Day 17: Thu 12 May - Charleville Gravel Pit (7km west) to Dalby

Day 17: Thu 12 May - Charleville Gravel Pit (7km west) to Dalby

17 – 22°, Rain, more rain, and even more rain - some heavy, some steady, and all annoying.
Towed 543km.

We woke at 4:30am to the sound of torrential rain and thunder in the distance. Otherwise it was a nice quiet sleep parked by the roadside in the gravel pit. At 5:30am after consulting with Noeleene, Greg and Wendy, we decided that pushing West towards Quilpie was a risk not worth taking. Heading north from Quilpie wasn't looking too promising either. Many roads in the region are already closed, and while some in that vicinity are still open, how long they remain open is a big unknown. With another rain event across QLD forecast next week, it won't take much to close remaining roads or extend existing closures. As such, we decided to call it quits on our planned lap of QLD, deciding to head back east towards the coast while the going is good. A snappy pack-up (we were still hooked up anyway), and we were on the way by 6:30am heading east to Greg and Wendy's 'Hippo Farm' near Hervey Bay. We will join them for a few days (because they really love our company 🤣...), then we'll head north to Gladstone and Yeppoon to catch up with family until the weather settles. We were planning the Gladstone and Yeppoon visit on the way back from the cape, so we will now do that first, and come up with an alternative plan from there. We ended up towing the furthest I've done in one day - 543km. It doesn't sound far, but when you're towing a 3t van in heavy, and sometimes torrential rain, with road trains passing in both directions along bumpy, rain affected roads, driving is demanding. The beer I had on arrival at the caravan park in Dalby could not have tasted better.  We were also very lucky to get the last 2 sites at the caravan park in Dalby, as it was recently closed due to flooding, and the grounds are still very sloppy - we even had to engage 4wd drive to park on our sites.

After setting up at 4.30pm, a short walk around Myall creek behind the van park was followed by nice hot showers, then dinner at the pub, before having an early night. It's been a long day.

Coffee stop - the rain coming down in bucket loads.

Myall Creek Dalby - Caravan Park can be seen between the trees

Myall Creek - Still flooded

Hope it doesn't rain much tonight (it's actually raining again now) - that's our van between the trees to the left

Look closely and you can see grass stuck in the bottom 3 boards above Noeleene's hand, indicating the flood level from just a few weeks ago

Myall Creek Dalby




Comments

  1. BronwynMay 13, 2022 at 6:08 AM

    Oh noooo. Maybe u guys need to travel in another state😩not much luck with Qld.😂

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steven BMay 13, 2022 at 8:35 AM

    O WOW, wasn't expecting this. Hope all goes well for you mate. Stay safe

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown

Image
Day 58: Wed 22 Jun - Port Douglas to Cooktown Towed 265km (5,124 towed this trip) 20 – 26°. Partly cloudy all day with light winds in Port Douglas, winds becoming stronger and gusty in Cooktown. The forecast is for winds gusting to 60km/h for the rest of the week in Cooktown, apparently not unusual at this time of year. We drove away from the Big 4 in Port Douglas just before 8:00am, and had a good run back up Mt Molloy onto the Mulligan Highway north to Cooktown. There was very little traffic and road conditions were fantastic  all the way - some of the best this trip. There were a couple of steep but short climbs along the way, but no problem - I'm very happy with the towing, handling and fuel economy of the Wildtrak. Even with about 10km of steep climbing today, pulling almost 3 tonne, we averaged less than 16lt/100km for the trip. We also had a very strong side wind which pushed us around a bit for the last 50km. After 155km, our first stop was for coffee at the Palmer Riv...
Read more

Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon

Image
Day 36: Tue 31 May - Gladstone to Yeppoon 151km Towed [Total driven this trip 3,626km - 3,300km towed]   15 – 27°. We woke to an overcast and mild morning, and a lovely pink sky. We packed up, said our goodbyes, and got away from Gladstone a little after 8:30am, and it was a good feeling to be back on the road again. It was only a short 151km drive to Yeppoon which we did without stopping. The wind which picked up slightly around mid morning had eased by the time we arrived in Yeppoon shortly after 11am. Our stay for the next 5 nights is at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park - it's quite small, a bit dated, but very clean, and the caretakers are lovely. It suits us due it its central location and easy access to everything we need while in Yeppoon. The large concrete slab is a bonus too. After setting up, we locked the van and headed down to the beach for lunch - burgers overlooking the beach and stunning blue water. Next on the agenda was a visit to Capricorn Gardens Aged Care Facility ...
Read more

Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown

Image
Day 61: Sat 25 Jun - Cooktown 21 – 27°. An overcast morning, clearing to a mostly sunny day. Winds still annoying at 26km/h, gusting to 41km/h (but it felt much stronger at times). Another huge day starting with a challenging  2 hr  morning walk to the top of Mount Cook with Greg, then we all went for a 32km drive out of town to the iconic Lions Den Hotel, stopping at the Black Mountains on the way. On our return we stopped for a walk at Keatings Lagoon, a wetland  5 km out of Cooktown  just off the Mulligan Highway. We got back to the van at about midday, had some lunch and a snooze, then I set off on a bike ride to a few more local sites around Cooktown and along the foreshore. When i returned, I carried out a few checks on the van in preparation for our departure to   Mareeba tomorrow morning ( We'll be pleased to see the back of these strong gusting winds) . We topped of another great day with lovely dinner at the RSL.  Views over Cooktown and Ende...
Read more