Leaving Duraringa we did a quick sweep of the town’s historical buildings trail. As with a lot of these trails in small rural towns most of the buildings are long gone and what we have is a vacant block of land with a fading photo or artist’s drawing on a plaque showing what the spot looked like in the 1880s. This is the case with Duaringa’s trail except there are a couple of buildings left, including the old cinema. It is now for sale with the old shop beside it! A bargain renovators delight, what ghosts wander these walls?

We resist the temptation and head for Nebo, this is a longish drive through mostly grazing country and scrub. The Nebo campground is a welcome stopover for a couple of nights. The historic Nebo Hotel is here of course, beside Nebo Creek.

It is a popular watering hole for the locals. The hotel has its own miner’s camp out the back and they are regular patrons it seems. We managed to get a seat next to a local family birthday party gathering of about 20 people. Allthego partook of a seafood basket, which was a little disappointing. It seemed like a big plate of breadcrumbs with tails and fins sticking out among the chips.

Homealone, had some poisonous looking chicken Kiev, quite tasty but plenty of it. There was no compelling reason to go back the next night!

Nebo’s main attraction is about 35k out of town at Mt Britton. This is where there was, in the late 1880/90s, a thriving township of 1500 people. It was a short lived gold town. There is nothing there now except for skeletons of a couple of buildings and a few pieces of old machinery.

The Council has laid out its streetscape, with some plaques and those old photos. It is an attractive spot surrounded by the mountains, perhaps volcanic remnants. There would be plenty of ghosts wandering around here at night. Prospectors still frequent the area and there are a couple of camp set ups in the hills near the old gold mine. The town only lasted about 5 years before the gold ran out and people abandoned the place.

Next morning we were back on the road headed for Mirani, in the Pioneer Valley west of Mackay. A short trip of about 80 km. We had lunch at another famous hotel. The Pinnacle Hotel claims to be world famous for its meat pies, chips and gravy. Allthego, suspects this is true after testing the steak, bacon and mushroom version. One could come again!

We had stopped at the hotel on the way for an afternoon walk at Finch Hatton Gorge. The walk was 2.8 km return, a gentle uphill slope with a few steps to navigate. It was hot and humid though and a bit energy sapping. Allthego felt the pie moving around.

At the end was the promise of a dip in the swimming pool, aka rock pool at the base of waterfalls. Navigating an entry to the pool was a little tricky, we were also warned by plentiful signs not to dive in off the cliff walls. There have been a number of deaths.

Water was a little chilly on entry but once in it was cool and refreshing. The walk back to the car was downhill, with the sun lower in the sky it was also cooler.

We next head higher up into the hills to Eungella NP to try to see some platypus.