It's still pretty busy down the pub as the weather gets colder and the tourists form the south come up for a nose around town. We had a group of ghost hunting kids stay in the haunted room 12A but no ghostly happenings reported.
Lots of various motor bike clubs and schools coming for roast dinner (thankfully no fires the second time round) and different BBQ's. We also got the TV up and running for the State of Origin football (English rugby league) game which is 3 matches between Queensland and New South Wales. People seem to be very passionate about it so thats been a busy night.
I've also been out to Charters Towers which is the closest largest town. Its another former gold mining town which is kitted out with lots of nice building but not much else. I climbed up the very steep Towers Hill which is where gold was first found by Jupiter Mossman, an aboriginal stable boy. Theres a few information signs and lots of WW2 bunkers at the top, plus a great view over the town.
On the wild life front we have had an owl flying around upstairs which was cool as i've never seen a wild owl before. Also, I flushed the toilet and a green tree frog came through with the flush and jumped out onto my leg!
On the job front, I met with the Geology boss from Carpenthia Gold. Sadly he couldn't give me any work yet as he has too many junior Geo's and not enough experienced ones. Never mind.
The last month has been pretty busy with parties of uni students, high schools, motor bike clubs, a funeral, plus a man who was a spit of Hugh Jackson in the film Australia and a man who thought that England was very big and Australia small. He obviously had never seen a world map! We have also had mass panic as the only freezer broke down and a mega cold day where bar temperatures never reached more than 13 degrees.
I also finally got to the Burdekin Falls Dam about 80km away. The dam was huge. The spillway is 504m long and 40m high and water was still flowing over which was pretty impressive. When the water stops flowing over the road at the bottom of the spillway opens and you can get to the other side. The dam forms Lake Dalrymple which hold 5 times more water than Sydney Harbour. On the road we saw kangaroos (alive), wedge tailed eagles which were massive, and a baby pig. Sadly no emus! We also stopped at White Blow, which is just outside of Ravenswood and is a large quartz outcrop.
In my last week in Ravenswood I had a look around the court house and the original jail cell. I have been replaced by 2 English backpackers. Nice girls and it means that I have had a few evenings to drink on the other side of the bar. Time definitely goes quicker on the other side of the bar and after not a single alcoholic drink since arriving in Ravenswood there were a few people who owed me one! Stupidly I drank them all and i'm suffering today on my journey to Townsville.
