Day 3 Burdekin Falls Dam to Kooroorinya

We decided to meet up with our friends at Kooroorinya Falls Nature Reserve today and spend the night there.  From our overnight stay at Burdekin Falls Caravan Park it was around 400 km to Kooroorinya that was well within our driving range.  We didn't get away as early as we perhaps should have.  It was such a gorgeous place that it was hard to leave but we were on the road by 9am.  The journey back to the Flinders Highway didn't seem to take long at all and then we once again turned west towards Charters Towers where we fuelled up.

We had it in mind to stop at the top of the Burra Range for lunch. It's a great spot with views that stretch out for many kilometres. Perfect for a lunch stop.  We made it a proper lunch with Meat Pie Floaters (Home made pie, mashed potato, peas, gravy). It was so delicious and such a huge meal that we ate not a thing to eat until breakfast the next day! 

After lunch and back on the road to Prairie where we stopped for some honey at a self-serve kiosk.  We had heard good things about this honey so I can't wait to try it. I love these honesty boxes but we did wonder how many people are actually honest enough to leave their money.

We turned the vehicle south at Prairie and headed down the bitumen Prairie Muttaburra Road for around 57km until we reached the turnoff to Kooroorinya.  From here it was a well maintained gravel road for just a few kilometres until we reached the reserve. Kooroorinya comes alive for three days when it hosts the annual Oakley Amateur Picnic Race Meeting.  The caretakers said that up to 500 people find camping spots around the reserve. Kooroorinya is a privately owned property that was donated to the race committee quite a few decades ago and it is the race committee that maintain the reserve along with full time caretakers.

When we arrived we were met by the caretakers who are a delightful couple and we were shown to our campsite where our friends were already set up.  It didn't take us long to set up the van and then settle down for drinks and chat. When the heat had left the day around 4.30pm we took the short walk to the Kooroorinya Falls.  The falls only flow when it rains so we weren't lucky enough to see that but just to look at the rock formations and the lovely waterhole was in itself a treat.  We walked a short distance to see if we could get down to the waters edge but we found out later that we should have been on different track altogether.

 

After our walk we headed back to the camp where the caretakers had invited us to join them for sundowners near the race track. It was very interesting to hear the history of Kooroorinya and our friends were particularly interested as Kevin's father was the patron of the picnic race meeting north of Julia Creek called Sedan Dip.  The caretakers showed us around the various race club buildings full of historical interest and as the sun set in the west we made our way back to our campsite.  We sat and chatted a little while longer before saying our goodnights and heading into the coolness of our vans.