Roadtrip July 2021: Day 2 – Chinchilla > Miles > Condamine > Surat > St George

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.

2 degrees in Chinchilla

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 …

Pulling out of Clover Hill Camping – Chinchilla

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.

Condamine – blink and you’ll miss it

The roads all felt pretty civilised to start with … there were even lines painted on the road, and rest stops, and turning lanes …

Miles to Condamine

… but the roads got narrower …

Road Condamine to Surat

… and narrower 🙁

Road Condamine to Surat

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.

Surat
Surat
Surat
Surat

We stopped for a quick bite at a local Surat park, and then kept going towards home for tonight – St George.

Lunch in Surat

The road from Surat to St George was nice and open, relatively flat and posted at 110km/h … and the scenery kept changing.

Surat to St George
Surat to St George
Surat to St George
Surat to St George

We arrived into St George at around 3.00pm.

St George

Staying at the Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George for a couple of nights.

Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George
Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George

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.

4.30 campfire – Kamarooka Tourist Park, St George

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.

Chinchilla to St George

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

Roadtrip July 2021: Day 1 – Brisbane to Chinchilla

Every good movie or road trip deserves its own theme song, so I’ve been pondering for several days now what is the appropriate theme song for the July 2021 road trip out into western Queensland with the new van on its maiden voyage.

Options – and the reasons for rejecting them – have included:

  • Way out west (James Blundell) – rejected because it has a couple of unpleasant references to “job” and “work”;
  • On the road again (Willie Nelson) – rejected for no real reason other than that it was Willie Nelson;
  • My heart will go on (James Horner) – originally included in the list because it was about another maiden voyage, but rejected because as I recall that other maiden voyage didn’t end so well.

In the end, the Spotify Gods chose the theme song for us. The first song that played as we were driving out the driveway at 8.21am this morning was Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da (The Beatles) and I think that a theme of “Life goes on …” pretty much sums it up 🙂

Heading out – 8.20am 10 July 2021

Today was just a bit of a driving day, with the aim of getting to Chinchilla. Unfortunately there was a strong wind forecast for today, and I’m pretty sure that the wind was blowing directly from Chinchilla because it felt like we were driving into it all day.

Elsie’s fuel economy seemed to support that view also, as we achieved an average just north of 20 litres/100km. To be fair though, the new van is bigger and heavier than the old one, and the fuel economy going up the Toowoomba Bypass was pretty steady on something around 45-50 litres/100km for quite a bit of time, and that did some damage that couldn’t be undone easily.

You should consider yourselves pretty lucky, because you only have to read a filtered version of what happened today. There are lots of boring and mundane things that are omitted from the record in the interests of keeping it interesting.

Sadly we were not so lucky. There were a couple of old couples heading the same direction as us who treated UHF channel 40 like some people use Facebook – an opportunity to broadcast every random thought that popped into their heads, including:

  • “I don’t think my left turn indicator is working. I’m going to have to avoid left turns”
  • “Do we go up the range through Toowoomba or do we take the Toowoomba Bypass? I’m not sure what the GPS is telling me to do …”
  • ”Let’s just pull over into the stopping bay and let everyone else pass us”

First stop for the day was in Oakey for a late breakfast and then we motored on through Dalby until our next quick stop to stretch our legs in Warra – a pretty little spot but not much happening.

Warra 4411
Warra 4411
Warra 4411

We arrived at Chinchilla around 1.15pm and made our way to tonight’s accommodation.

Chinchilla 4413

We arrived at Clover Hill Camping ground, found a spot, plugged in and unhooked the car. I think that we stayed here by accident – as I recall the plan was to stay at Chinchilla Country Camping but I somehow got them mixed up.

Clover Hill is very nice, but still a work in progress … and they have had quite a bit of rain recently which didn’t help either. Everything is pretty boggy.

Clover Hill – Chinchilla
Clover Hill – Chinchilla
Clover Hill – Chinchilla
Clover Hill – Chinchilla

Saturday afternoon in Chinchilla is pretty much like Saturday afternoon in any other small-ish country town.

Everything is closed. Well, everything except the petrol station, Maccas, and KMart … and we avoided Maccas 🙁

Elsie got a big drink and we headed over to KMart and injected a whole $2.50 into the local economy, so that’s our good deed for the day.

We did a quick trip out to the Chinchilla Weir – very pretty … and they have about a dozen powered sites available for a simple donation, but with the number of grey nomads circling for a space, you’d have to be pretty lucky to jag one.

Chinchilla Weir
Chinchilla Weir
Chinchilla Weir
Chinchilla Weir

… and then home for a very late lunch.

It’s pretty cold out here – 14 degrees C that feels like 12 degrees, but thanks to the magic of reverse cycle air conditioning and 240V, it is a toasty 22 degrees C inside the van. Almost tropical 🙂

Overall we covered about 339km and that took us just under 5.5 hours. We weren’t in a crazy hurry and we just puddled along at our own pace.

Brisbane to Chinchilla – 339km

Now that I have written it all down and gone back and re-read it, it must seem like a very unproductive and disappointing day. To be fair though, our only objective was to get to Chinchilla in one piece, and we were successful!

Tomorrow we head to St George for a couple of nights so hopefully there will be some more exciting things to report.

Until then … Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on …

Ciao

Elbow Valley

It’s a long weekend here in Queensland.

The weather is warming up, the Queen of England is having a birthday (or if she’s not having a birthday, we are having a long weekend off to celebrate it anyway …), and COVID-19 restrictions are easing.

It’s a great reason to get away in the van with MBW to the countryside. To Elbow Valley, no less.

Where is Elbow Valley? About 20km south-east of Warwick, 50km north-west of Stanthorpe, and 16km west of Killarney.

Elbow Valley
Elbow Valley

Pretty little place that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere!

We found a place on HipCamp (was YouCamp) and booked it.

Our host for the weekend – Bruce – has about 100 acres of land that used to be cattle and sheep country, but he has since retired and he spends his days pottering around in his unregistered RAV4, Nissan truck, tractor, or on his quad bike … and looking after people who are camping on his little piece of paradise.

We arrived at around 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon, and set about finding us a place to set up the van.

One of the challenges with camping on private land is that it’s not exactly designed to be flat and ready for caravans. You need to do a bit of a caravan shuffle to find a spot that has privacy, a nice view, is away from other campers, and is easy to get the van level.

Finally, after a bit of jiggery-pokery (… actually quite a bit of jiggery-pokery, moving the van, forward a bit, no back a bit …) we jagged a nice quiet spot in the “mid camp” and we were set up in no time.

Van level, car disconnected, mat out, firewood collected and a nice fire going – all ready for “cheese o’clock” … and then we looked up 🙁

We had inadvertently set up the van directly under an iron bark tree that had a number of branches that looked rather fragile.

Fragile in a large, dead, heavy and ready to drop off in a strong wind kind of way … and there was a strong wind blowing from the north east.

We spent the next 30 minutes debating whether we would be OK, or whether we should shift the van … and then it was too dark to shift the van anyway.

So we spent the night listening to little bits of bark and branches raining down on the van, and wondering if this was how we were going to die.

Well, I can’t speak for both of us, but it certainly crossed my mind!

Elbow Valley: A middle-aged couple died overnight in a freak accident when a large branch fell from an iron bark tree, crushing their caravan … they didn’t stand a chance …

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to find that we were still alive, so that seemed like as good a reason as any to move the van to a safer location and doing like the Bee Gees do … Staying Alive!

Saturday morning looked like a beautiful day for a drive into Stanthorpe. Despite it being only a few hours drive from where we live, I can’t say that I can recall ever visiting Stanthorpe previously.

Welcome to Stanthorpe

We made our way into town – and I have to say that it really is a pretty little township which felt a little like it was stuck in the past.

Streets that are wide enough to turn a full bullock team around …

Stanthorpe
Stanthorpe

… friendly locals …

Larry the llama

… and lots of local artwork and greenery …

Local artwork – Stanthorpe
Stanthorpe

We spent a pleasant hour or so browsing the local shops in the Main Street, before deciding to head back to camp, via the Stanthorpe Cheese Factory.

Stanthorpe Cheese Factory

We do like our cheese 🙂

Things must be pretty tough here in Stanthorpe, and COVID must be making it very hard for them …

Things are tough in Stanthorpe

We also stopped to take photos of the local tourist attractions – the Big Apple!

The Big Apple – Stanthorpe

They really take the apple theme a bit far in Stanthorpe – the Big Apple, Applethorpe, Crisp Real Estate … and so on … but then I guess they need to exploit the one thing for which the region is best known.

It’s a funny thing – I’ve been driving for around 40 years and never felt that I needed someone to specifically tell me what side of the road we drive on. Even in the USA I knew that it was the other side of the road to what I’m used to, but I still managed to figure it out.

And yet here we are in Western Queensland and what do we see? Signage on the road letting us know where we should be …

Keep left!

… and in case there was any doubt, there was a road sign that confirmed the expectation …

Keep left!

Maybe they get a great deal of international visitors arriving in Stanthorpe who are uncertain how to drive here? Beats me …

Back at the camp, we set up the fire for the evening, had a bit of a walk around the property, and enjoyed the view.

Elbow Valley – view from the campsite
Enjoying the view – Elbow Valley

The sun set with a blaze of orange and red …

Sunset – Elbow Valley

… and then it was time for the campfire.

Campfire – Elbow Valley

While we were in Stanthorpe on Saturday morning, we learned that there is a country market at the Showgrounds on the first Sunday of every month … and we do love a country market!

So we headed back into Stanthorpe again Sunday morning – only 50km or so – to check out the market.

And it was a fizzer 🙁

Probably the smallest country market I’ve ever been to with nothing really worth buying. Bummer.

So we went back into the Main Street of Stanthorpe, found a Woolies fuel station, gave Elsie a big drink of diesel and headed back to camp.

When we bought Elsie, we asked what sort of fuel economy we would get from the big V8 Diesel engine, and we were told to expect 9.5l/100km as per the sticker on the windscreen.

Yeah right!

After filling up Elise in Stanthorpe and heading back towards Warwick, we got the best economy that I have ever seen – 8.9l/100km after the fill!

Elsie’s best ever fuel economy

Now I suppose I probably do need to qualify that. We had just filled up and only done 44.3km, and the vast majority of that 44.3km was done at 110km/hour and mostly coasting down hills between Stanthorpe back to Warwick … but you really do need to claim small victories when you get them!

We got back to Elbow Valley being very careful to keep to the left, and settled back into camp for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Not wanting to be completely sedentary all weekend, we went for a walk down to the bottom campsite and looked at the creek.

Elbow Valley camping
Elbow Valley

Not much more to tell I’m afraid … another campfire, another sunset, and then Monday morning we packed everything down and came home to reality.

A beautiful spot in beautiful country Queensland, only a couple of hours drive from home.

I can’t think of a better way to recharge the batteries …

Sunset – Elbow Valley

Ciao!

Road Trip 2020: Day 14 | Monto – Home

It was cold again this morning. Someone had told us that Monto can get cold, and cold it was.

Monto temperature
Monto temperature

2.1 degrees but feels like -0.2. Not a pleasant start to the day.

I think it’s around 50 years now that I have been able to shower without the need for adult supervision or direction.

So you’d probably think that I’d know most of the tips and tricks by now.

Like the fact that caravan park shower blocks are notoriously cold and drafty.

Like the fact that caravan park showers are incredibly hard to get adjusted to a comfortable temperature.

Like the fact that you don’t step out of your clothes until you are ready to step straight into the shower.

You’d think …

So there I was at the Monto caravan park, in my birthday suit, trying to find a middle ground between skin-flailingly hot water and icy cold.

I’m not sure what I was thinking.

I finally got the temperature close enough to “just right” and in I stepped … and I had my first moment of mental clarity.

I’d forgotten my towel 🙁

Not exactly a brilliant start to the day.

We had planned to stay one more night half-way between Monto and Brisbane, but the place we wanted to stay was fully booked.

So we figured we would just make a run for home.

Pulling out of the Monto Caravan Park
Pulling out of the Monto Caravan Park

We packed up Holly and hooked up Elsie for the last time, and pulled out of the Monto Caravan Park at around 8.40am and headed towards Brisbane.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that there was some street art around town. We were told that we needed to look at the silos on our way out of Monto.

Silo murals - Monto
Silo murals – Monto

Very impressive!

From there we blasted through Eidsvold and Mundubbera, and into Gayndah for a coffee break at the side of the road.

Gayndah coffee stop
Gayndah coffee stop

These small towns are quite amazing. Their main streets are so wide … wide enough – I’d expect – that you could turn a whole bullock team around in the one manoeuvre … except that Gayndah has now installed a median strip down the middle.

The roads were pretty good, with a lot more green that we have seen over the last couple of weeks.

Monto - Brisbane
Monto – Brisbane

We kept going through Ban Ban Springs, where the local pub advertises “good meals”- not great meals, just to keep your expectations realistic.

We were nearly run off the road by some tosser who thought it would be a good idea to overtake us on a very narrow, single lane roadway heading into Kilkivan, and we made it to Gympie just before 1.00pm for a lunch break, and to give Elsie a big drink of diesel.

Lunch stop - Gympie
Lunch stop – Gympie
Lunch stop - Gympie
Lunch stop – Gympie

We got back home around 3.30pm, after 430km and 6 and a bit hours on the road.

The van is all unpacked and tomorrow we start the process of removing 2 weeks worth of bugs and dirt off the car and van.

That’s called delayed gratification!

This is what today looks like:

Monto - Home
Monto – Home

The wrap-up for the trip was a total of 3,764.8km travelled.

We’ve had a blast and hope that you enjoyed following along. It’s been a great trip but it’s also good to be home.

Now we need to start planning our next adventure 🙂

Ciao

Road Trip 2020: Day 13 | Kinka Beach – Monto

I’m feeling rather emasculated today. It wasn’t just a single thing that happened, but a couple of things. My self-esteem has taken a hit.

We hooked up and rolled out of Kinka Beach this morning at 9.28am.

I’m very specific about the time because I believe that check-out time is strictly 9.30am according to the paperwork.

We were at the back of the caravan park so we had to weave our way out of the park at “walking pace only!” Lucky I can walk fast.

Being at the park for 2 nights, we had a change in neighbours on site 90. We were on site 89.

Our old neighbours rolled out yesterday morning, and our new neighbours rolled in last night in this huge truck towing a huge caravan and I suffered my first hit.

Rolling out of Island View Caravan Park - Kinka Beach
Rolling out of Island View Caravan Park – Kinka Beach

Note the size of his rig next door. It was even registered as a National Heavy Vehicle. He had a quad bike in the back and a tinnie on top. His caravan was ever bigger!

They say that size doesn’t matter … until it does 🙁

Rolling out of Island View Caravan Park - Kinka Beach
Rolling out of Island View Caravan Park – Kinka Beach

We hit the road and stopped to buy some pineapples at a roadside stall just up the road, then proceeded into Rockhampton to fuel up and head south towards Monto – tonight’s accommodation.

I’ve obviously been spoiled by the country drivers over the last couple of weeks. Here I was complaining about having to wave at every 4WD, caravan, Winnebago, SUV and truck, yet that was the least of my problems.

Driving through Rockhampton this morning, I realised that there must have been a Bad Drivers Convention on in town today, because they were all out and on their way there.

The most memorable one was a turkey driving a Toyota Yaris with 2 small children in the back, and s/he was determined not to get stuck behind some old fool towing a caravan (me, apparently).

Despite giving him/her a wide berth, s/he managed to cut me off and/or stamp on their brakes on several occasions, causing me to have to take defensive steps to avoid a collision.

But the most emasculating thing that happened was being overtaken by a Toyota Prius.

A Prius!

I mean, those things use rubber-bands for propulsion as far as I know, so how they managed to overtake me in Elsie with her 4.5 litre V8 with twin turbos I’ll never understand.

Maybe they’d had new rubber bands fitted recently?

The trip today first took us through “historic Mount Morgan”.

The “Mount” in Mount Morgan should have been the first alarm bell.

I assume that Mount is short for mountain.

The second clue was the sign that said “Caravans Take Care”, and then the third was the fact that the speed limit dropped to 40km/hour.

Heading up the hill to Mount Morgan
Heading up the hill to Mount Morgan

I would have had to speed up to do 40km/hour. Poor old Elsie was struggling a bit – it was very steep.

And windy.

Heading up the hill to Mount Morgan
Heading up the hill to Mount Morgan

Let’s just say that today wasn’t Elsie’s best fuel economy day 🙁

We made it through Mt Morgan and then stopped at the small township of Dululu for a quick break.

Dululu
Dululu
Dululu
Dululu

Did you notice the international standard tennis courts in Dululu?

From Dululu we blasted through Jambin, then Biloela and then about 5km up the road we came to Thangool.

Here’s a fun bit of trivia. Thangool means O’Possum in the local native language.

Back in the day, Thangool was a hive of activity with upwards of 2000 people in town and hanging around on weekends.

Not so much today though.

If you believe everything you read on Wikipedia, Thangool now has a population of 741 people and I have no idea where any of them were.

As you know, before crossing the road you should always look to the right …

Thangool midday traffic
Thangool midday traffic

… then look to the left …

Thangool midday traffic
Thangool midday traffic

… then look to the right again.

Thangool midday traffic
Thangool midday traffic

Excellent. All safe to cross the road. Can you imagine how quiet the roads would be outside of the midday rush?

We had a coffee and a biscuit to keep us going, then kept rolling about another 80km (50 minutes) to Monto – home for tonight. We rolled into town at about 1.30pm.

Monto is another really pretty little township with a population of just under 1200 people.

We pulled into the caravan park and Peter very kindly guided me back into my space. A bite of lunch and we were out exploring the town.

Lunch at Monto
Lunch at Monto

The park is pretty quiet at the moment, but Peter – the guy who runs the place with his wife Lesley – said that they are fully booked tomorrow (Saturday) night.

Good for them! It’s nice to see that the small towns are open for business and getting lots of people coming to stay (and spend their money!)

Some really pretty buildings in the business centre.

Monto
Monto
Monto
Monto
Monto
Monto
Monto
Monto

Like many other caravan parks, they light the fire here at about 4.30pm and everyone is invited to gather around, chat and swap stories.

It’s a good place to pick up hints and tips about what vans are good, good places to stay, things to avoid, etc.

One couple (he was an ex-Qantas pilot, now retired) have been on the road for coming up 4 weeks, and another couple have been travelling all over for 3 months in their 25 foot van.

Once again I was told not to leave it too late to retire. I think it’s a sign …

Grand Hotel - Monto
Grand Hotel – Monto

The Grand Hotel is one of two hotels in Monto, and was built in 1928. That’s where we went for steak and ribs for dinner tonight.

There is also some amazing street art around Monto. Apparently their street art has “put Monto on the map”.

Street art - Monto
Street art – Monto
Street art - Monto
Street art – Monto

We have been told that their silos – just out of town – are pretty amazing, so hopefully we will see them tomorrow.

So this is what today looks like; a pretty cruisy day really.

Kinka Beach - Monto
Kinka Beach – Monto

Only about 215km and 3.5 hours of driving time.

Tomorrow … sigh 🙁

Tomorrow we had planned to stay at Kilkivan, about half-way between Monto and home. But we couldn’t get into the bush camp that was highly recommended as they are full to the gizzards.

So we are not sure if we are going to do a big push and get home tomorrow (Saturday) so that we can have Sunday to clean out the van and I can get ready for w… for wo… for wor…

Nope, I’m having trouble saying that word 🙁

We will play it by ear and see what happens. In any case, it’s been a blast! About 3,200km so far, with about 6 hours back to Brisbane … and then we can start planning the next one.

As they say, it’s not over ’till the fat lady sings.

And I’ll bet she uses lots of soap!

Ciao

Road Trip 2020: Day 12 | Kinka Beach

It was a bit of a lazy day today. A day for recharging our batteries.

Despite the fact that the journey east from Winton is part of “heading home”, I refuse to acknowledge that we are heading home until we travel south.

Tomorrow we start travelling south 🙁

I came to Emu Park probably more than 5 years ago when I was with Ergon Energy. One of my my stakeholders (actually, he was my manager) was based in Yeppoon/Rockhampton and I had come up to see him.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), there was a beef expo – or some such thing – on in Rockhampton at the time and there was no accommodation available.

Well, nothing within my price range.

So they put me at Emu Park. I thought that it was the end of the earth – about a 40 minute drive from Rockhampton.

I thought that if I went any further I’d be at risk of dropping off the edge of the world.

But rather than being a liability, it was a blessing in disguise.

Paradise found!

Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park

I’ve always wanted to come back here but figured that it was too far away. Fortunately we have been able to get here for a couple of nights on our outback adventure and recharge, before heading back to reality.

We weren’t able to get into the caravan park at Emu Park, but we got a spot at Kinka Beach – 5 minutes up the road towards Yeppoon.

Island View Caravan Park - Kinka Beach
Island View Caravan Park – Kinka Beach

I’ve even included a map for those of you who are geographically challenged.

Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach

So recharge we did.

We started the day with a long walk on the beach. Stunning!

Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach

Crisp clear morning, soft smooth sand, and an impossibly blue sky.

And these tiny little shells on the beach.

Shells on Kinka Beach
Shells on Kinka Beach

We came back from our walk and noticed the sound of a motor, and then we smelled it … John’s septic pumping service was pumping out the dump point.

That explained the fruity smell in the morning air. Lucky for us we are not camped near a dump point!

Back at the van, washed the sand off our feet and started getting breakfast ready … to hear and see John’s truck move around to the amenities block just across from us, and John start unrolling the hoses …

So it turns out there IS a dump point nearby.

Anyhow, we closed all of the van windows, turned on the A/C and had breakfast inside.

Last night I texted my old boss – let’s just call him “Richard”. Actually his name really is Richard, so that works well.

Richard recently left Ergon after 40-odd years and has taken on the status of “semi-retired”. He’s 2 months younger than I am, lives in Yeppoon and is now living the dream.

So I texted him last night to say hi and he suggested coffee.

So we started the day with a trip to Yeppoon – about 20 minutes up the road – and Kerri went for a browse around the shops while I had coffee and catch-up with Richard.

It was really good to see him. It’s been over 5 years.

Kerri even bought me a present that tells the story of my life in 4 words:

Life begins after coffee
Life begins after coffee

Yeppoon is such a pretty place and the weather was absolutely stunning!

Yeppoon
Yeppoon
Yeppoon
Yeppoon

From Yeppoon we headed up to Byfield for a drive on Richard’s recommendation … a pretty drive but a bit early for lunch.

I can’t say that we saw many people at Byfield, but we did see emus …

Emus at Bywater
Emus – Byfield

… and lots of letterboxes.

Letterboxes - Bywater
Letterboxes – Byfield

I’m not sure if there is a collective noun for letterboxes? Maybe a forest of letterboxes?

From Byfield we drove down to Rockhampton to see the sights. On the way I had a call from another ex-colleague from Ergon – let’s call him “Glen”. Another semi-retiree.

Glen and I had hoped to catch-up on this trip but unfortunately the planets didn’t line up so it didn’t happen 🙁

Glen and I did a “National Lampoon’s Western Queensland Substation Tour/Adventure” back in Ergon days … I could probably write a whole blog on that trip!

Rockhampton is a pretty town, very rural and lots of closed shops no doubt due to COVID.

Rockhampton
Rockhampton
Rockhampton
Rockhampton

From Rockhampton we headed back to the van for a bite of lunch and I managed a nap.

Tonight we had hoped to go to the Pine Beach Pub at Emu Park for dinner, but unfortunately they were booked out, so we went to Emu Park Pizza instead for … pizza …

Pizza - Emu Park
Pizza – Emu Park
Pizza - Emu Park
Pizza – Emu Park

… and we watched the sunset.

Sunset - Emu Park
Sunset – Emu Park
Sunset - Emu Park
Sunset – Emu Park
Sunset - Emu Park
Sunset – Emu Park
Sunset - Emu Park
Sunset – Emu Park
Sunset - Emu Park
Sunset – Emu Park

Dinner and a free light show with my favourite person in the whole world! What more could I ask for?

So this is what today looks like – just some buzzing around Emu Park, Byfield, Rockhampton, Kinka Beach, back to Emu Park for dinner and now back at the van.

Tripping around Rockhampton
Tripping around Rockhampton

Coffee and chocolate. What better way to end the day?

But I think we need to buy some more soap 🙁

Ciao

Road Trip 2020: Day 11 | Emerald – Kinka Beach

I’m starting today’s post with some wisdom.

Firstly from my mother: “If you can’t think of something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Secondly from a wise, although unknown source: “All things being equal, fat people use more soap.”

Which reminds me, I seem to be using more soap lately …

With both of those pieces of wisdom in mind, I will make an observation about sitting around the campfire last night listening to Errol What’s-his-name singing his songs about farting.

Yes, he really did sing songs about farting. That’s why I only rated the entertainment an “OK” in yesterday’s post.

There were probably 60 or 70 people in their camp chairs last night with us, and many of them were really, really fa …. er … had a really, really large surface area.

One bloke had such an incredible amount of surface area that he could barely carry his chair and walk at the same time.

And I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Wow! I bet he uses lots and lots of soap!”

Even Kerri commented on it, and she never says anything bad about anybody!

Goodness only knows how they get in and out of their caravans. They must have had extra wide doors fitted.

Emerald was nice, but the flies nearly drove me mad. These tiny little black things that like to crawl in your ears and up your nose.

Argh!

And the Emerald Tourist Park was quite a nice place to stay the night. They are expanding the site (a good thing) but there was lots of mess and noise from the trucks and bobcats etc, which started a bit too early this morning for my liking 🙁

I actually thought that the clientele at the Emerald Tourist Park was a little different to most other places that we have stayed in the last week or so.

Here are a few observations to support my case:

There was the usual powered and unpowered sites, and cabins, plus there seemed to be a number of dongas like you see at mine sites. Not the kind of thing that your average tourist would choose to stay in.

When you put that with the fact that there were quite a number of people sitting at their vans wearing PPE, it makes me think that they must be there for work – possibly at the local mines.

And the final piece of evidence is that many of them seemed to be there for the long haul.

Our neighbours, “Sambo and Jenny on UHF 40” according to the signage on the back of their van, had a fence set up to keep their dog in, Jenny was out front watering the grass when we arrived, and they had a lawnmower – yes, a lawnmower – amongst their worldly possessions stored under their van.

Sambo – I assume that it was Sambo – turned up at about 5.00pm dressed in his PPE, with dirty hands and a look on his face that said “I’ve had a really crappy day at work and now I’m going to drink myself into oblivion to forget all about it”.

And Sambo was gone again the next morning while Jenny sat out in the sun looking at her grass.

I have a view that some of these van parks were originally designed as nudist parks.

Why, you ask, would I think that? Because the showers have absolutely no consideration for the fact that you have a set of clean clothes that you need to keep dry for the duration of your shower and while you get dressed.

I challenge you to give it a try … step into your shower cubicle at home wearing your PJs, and carrying a clean (and dry) set of underwear, plus a shirt and jeans and maybe a sweatshirt if it’s cold. Don’t forget you’ve also got your toiletry bag and whatever other stuff you need, because you have to be carrying it all with you.

Get out of your PJs and hang them, along with all of your clean clothes and your other stuff on maybe 2 hooks on the back of the door. Not the bathroom door – they have to hang inside the shower with you.

There are no shelves or other useful places to store your stuff – just two hooks on the back of the door.

Now try and have a shower without anything falling onto the wet floor, or without everything getting wet while you are splashing around in the shower, washing your hair.

Now try and get dressed again in the impossibly small confines of the shower cubicle without falling over.

See what I mean?

I am convinced that these showers were designed for a nudist park because there is no consideration for the fact that you have a set of clothes that you need to keep dry!

I’m sure that they assume you are going in naked, and coming back out naked. No clothes required.

Enough said.

Pop top vans are a wonderful invention. Ours sits nice and low behind Elsie and doesn’t cause too much wind drag.

But one of the problems of having a pop top van is that because the top comes down, everything inside the van has a height limit – like the mirror – so to see yourself in the mirror you have to get down on your knees!

Kerri doing her hair
Kerri doing her hair

One day we will have a full height van and we will look back at this photo and laugh 🙂

We packed up the van and loaded up the car with all of our essential supplies that we need to keep close at hand – thermos of hot water, coffee, cups, chips, chocolate … you know, all of the important stuff.

I realised this morning that we have very cleverly hidden all of our most essential items in a dry gin box that we keep in the car 🙂

In-car supplies
In-car supplies

We rolled out of the Emerald Tourist Park at about 9.00am and it was already pushing 25 degrees.

Emerald Tourist Park
Emerald Tourist Park

I couldn’t get out of the park easily this morning because this Silly Old Goat in a Pajero and a dual axle Jayco van decided that the exit road was a fabulous place to stop and have a chat with his mate … so I needed to go cross-country through the unpowered sites area to get out of the park.

I’ll refer to him as SOG from now on, out of recognition of my mother’s wisdom from the start of this post. Not that SOG is much better than spelling it out … but you do what you can, and it makes me feel like I’m making an effort.

When I pulled out of the park he was behind me, and by the time I got to the road leading out of Emerald he was in front of me again!

He obviously knew a shortcut that Google Maps doesn’t know!

So I was stuck behind him on the single-lane highway while he puddled along at 80km/hour, 20km/hour below the speed limit.

I’m sure that he was doing it to annoy me.

I finally got past him and managed to forget about him until I got to Comet – yes, there really is a township called Comet, 40km east of Emerald – and I needed to stop and make a phone call.

Just so you know, “stop and make a phone call” is not a euphemism for anything else … I really DID need to stop and make a phone call.

So I’m sitting there on the phone, stopped at the side of the road, and the SOG went past me, still doing 20km/hour below the limit and with half a dozen cars stuck behind him.

I finished my call, got back on the highway and managed to pass him again, and then the road sped up to 110km/hour and I had to wonder if he’d sped up to 90km/hour to maintain that “20km/hour below the speed limit because I’m a safer driver than you are” thing, or was he was now doing 30km/hour below the limit because 80 was his terminal velocity.

I guess that I’ll never know.

Today we travelled from Emerald, through Comet, Blackwater, Bluff, Dingo … and a whole bunch of other places through to Rockhampton.

Sadly I’ve not got all that much to report on any of those places, because other than a quick comfort stop and the opportunity to top up our caffeine level, we really didn’t stop at all.

That’s probably why the introduction to this post was so long … but you probably suspected something was up anyway, I’m guessing.

I can tell you that we knew we were back in civilisation when we went through Bluff (population 373) and there were 2 police at the side of the road with a speed gun pouncing on speeding motorists like crows on roadkill.

I’m pretty sure that old mate (SOG) would have safely sailed through at 40km/hour.

We also learned that Dingo is the birthplace of Ben Hunt (NRL player).

Probably the most exciting thing we saw were trains hauling coal, and they must have had more that 100 coal cars behind the twin engines … and we probably saw half a dozen of them.

We also saw this coal loading thingy across the road, obviously to load coal onto the trains.

Coal loader - near Bluff Qld
Coal loader – near Bluff Qld

Pretty impressive operation!

The roads were really good today, with an obvious lack of roadkill. Most of the way they were flat, straight and wide … which showed up in Elsie’s fuel economy, coming in at about 15.5 litres/100km – not too shabby considering the trip up to Charleville yielded closer to 20 litres/100km.

For those of you that don’t understand litres/100km, small numbers are great, big numbers are bad.

15.5 litres/100km is nothing to write home about, but it’s pretty good considering I have 2 tonnes of van on the back.

There was a fair bit of roadwork which slowed us down a bit.

Roadwork
Roadwork near Dingo Qld

And you may have noticed that I straightened the UHF aerial on the Elsie’s bull bar. It had this “Leaning Tower of Pisa” thing happening and it was playing havoc with my OCD.

We made it into Rockhampton at around 12.30pm and I have to say it was a bit of a shock to the system to have to deal with multiple lanes of traffic, traffic lights, pedestrians, etc … something that I haven’t dealt with for almost 2 weeks.

And it was 32 degrees!

Tonight we are staying at the Island View Caravan Park at Kinka Beach – just south of Yeppoon.

Really, really pretty, green little park and just across the road from the ocean. And by the time we got here – closer to the water – it was a much more pleasant 28 degrees.

I feel like I’m cheating on you all by spending a couple of nights at the beach when we are doing an outback adventure … but then I still think of Rocky as a country town, and we will be back in the outback again in a couple of days 🙂

We set up the van …

Kinka Beach
Kinka Beach

… then went out exploring the surrounds from Yeppoon to Emu Park.

Singing ship - Emu Park
Singing ship – Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park
Emu Park

So far on this trip we have done 2,700km, and we still need to get home from Rockhampton yet.

This is what today’s trip looks like: Emerald to Kinka Beach, about 4.5 hours in the car and covered just over 300km.

Emerald - Kinka Beach
Emerald – Kinka Beach

And Kerri tells me that the van does have a name – Holly.

Short for Holiday.

If I thought that Emerald was the Promised Land, then Kinka Beach is Heaven! Such a beautiful spot, green, grassy, and with that beautiful salt air smell.

I can’t wait to get up early tomorrow, cross the road and go for a walk on the beach.

See you then!

Ciao

Road Trip 2020: Day 10 | Barcaldine – Emerald

Have you ever watched the news, and when the weather comes on they say something like “… and Roma can expect a low of 0 degrees and a high of 32 degrees”?

And you wonder to yourself “… how do they cope with such extremes of temperature…?”

That was us today. We woke cold some time in the middle of the night and I had to get up and turn on the heater. You’d think that we’d have learnt by now, but apparently not.

The reason that I am deliberately vague about the time in the middle of the night is because (a) we don’t have a clock in the van and (b) I really don’t care enough to put on my glasses and look at my phone. Time is not relevant during sleep time.

I went over to the showers and it was brisk – probably single digits – and then the day just got hotter from there.

So let’s start the day in the showers.

The facilities at Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park in Barcaldine were beautiful. It was a very clean, green park and everything was just right.

5 stars!

Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park - Barcaldine
Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park – Barcaldine
Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park - Barcaldine
Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park – Barcaldine

One of the good things about travelling around in the “grey nomad” crowd is that they all seem to have these huge, self-contained vans and they are all set in their ways.

Nobody ever seems to use the caravan park facilities because the facilities (in my limited experience) are nearly almost always empty.

Well, empty except for me.

And so it was again today at the Roses ‘n’ Things Caravan Park in Barcaldine.

I had the whole place to myself! Not a big facility – the men’s only had 2 toilets, 2 showers and a wash basin – but clean, tidy, and empty.

I picked one of the showers (it was an ennie meenie miney mo process, if I’m to be completely honest) and discovered to my surprise the the wall that separated the two shower cubicles was shorter that I am tall.

So if there had been someone in the shower next door, we could have made eye contact.

And if there had been someone in the shower next door and he had been quite tall … well, let’s just say that we wouldn’t have had any secrets between us.

But I was alone, so it all worked out for the best 🙂

But a funny thing did happen while I was enjoying my nice hot shower … there was a horse neighing (whinnying?) right outside the shower block.

That’s something that doesn’t happen every day!

So, without wanting to bore you with all of the details, I showered, dried, dressed and was back at the van in a jiffy.

Kerri was making coffee. (I love that woman!!!)

And then Kerri and I had our usual breakfast conversation:

Kerri: “What is the date today?”

Me: “I dunno.”

Kerri: “Well, do you know what day it is today?”

Me: ”Nope.”

I reckon you have achieved the pinnacle of holiday success when you have no idea what day or date it is.

This must be what retirement is like 🙂 I can’t wait!

We have the pack down of the van down to a fine art. Kerri does the breakfast dishes while I unplug, plug, connect, and disconnect everything as required, so that we are coordinated to the point that we are both finished our respective chores at the time that I am starting Elsie and backing her up to connect to the van.

I wonder if Kerri realises that we have named the car but not the van?

So we had hooked up and rolled out by about 9.15am to head into town to have a look-see before heading east towards Emerald.

And it was already pushing about 22 degrees.

Barcaldine
Barcaldine
Kerri and a statue of a striking shearer
Kerri and a statue of a striking shearer.

We wandered up and down the main street, looking into the very few stores that are still open.

Barcaldine
Barcaldine
Wall art at the Barcaldine pub
Wall art at the Barcaldine pub
Barcaldine
Barcaldine
Barcaldine
Barcaldine

Barcaldine really is a very pretty little township. Very clean and green and friendly.

There is a cafe in town called the Lounging Emu that (apparently) does a fabulous pizza on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and you can order by phone or UHF radio!

We had a(nother) coffee in town and then headed out towards Emerald.

First stop was Jericho.

Jericho is a quant little town about an hour east of Barcaldine that capitalises on the biblical story of Joshua and Jericho. There is a Lake Galilee just north of the township, and apparently a Jordan River that flows nearby.

Anyway, Jericho (population 115) is another quaint little town in the middle of nowhere …

Statue of Joshua in Jericho
Statue of Joshua in Jericho
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho train station
Jericho train station
Train line heading back towards Barcaldine
Train line heading back towards Barcaldine

Here’s a couple of fun facts.

People in Jericho are good at multi-tasking.

Local business - Jericho
Local business – Jericho

This building houses the council office, library, provides photocopy/fax services, internet facilities, a community room, Medicare office, Centrelink office, Train station and Post Office.

And they have public toilets!

And I’ll bet the place is managed by one person who is busy for only about 10% of their day!!

The second fun fact is that Jericho has Australia’s smallest drive-in theatre.

Jericho drive-in theatre
Jericho drive-in theatre
Jericho drive-in theatre
Jericho drive-in theatre

By my count, full capacity is 32 vehicles.

We drove on to the next township (about another 45 minutes) called Alpha, and stopped for lunch.

It was now over 30 degrees and time to change into shorts.

One of the things that I noticed was that the roads east of Barcaldine are relatively free of roadkill, and there is a great deal more trees and vegetation along the side of the road.

Roads from Barcaldine to Alpha
Roads from Barcaldine to Alpha

East of Alpha, the roads are very bumpy and uneven, so by the time we arrived in Emerald at about 2.30pm, I felt like I’d been wrestling with Elsie for the last 90 minutes or so.

I also felt like my internal organs had been rearranged 🙁

The roads are also slower – only 100km/hour – probably due to the condition of the roads, and quite narrow in parts … so you see an oncoming road train and say a silent prayer …

We arrived in Emerald, went to the Emerald Tourist Park and jagged the last powered site, and went off into the big smoke to get some groceries.

We are back in civilisation!!

A Woolies, a BigW, a Coles, KFC, McDonalds, Target Country (we love browsing in Target Country to see what specials we can find) … even a Chinese Take-away shop!

We’ve found the Promised Land!

So that’s about all of the news – approx 310km, a bit over 4.5 hours in the car and we are in Emerald.

Barcaldine - Emerald
Barcaldine – Emerald

We were told that there was “entertainment at the fire pit from 4.30” today, so we grabbed our chairs and wandered over.

Bought fish and chips from the Yabby Hut inside the caravan park and got the “Pensioner Pack”. I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad about that.

The lady said that “anyone can get the pensioner pack”, but I think she was only trying to cheer me up.

Entertainment was OK; food was good.

We came back to the van, Kerri made coffee (I love that woman!!) while I started the blog, and now I’m tired and ready for bed.

And it’s still 25 degrees 🙁

No heater for us tonight!

Ciao