On our way north

Monday 21 July 2014

It was very pleasant watching the dawn over the wetlands while I dressed and packed.

Once we had finished breakfast Bryan and Pam drove3 me to Oxley Station where I caught the train back to Banyo.

Kathy arrived not long after me and then Kelly and Hamish arrived for lunch. We enjoyed some time picking tomatoes with Hamish.

After lunch Kathy and I left to drive to Kilcoy where we spent the afternoon and evening sorting out gear and wondering how on earth we would fit it all in the car. Tomorrow we will test it out.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

We enjoyed breakfast on the verandah watching the cold mist rising and wetting my washing. We then set the drier to complete the drying of my clothes before they were packed.

We spent some hours packing and yes, it all did fit except the generator. We left Kilcoy at about 10:30am. We enjoyed our late morning tea at Blackbutt. This gave us an opportunity to test out our food system and all was OK for morning tea anyway. By now the day had warmed up enough to take our jumpers off. I had already changed from a wooly singlet to a cotton one. In the street there was a magnificent Flindersia tree and a very fresh fruit underneath it.

Onwards to Goomeri for lunch at about 12:30 then on again. At about 2:30, out of Gayndah, we saw two emu. We arrived at Mundubarra by about 3:30pm and checked into the Three Rivers Tourist Park. Kathy's tent is really easy to put up and absolutely palacial. We had our beds all set up by about 4:30pm.

We had time to enjoy wine and nuts looking over the wetland watching the kangaroos, cormorant, plover and cattle before we went down to the camp kitchen to make our first dinner. Tomorrow when we pack the car we now have a better idea of the things we need to access during the day to make our stops quicker and easier.

After dinner I spent a while in the kitchen typing up diary then we both retired to the tent to enjoy our first night out.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

We had a reasonable sleep after we'd got warm. It was a beautifully clear cold night and probably got down to about 5 degrees. Thank goodness for Kathy's sheepskin seat cover.

It was a steady but efficient pack up and breakfast leaving Mundubarra by about 8:45am. I started the driving today and only took a short while to get used to Kathy's car.

At Monto we stopped at the Duck In takeaway shop and bought roast pork and salad sanwiches for lunch. Kathy and Barbara had been there before so Kathy knew the sandwiches were excellent. We found a park in Monto for morning tea. Just as we pulled out of town we remembered we needed fuel so went back in before we then headed for Cania Gorge National Park.

We booked into the caravan park for one night soon after 11am and had set up camp and were enjoying our sandwiches around noon. We are getting efficient!

For our afternoon activity we did a walk to Dripping Rock. It was a slow walk because we both kept finding plants (including sandpaper fig, Cupaniopsis anarcardioides), birds (including a Brown Cuckoo Dove), and even a rock wallaby we have yet to identify. We are keeping a bird list for the trip and so far have 18. Near the Big Foot rock there were dozens of butterflies but unfortunately I could not get any photos. There were grass blues, grass yellows, two different wanderer types, a black one with white spots (probably Australian Crow) and a white one with black body and wing edges, there was also a beautiful pale blue one.

By the time we got back to camp we'd done 15000 steps for the day. Not bad for two grey nomads. Lots of water, tea, and nibbles to rehydrate while I wrote up the diary.

We then prepared another stir fry for dinner and enjoyed it while it was still light. Unfortunately this meant that we were all done and dusted by about 6:30pm so Kathy had a shower and I typed up the diary in the camp kitchen where there was a bit of light.