Murder- and Charlie's Mine

Our second night at Weipa was spent in our roof tent- we had dried out sufficiently to get back in it. A quiet day camped close to the beach was rounded off with a few pleasant conversations with our neighbours- and an early night. Or so we thought. In almost the next tent to us was a youngish couple with a toddler (who had been trying to escape all day on his trike) and as we were settling down we heard a scream from their direction. ‘Get your F****** hands off me’ she shouted for all to hear. ‘Don’t you f***** touch me ever’ she followed up with. He shouted ‘Here take this money and get the next flight back’. This went on for half an hour til things went very quiet.

This morning we expected to see a few sheepish faces but there was no sign of any of them- couldn’t even hear the child. It was half nine when we left the site and there was still no sign of them. We think someone was murdered- either the wife killed him and committed suicide or vice versa or the toddler had killed them both.

Anyway, having revictualled and refueled we took off south.

As we joined the main highway we stopped for coffee, and we hadn't gone two kms when an idiot in a small black two wheel drive car came round a corner ahead of us at about 120kph and lost it- we went off the road to avoid him and he just missed us. He managed to regain control and carried on as though nothing had happened. Shook us up a bit though- this gravel surface is like driving on marbles in some places.

But a good run of three hours took us to Coen, where we came across a quarantine station. It is illegal to transport any kind of plants down into Queensland proper, and we were questioned as to what fruit we were carrying. When we said we had an esky full bought in Woolworths we were passed through, with a recommendation to stay at Charlie’s mine, a few miles down the road. ‘He’s quite a character’ she said.

So we did. And we met Charlie. And what a character.

After 2ks on a dirt road, coming across signs like ‘That was a f***** grid!’ and Don’t shut the f***** Gate’, we came across a small toilet block with a sign ‘4u2p’ and the ladies marked Julia and the gents marked  Tony , (they are the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition!) A second block was marked Tunnel and Shaft- can’t imagine what that meant.

And we met Charlie. He is Maltese. He regaled us with stories about what he had dome, like when he met the female PM of Queensland (not Julia- she is federal PM) and he invited her to see his shaft. She said she would be delighted but was short of time this visit but next time…… Whether it was explained to her later we don’t know.

The whole camping area is decorated with sculptures of scrap iron, some very good. Scrap everywhere! But the pitches are good, grassed and well cared for, and the showers are decent. What more could we wish for?

Later we were joined by four couples traveling together, and of course had to be regaled with more stories from Charlie. After dinner we sat round a fire with the others, and enjoyed their anecdotes as they listened to ours.

This is one thing about the outback camping. You meet people, and exchange stories, and move on. You enjoy their company for a short time. And there are some very interesting people doing similar things to us.

So who shall we meet tomorrow?