Well that was fun ...
Will go through photos and post full report soon ..
The stay at the Lunatic motel in Drake was disappointing.
The room we stayed in was clean and comfortable. Beds were good and linen was provided at no extra cost.
Wasn't self contained as described by the lady over the phone. A jug, toaster and a few plates. Had a couple of cereal boxes to choose from for breakfast but no milk.
Fridge seals were all ripped as well.
Tried to get a can opener of the lady at pub and it seemed like a big mission for her .. Firstly said she didnt have one, we said "a commercial kitchen without a can opener?" which resulted in a quick memory spark and a can opener.
Of extra concern was the fact a door between our room and the next door room wasn't locked, nor was the lady able to lock it. In-fact the response was just push the bed up against it as a builder was going to fix it soon. She also mentioned the people staying in the next room were good people so nothing to worry about. (
I would imagine this is done on purpose to funnel people across to the pub for meals that I thought were over priced and fairly comparable to the average pub meal. Was pleased i didn't pay $25 plus for a t-bone steak as i saw someone else buy on and it was literally 1 cm thick.
I specifically wanted a self contained room with a stove or at the very least an electric fry pan .. as it was our 18th Wedding anniversary and i had a couple of nice and expensive eye fillet steaks to cook to celebrate.
Anyway as it turned out the guys across the road in the community/info center heard our predicament as we were looking for a rest area with a BBQ so we could at least still have our steaks.
None were around close by so they let us use their BBQ even after the had closed for the day. They just moved it out the back to a covered area, and supplied gas and cooking utensils.... legends
If you ever go through Drake stop there and get a coffee .. and some of the home made ice-cream .... fantastic
(Drake community and info center) (Not the pub)
Anyway enough of the accommodation, I guess you get what you pay for.
Onwards to Ewingar state forest ..
Roads in are good .. sealed most of the way, and once you are in the park its a fairly hard packed forestry track .. more sandy than muddy. I dare say any vehicle would be able to get to the Forestry Camp in dry or even damp weather quite safely.
The camp itself would only be for the hardened "sleep under the stars" type camper. See photos coming soon.
Carrying on to Rorys road was the same .. hard pack forest track, wide enough for forestry vehicles etc.
However, completely different story when turning in Rorys road
Just wide enough for the car ... and i might add here this is a standard city SUV .. 4wd but certainly not 4wd as far as clearance goes
Went through some fairly deep ruts, although filled with water they weren't muddy or boggy.
Rory track split towards the end and despite the forestry map it did not continue past Ewingar creek. We parked down the left hand fork.
Saw remnants of past campers ... (please take rubbish with you guys)
Anyway I went for a walk down a track and saw access down the fairly steep bank to the stream .. went back to the car and caught the first leech attaching itself to my jeans ... that was in less than 1 minute walking through the bush
I must say this area of Ewingar, whilst quite dense, is really beautiful rainforest. The creek itself was running and crystal clear water.
All our finds were in the creak and they were quite plentiful .. even found water worn clear quartz crystal very similar to the jellybeans of Stanifer Creek in Inverell.
Found your diggings Cam7
recognized the bank from your photo ...
Had a quick dig in one of your existing holes but gave up fairly quickly due to the ease at witch my son was finding nice and big specimens just lying in the creek
Compared to my finding nothing up on the creek bank digging pegs.
All in all it was a good experience ... including finding the "dream time" lantern in one of the forestry camp huts
Will post pics etc probably tonight ..
Cheers Jason R
