Day 18 Thursday 25/6/2026 Murwillumbah to Somerset Dam, 8 – 20 overcast

We don’t have to hurry this morning as Shirley Temple has declared that we won’t be leaving until 10:00. We wait, and it’s lucky that we do as the traffic would have been much heavier.

The motorway is tiresome, except for the overhead signs “Have you done your bowel screening test?” Sandwiched between B Double trucks it is all motorways until out beyond Ipswich where we pick up the A17 Brisbane Valley Highway.

To catch our breath, we stop at Fernvale, chat to the ladies at the Info centre and buy pies at the Old Fernvale Bakery. Boy, they’re crumby, but good. Three bin chickens (ibis) stalk patiently while we eat in the park. No doubt they’ll clean up the crumbs.

At the quaint little town of Esk we stop to buy firewood before heading to the camp.

Just as the last time we were here, this is a pristine camp overlooking the river below the wall of the Somerset dam. This and the Wivenhoe Dam are part of the system that supplies water to the city of Brisbane. Green lawns, little wooden fences, patches of native bushland, all surrounded by hills on three sides. The river is below us and there’s a little mist on the hilltops.

We shudder to see a road crew depot across the road but thankfully all the beep, beep, beeping of graders and trucks comes to an abrupt halt on the dot of 4pm.

Once we are set up Double or Nuthin’ builds a fire. We toss buttery corn cobs into the coals, chips in the oven and snags on the BBQ. It is a perfectly still evening and we sit around the fire eating dinner on our laps.

Pelicans, lorikeets, magpies, butcherbirds and cockatoos, it’s a veritable menagerie.

Accom: $47.00 Power & Water, Toilets, Showers, Fire Pits

Towing kms: 215Kms