After a final breakfast at our favorite cafe, Raw Energy, we grab the last few bits from the shops and were on our way. It was a pretty uneventful traveling day. We were a little later than we’d hope to be getting away but with no real destination in mind for today it didn’t really matter.
We are making our way to Carnarvon Gorge and expect it to take a couple of days to get there. As always Ken was behind the wheel the whole day, with just a few toilet stops and a quick photo opportunity with a big orange.
As the day start to draw to an end I start getting busy with wiki camps to find us somewhere to stay. Settling on a free camp in Eidsvold at the R.M. Williams Centre. There is a grassed area to pull you van up on, toilets and a play ground with an awesome flying fox. There is a small fee which we pay the next morning when we do a walk through the centre.
What a little gem. Each evening an automatic light show / movie that comes on at two set times. Telling some stories of R.M. Williams and bush poetry. Seems so random in the middle of no where to have this but then this is the crazy stuff we love coming across. I little town finds a point of difference, invest a little or a lot of money into it’s attraction and then hope it brings the traveling community to its door. For me I love the display of passion, pride or ingenuity of towns folks to bring these things to fruition.
The centre is great. Worth a stop and fascinating to learn about another Australian legend, more than just a clothing brand, but a noteworthy, kind and genuine human being. I loved this poem a favorite of R.M’s and written by his father in law, J.B. Cummins.
The Men who Try and Try.
I was never a great believer, in the things that men call luck,
For it takes hard downright digging, ere the vein of gold be struck.
Dame Fortune may be fickle, but none of us can deny
She loves to lay her treasures, at the feet of men who try.
I’ve read the records closely, and I’ve watched life’s battles too
It’s taught me one good lesson, which I pass on to you
Fate cannot build a barrier, so rugged or so high
That it cannot be surmounted, by the men who try and try.
And when in life’s grand procession, of people that pass on by
I’ll raise my hat the highest, to the men who try and try.
