DAY 8 - 15TH APRIL CHARTERS TOWERS TO PENTLAND

Last night we were invited for a very special experience. Lex and his daughter Sue are very keen hobby astronomers and they are currently living in the caravan park and have set up 2 huge high powered telescopes in the field next door. This was indeed such an interesting and unexpected experience - between them they had such a passion for the solar systems and galaxies and it was a lovely clear starry night so we saw the quarter moon surface with its many craters; we saw Saturn surrounded by its rings and a far away galaxy filled with colourful stars called The Jewel Box amongst many more. Thank you Lex & Sue for your informative commentary and something we will remember for a long time.

DAY 8 - CHARTERS TOWERS TO PENTLAND:

(Because we are now 2 days ahead in our itinerary we decided to break the journey up into 4 stages in travelling to Julia Creek with a rest day in the middle.)

Cycling Stats:  114km

Average Speed: 30.8 kms per hour

Walter will be riding solo today as I need to replenish our food supplies & fuel for the trusty camper van.

So to fill in the time before the shops open I thought I would enjoy another walk - this time to Rotary Look-out. This was a smaller walk than yesterday but once again provided a panoramic view over the region and back to Tower Hill and the bright blue World tank I had visited the day before.

I ran into a friendly local before the walk who had given me directions and then I ran into him again just as I got to the supermarket - he had lots of great stories to tell about the history of Charters Towers and the gold and mining and how the railway line came to C T within 10 years of the discovery of gold which was 30 years before Ayr. I have been lucky in meeting interesting people who love to share the history of their home towns.

I met Walter on the road about 10 kms outside of Pentland. He had a good day of cycling.

In Pentland we were once again offered a free night at the camping ground which had a lovely swimming pool which took advantage of.

Late afternoon we headed in to the local pub to chat with some locals. One was a farmer with a very large property and he can't get his cattle onto any of the cattle road trains until August as everyone is reducing their stock numbers because of the drought with some farmers forced to shoot their calves because there is no milk for the calves and very little grass for the coming winter months which is the dry season in this part of Qld.

Dry riverbed of Cape River - about 10kms before Pentland

Old accommodation building of Pentland Hotel
- now used for storage -