If every day of the trip had its own theme song, today’s would be “All Shook Up” … but I probably need to start at the start and work up to explain that bit.
Last night we stayed at Clover Hill Camping. I don’t know their full story but I’m told that they started out farming and were trying to build up a strain of cattle, but because of the drought they needed to diversify and so part of their property is now set aside for camping.
As a part of developing this strain of cattle, they have a prize stud bull named “Golden Nuggets” or “Golden Nuts” or something like that. Now that all seems highly inappropriate to me and I think that those who are sensitive about political correctness should be righteously outraged … but I don’t make this stuff up!
It’s on their website! That’s just a bit of trivia to get your attention and make you wonder where this is going.
Anyhow, the morning started out rather brisk in Chinchilla today. I woke from around 11 hours sleep (I was exhausted!) and it was a brisk 6.2 degrees – and that was inside the van. Outside was a mere 2 degrees.
It was cold enough to freeze the you-know-what’s off a brass monkey.
I was particularly concerned about Golden Nuggets because I understand that his key attribute generates significant income for his owners, so you wouldn’t want to see them put at risk from the cold weather.
Or maybe a different type of cold is needed to freeze the you-know-what’s off a prize bull? I’ll have to Google that …
We got away from Chinchilla a bit after 9.00am and headed east towards Miles. We had initially stopped at the local Chinchilla Woolies to stock up on some essentials – cream, coffee, chocolate and toilet paper – but it was closed 🙁
We weren’t sure if toilet paper panic buying was a pastime west of Brisbane, but we thought we’d stock up anyway just in case. You can never be too careful.
But no dice. We would have to start a panic buying epidemic somewhere where the shops are open.
We left Chinchilla and the speed limits opened up to 110 km/h, but thanks to the old Victorians in the Winnebago ahead of us, we didn’t manage anything better than about 80 km/h for the first 15 minutes or so – well, at least until the first overtaking lane.
We finally got our essentials in Miles and then headed towards St George via Condamine and Surat.
Condamine is a pretty little town, with emphasis on “little”. A pub, a fuel station … and that was about it.
The roads all felt pretty civilised to start with … there were even lines painted on the road, and rest stops, and turning lanes …
… but the roads got narrower …
… and narrower 🙁
We originally thought that we were on the road less travelled, but that started to feel like the road to nowhere.
Of interest, drivers coming the other way were very respectful and pulled completely off the road when they saw us coming to allow us to pass safely. Needless to say that when we encountered a B-double coming towards us on a particularly narrow stretch, we extended the same courtesy 🙂
We were in no hurry travelling along these backroads, but we were probably going about 80-90 km/h when we were on the safe bits and you could see far enough ahead to ensure that there was nobody coming towards us.
The roads were pretty rough most of the way between Condamine and Surat. Not due to potholes or deterioration, but (I expect) because of the black soil underneath that causes the road surface to change and become quite uneven. After driving at speed for an hour or so, you start to feel like your internal organs have all been rearranged – hence the reference to “All shook up” at the start of this post.
There was one section of road where the road got very rough rather unexpectedly and while there was no danger, the van’s electronic stability control (ESC) obviously decided that we were out of control and so it kicked in.
I have to say that while it felt a bit surprising that the van suddenly wanted to slow down, it was a relief to know that the ESC works.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that the naming convention for roads in the west is pretty straight-forward.
Yeuleba-Surat Road.
Chinchilla-Tara Road.
Chinchilla-Kogan Road.
So when you have been travelling on the same road for some time, and you’ve seen no other vehicles and no road signs, the fact that you are on the Yeuleba-Surat Road gives you a feeling of confidence that Yeuleba will be at one end, and Surat at the other end.
Well, you hope so anyway …
OK, so I know that while we started at Condamine and at some time during that journey we ended up on the Yeuleba-Surat Road, we did indeed pop out the other end at Surat. Just in time for a late-ish lunch.
We stopped for a quick bite at a local Surat park, and then kept going towards home for tonight – St George.
The road from Surat to St George was nice and open, relatively flat and posted at 110km/h … and the scenery kept changing.
We arrived into St George at around 3.00pm.
Staying at the Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George for a couple of nights.
Spaces are all pretty small, but we managed to get parked and set up without catastrophe. Wade – the park manager – guided us in, stayed for a chat, and then scurried off to guide the next arrivals into their space.
One of the things that we loved about our last trip was the get-together with other travellers around the campfire – and this park was no different. Bring a chair and drink to the 4.30 campfire and we were served hot nibbles from their pizza oven.
They talk about there being 6 degrees of separation between people, such that just a few “friend of a friend” statements can connect any two people. We sat with a couple around the fire tonight – Dave and Mandy – and it turns out that Mandy’s sister works at Queensland Rail and has an interest in a couple of key projects that my team are delivering, and yet I have never (knowingly) met her.
Today we travelled roughly 340km over about 6 hours, and we managed to stop and enjoy the hospitality of some small country towns on the way.
One of the things that frustrates us when we get away for a weekend is that small country towns close at lunchtime Saturday, so it feels a bit like walking around a ghost town. Tomorrow we will be exploring St George on a weekday, which should be fun. We may even make a trip down to the famous Nindigully pub … but let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow.
Ciao
You’ve captured the scenario very well (apart from a little confusion about east from Chinchilla ) Don’t miss Nindigully Look forward to the next blog!