We woke to a chilly morning, 2 degrees but with pure blue skies and no wind, it was lovely in the sun. We were heading a huge 100kms today, our destination being Condamine. We weren’t in a hurry to leave and Gilly took us on a walking tour of his hometown reminiscing from long ago.
After a fuel stop at Chinchilla, where diesel was a very reasonable $1.855/ltr we continued onto Condamine stopping at the river which happened to be beside the pub. When it floods here it certainly floods with the measure stick at 14 metres but when I looked at the flood level records, in 2011 it was at 15.25 metres and all the town residents had to be evacuated to Dalby. Sad to say, there were memorials to people who lost their lives in the river when boating across delivering supplies.
We had to support the community of course so dropped into the pub for a bevvie and ended up having 2 and a ripper feed for lunch. I can highly recommend the Great Northern Ginger Beer on tap and the Burger Loaded Fries.
Our campsite for the night is just outside town at Caliguel Lagoon. A great spot on the water with facilities, bbqs, tables and a kid’s playground as well as powered sites for people who need it and it is all free camping. Can imagine in the summer there would people aplenty with boats and jet skis. The corellas were here in the hundreds, singing and pooping on us.
Today saw us headed to Balonne River. It was a 230km drive and the road was quite bumpy. We had to stop along the way as some of our firewood came free on the roof rack. We saw our first emus for the trip with a group of 6 or so grazing on the side of the road in the paddock. Balonne River was lovely, quite serene sitting around the camp fire on the river bank. Just another day in paradise really.
As we headed on our way to Cunnamulla, I was sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time since we added our habitat box. It was all new to me as we have a split gear box and now that we carry the extra weight we are using the low range. A gear stick with 3 gears and 2 switches, which equates to 12 gears – yeah get your head around that. Apart from a self confidence melt down, the drive was incident free and I’m happy to share the driving from here on in.
We had a stop at St George for reasonably priced fuel, well as reasonably priced as you can get as we head further West and we couldn’t pass up the bakery – must look after the locals wink wink.
Mid afternoon we arrived at Cunnamulla to camp with our own Cunnamulla Fella “Gazza”. Gary and his son Kelvin will join us on our trek to the Big Red Bash in Birdsville. We spent a few days enjoying Gary and Edyta’s hospitality, sitting around the camp fire every night. We spent a morning exploring the lovely town.
They live in a cottage on a sheep farm and a highlight for me was the short walk to take a squiz at the old woodshed. It is no longer in use, as they now run Doppler sheep for meat. I just loved the old shed and couldn’t stop taking photos. It felt like you were part of it, standing inside, visioning the sheep being pushed out through the shoot.
Finally, a little indulgence, we visited the Eulo Artesian Mud Baths. This quirky place was well worth the 70 odd km drive and I’ll dedicate a separate post to it. Us ladies indulged while the guys had a beer at the local Euro Queen Hotel.
It is now time to continue on towards Birdsville, 2 vehicles grow to 3.
Stay tuned……..