Charters Towers Country Music Festival

We got away from Schapers Road at about 10am heading for Charters Towers for the Country Music Festival which has actually started in the Towers but we start Thursday night with the Twilight Markets and then on to the Festival on the other side of the Showgrounds I believe.


Our first stop was Proserpine for a toilet break for me (of course) Lunch at about 2 pm at a nice spot just outside Bowen near the big Mango and then on to Guru for the night. We stopped at about 4pm at a free camp spot near the Sugar Mill. Very quiet (traffic jam of up to 4 cars up the street for the afternoon).

Unfortunately for us (not for the residents across the street) there were street lights and fairly low cloud cover as I was looking forward to sitting out under the stars tonight but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We also found out that the trick we learned while away at Christmas time about the Listermint was true (or maybe there just weren’t any sandflies or mossies around). We were told to just fill a spray bottle with the aforementioned Listermint and spray the grass and ground around where we were going to sit and voila no more bities. Either it worked or there were no bities to begin with.

Guru, although only a small town is about 6 kms off the highway and we haven’t been here before but it is embedded in my children’s history as their paternal grandma (Nana) went to school here. This little town probably pushes to have a population of 200 and exists probably for the sugar mill here and of course the farming community in the surrounding area. I believe that there is a number of employees of Queensland Rail living in the town as my children’ great father (Robert Linskett) worked in the railway here in the 40’s.

Tomorrow, I have to practice all the things Pat and Susi have told me about Gympie Muster and reduce it to Charters Towers size so that I can feel at home at the Country Music Festival. What I am not going to do is ring my other sister Noreen up and ask her for advice – as I could end up in trouble there. Besides Stuart doesn’t have any long socks – and there is another tale for another day.