniel and his donkeys. Tim is very experienced in trekking and has packet up to 90kg on his donkeys at times trekking 68km in a day. Anni and Coralie received some welcome packing tips along with a great deal of very sound advice, including mapping out better ways to access the trail. Hope you enjoy these pics.

Tim Daniel's Donkeys

Like any good performance, dress rehersals are a must. Looking good boys (and ladies)

Heading North

On Monday 31st May 2010 the horses were loaded up onto the Darling Downs Horse Transport truck, gear was loaded into Coralie's little ute along with Coralie, Anni and we can't forget Dave, and everyone headed north. Monday night they spend in Rockhampton where the horses were rested before continuing their journey. Tuesday night they spend at Day Dawn Hotel (aka 'The Pub With No Beer') now known as Lee's Hotel in Ingham. If you want to know more about this famous pub you can find info at http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/locations/apubwithnobeer.htm. All is going well so far and we hope it continues to got well for the remainder of Coralie and Anni's adventure.

Dave helps out whenever and wherever needed. And his assistance is always appreciated :)

Last days of Training

Training the horses to deal with unusual conditions is important as the will be facing these conditions while on the trail. Here we see Coralie teaching Boo not to be spooked by a tarp. This is important as the horses will be tied near the camp areas where tarps will be hanging and flapping around. Well Boo couldn't care less and all the horses were more curious then scared, even when the tarps were flapping. They all walked over them happily and got big ticks for tarp training. Way to go boys!!!

And so it begins

It is now official. The truck is booked and on Monday 31st May 2010 the horses will be transported north to where our lovely ladies, Coralie and Anni, will begin their journey along the National Trail. We wish them safe travels and hope the weather is kind to them. I will try to keep this blog as up to date much as I can with whatever information is sent to me through out their adventure. Good Luck and blessed be :)

The Kirk River was the first camp after leaving Mingela. Managed to get off the new road with some local advice which helped to pick up the old road to some extent.


Wild winds and rain through the night and a forecast of bad weather on its way, necessitated a move to a welcome shed and a day off. Fancy finding a wheelbarrow and a trolley to help with the move!!
Several trips up the hill later.....all high and dry!!
And sunshine (well almost...) by the next day!