We left Brisbane and I was sorry to say goodbye to Sophia Dan and Tina, the next time I see Sophia she could be crawling. How quick they grow and i’ll miss so match with them living in Brisbane and us always travelling. But a good excuse to travel north again and again.
We drove through to Toowoomba
and had stopped at Marbung for morning tea , the park had a cute little library with a old dunny where the seat was the coin collection point for your book purchase , it even had a red back spider on it, albeit plastic
The first afternoon in Toowoomba was spent taking it quiet as John hurt his back putting the van brake on , hoping it settles down ASAP.
The following day we walked around Picnic point lookout which overlooks the Lockyer valley and Table top mountains. A beautiful spot with gardens cafes and a man made waterfall.
John rested in the afternoon while I was walked around Queens park gardens and the Japanese gardens
Toowoomba is a large city off 114,000 population and has many gardens and parklands.
Today the 15th of April we headed west our first stop was
Chinchilla
Our overnight stop was at the weir 10 kms south , the weir was full and overflowing which the 32 pelicans waiting at the bottom thought that was great. They waited for the fish to flow over and picked off the fish as they went down the concrete sides of the weir.
They were doing up caravan facilities here and it will be great when they are finished , meantime the grass spots were nice with about 13 vans in all staying here at this free camp. John took some great aerial footage over the weir see it on his first video later in the blog.
Next morning we drove into
Chinchilla to take a picture of the Big watermelon and ended up not leaving town till after lunch as we needed an auto mechanic to look at the brake system for van , thankfully an easy fix
Then it was through Dalby where we just had a quick look around town and onto
Miles
Here we visited the heritage centre which was worth a visit with lots of buildings depicting the old times and details about the artisan basin which was really interesting.
I sent John in to the chemist for a drink but he didnt take me up on the offer, BUGGER!!!!
The historic town consisted of many trades, chemist, schools, hospital, bakers and of course a pub all displaying life as it was in a bygone era.
We stayed overnight at dogwood creek, a free camp by the road quiet noisy and lots of bugs but handy for an overnight stay.
And the following morning we checked out chinamans lagoon and the lillies
The lillies are an endangered species and foreign to this area but put on a lovely display.
Roma
On the way here we had morning tea at Judd’s Lagoon near Yuleba
And then another stop at
Wallumbilla
Where we checked out the little heritage hut and the craft and fresh bakes at the callico craft shop, the next few morning teas purchased along with some baby presents
Roma
We arrived at the gun club where heaps of other caravans, 30 the first night, where also there taking advantage of the low cost park with water, power etc. It was a good stop for three nights. Although John was very concerned about setting up camp at a shooting range, in the end we did not end up getting any bullet holes in our van.
In Roma we visited
Day 1/ Leroys hut at the info centre, a small hut built in the 1893 and watched an oil rig working
Then an easy afternoon for John to rest his sore back which is improving.
Next day we visited a few areas like shades lagoon, the big bottle tree which had a girth of 9.3 m and was 100 years old and the heroes tree avenue which is bottle trees lining a street each one honouring a WW1 soldier
These trees look like the boab tree found in the NT but are actually a different species and called a bottle tree
After lunch I went for a 1.1 km walk around Roma’s lake and bush gardens while John rested
We then spent the afternoon rearranging our plan for Qld. Getting accommodation in the school holidays hasn’t been easy, so our trip has changed again and it is back to the coast first and then come back to this area on our way south. Our time in Cairns and Port Douglas not quiet what we wanted but all we could get, this way we have hoped to beat the crowd heading north. We hate booking ahead and being on a time frame but unfortunately with all the nomads out and about this trip it has been necessary to think ahead, at least for the popular north QLD coastal areas.
Everyone is out caravanning now that overseas travel has gone and we are seeing an increase in van numbers on the road.
Another reason for our change of plan is John can’t do Carnarvon gorge right now, this was to be our next stop, the walks really long and to hard on his back. Plus we could only get two nights one day there. Hopefully we can do this properly on the return trip. So Carnarvon Gorge is cancelled for now and we are off to Airlie Beach and up the coast to Cairns.
Our final day in Roma we spent the morning at the interruptive centre at the cattle sales yards in Roma.
Cattle production is Qld largest agricultural industry and the yards here are enormous with up to 14,000 cattle weekly being sold and they are sold in lots at a rate of cents per kilogram.
The following morning prior to leaving Roma we did a guided tour of the cattle yards watching the process of cattle selling under auction.
Our last night we went to the big rig show at the information centre, this explained the discovery of oil and gas in these regions with both a talk and video of its history. We were given a local sample of Port along with a souvenir glass. I really liked the Port which is unusual for me, the name was “A fucking good Port”.
Oil and Gas were first found when looking for water. The oil industry never really successfull but the gas is now a thriving industry out here in the outback. The big oil rig steel tower is 41.5 m tall and arrived in Roma in 1929.
Heading to the coast
The next few days will mostly be driving as we go north past Emerald and across towards Mackay on the coast, we will leave most sight seeing for our return. We free camped till we reached Mackay.
Our first night was a roadside stop at staircase mountain lookout ,a great view, see Johns drone flight at the end of this blog for the amazing scenery. The mountains to the side of the lookout was absolutely covered in black boy ferns quiet amazing.
The next morning was through Springsure with the Minerva Hills in the background (we will return to explore these on our return as well as Virgin rock. Video below.
Onwards through Capella
Then Clermont which had a pretty lagoon with purple lilies and an impressive train mural.
Clermont had a massive flood in 1968 with a great loss of life, the second highest flood loss of life in QLD history. A flood memorial was in the park at Hoods lagoon on the way into town.
Just prior to Emerald, we detoured to Lake Maraboon and really liked this spot so booked a few nights here on our return
After leaving Emerald after a quick look around town and a quick stop at the info centre. we are collecting info for our return. The picture below is a Constable painting on a large canvas in the park behind the info centre and some crazy metal sculpture outside.
Overnight our stay was in a gravel pit on the peak downs hwy crossing over towards Mackay.
Our view out one window was piles of dirt as they are doing up the hwy here and using this road side stop to pile the dirt but we did get a good sunset looking the other way.
The road across to Mackay from Emerald is like a roller coaster and badly in need of repair for a long long way, so it was good to see some road works happening, but they have a lot more to do. The road is busy with lots of trucks and wide loads carrying mining supplies and large vehicle tyres.
The area has many coal mines some mildly visible from the road and when we stopped for morning tea near Cooperbella at a small mining depot we saw a really long train carrying coal to port from the area. Later just south of Mackay we saw the huge disruption of this coal at the port of Hay point. (next blog)
The countryside is mostly bush with lots of mountains and rock structures on the horizon one that stood out was Mt Wolfgang but the weather has clouded the photo. We experienced heavy rain on this leg of the trip.
Our next and last stop before Mackay was two nights out the back of a pub in the small village of Eton.
We had the afternoon playing pool at the pub and talking to Bean the hotels sausage dog
The weather has been miserable and raining but the next morning showed some signs of breaks between showers
So, we headed off to Finch Hatton Gorge and did the 2:45 return walk to Araleun cascades, the walk through the rainforest very pretty and the occasional sprinkle not reaching us through the canopy. The drive into the gorge often going over creek crossings, see Johns video for more.
The countryside is mostly sugar cane fields with mountains as the back drop.
Then on to the town of Eungella, high in the mountains which is meant to have an amazing view of the valley but after a scary cloud ridden drive up the steep windy mountain all we could see was cloud and fog but still an interesting drive. We opted not to continue to Rainbow river to the platypus viewing area , the fog was just too thick and opted for cake and coffee at the hotel instead. Was strange seeing an open fire when in a t-shirt but it was cool up here at this altitude and fog.
On our way back to Eton we went via
Teemburra Dam one of three dams in this area
It poured all night leaving us uninspired to join others at the Eton pub for live music settling for an early night before the next morning descending down the ranges on our quick 30 min drive into Mackay.
