Day 8: Funnel Creek to Mt Britton

May 11, 2024

Gabby and I went for early morning swims and the water had come up overnight, even though it hadn’t been raining at camp.

By the time we packed up and got down there it had come up even further. Because I was slightly earlier than the others, I carted my stuff across in three goes cause the knee deep water was too strong and the causeway too slippery to get across. I was across by the time Gabby started coming across, fully laden, in crocs. I was able to catch his croc when he slipped and it started floating away at least. By the time we all got across, cleaned some mud off and put more lube on, it was nearly 10.

We pushed up a rough ish road under the powerlines past Waitara station.

An emu scooted across in front of Dave as he was going downhill but mostly it was just cattle in the paddocks.

We did not follow the old telegraph track alignment but opted for the Oxford Downs Sarina road which does have a one lane bridge across a creek but a 4wd stopped and waited for us. It was only three ks to the Nebo turnoff and we spent most of it rolling next to a slowing coal train going the other way. Thankfully it just pulled past the level crossing as we turned up. I had assumed it was a backroad but it was the main signposted route into nebo from the south, but luckily it wasn’t busy on a Saturday morning. There was a bit of a cross wind that felt bad after a week of tailwinds!

Nebo itself is a funny town once we made it with a reasonably large and depressing estate on the outskirts but only one tiny shop and pub. The river is quite nice though. We got coffee, caught up with various phone correspondence and then went to the pub for lunch. Linda has decided she won’t be able to make it at all which is a shame. I also checked the Burdekin falls dam level and found out that the spillway road is still closed so that’s another potential spanner.

The Nebo pub surprisingly had a mushroom and haloumi burger that was actually very good. It’s a nice old pub and it was busy on a Saturday lunch.

We filled up with chocolate from the store and water from the park, rode past the Showgrounds where they were playing polo and picked up the National Trail heading north, which was a nice sealed backroad along the creek out to the Suttor Development road.

That was quite a busy road but the mountains were nice to look at. Then we turned right up the Turrawulla Road which was surprisingly sealed, and had great views of some interesting rocky formations on the mountains. It was sunny which dried clothes but also made it hot.

Then we turned off onto a reasonably rough road heading into Mount Britton at the base of the mountains. Someone found some gold here in 1881 and there was a pop up town for a bout a decade. They’ve kept the townsite cleared and it’s a big space.

Some descendent of one of the main families has written lots of interpretative signs about where each of the six pubs, the butcher, the doctor and the school were. The only building standing is supposedly the school of arts.

It’s incredible infrastructure for a short lived town a distance from anywhere.

We camped under a fig tree planted in 1883 to celebrate the birth of a child. Dave and Gabby cooked up a steak they’d got from Lotus Creek yesterday and mashed potatoes with veggies, we even bought a bottl of red wine from the nebo pub!

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 590 km (366 miles)

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