• Departed "Fairyland" Friday

• Travelled through Cracow, Theodore, Banana, Moura and Bauhinia Downs to Rolleston

• Camped overnight Friday at Rolleston

Day 3

Friday 12th August 2005 

Click on the pictures for larger versions

10.26am ▲

With cold drizzle falling, we got ready to be guided out of the area by Jim and Betty.

10.30am ►

Further towards the exit from the property we said goodbye to my cousin Doug and his family at their house.

Sure enough, around 3am I awoke to the "pit pat" of raindrops on the caravan roof. At first it was just odd drops but soon it was light rain. I went back to sleep to the beautiful sound of rain falling, wondering how we would go getting out of "Fairyland" and back onto the main road to Theodore.
The area has soft clay soil, which turns very greasy after rain, making it near impossible to drive on.

As we packed to leave, very light rain was falling but luckily not enough to prevent us leaving. After filling the drinking water containers and saying goodbye to Doug, Juanita and family, Jim and Betty went ahead of us to make certain we made it over the gullies.
As it turned out, we had no problems as the ground had been so dry, it hardly showed signs that moisture had been absorbed.

Jim and Betty waved us on and we wound our way back through the dips and rises into Cracow again.
I did a check of the van and caravan in Cracow to make certain all was ok after the bumps on the gravel road. As became the "norm" for the rest of the trip, the usual caravan window was slightly open, the one nearest the door, otherwise all was ok.
 

I took some shots of Cracow and we moved on.
We had been told gold is being mined again around the town and evidence of this in the form of mining gear and temporary buildings could be seen as we drove out of town towards Theodore.

Drizzle turned to showers as I took this picture of the Hotel Cracow after arriving back in Cracow.

Judy drove the distance into Theodore along the very slippery road as the very cold showers continued.

As she drove, I listened to ABC radio in the headphones that I had setup to allow the passenger to tune into whatever form of audio they desired - Radio, CD or CB radio.
As we were nearing Theodore, I heard on the ABC News that the Bunya Mountains had just had what they thought was snow. The Weather Bureau was very skeptical about it being snow but the woman who rang in seemed certain it was.

Judy took over driving as the cold showers set in.

It was extremely cold as we drove towards Theodore and the demister couldn't cope with the cold air.
As we drove along, the ABC News was reporting how residents on the Bunya Mountains -  ( just south of Kingaroy ) - had received snow, which explained why we were so cold!

The dirt road was very greasy and dangerous.

As we drove into the Boulevard in Theodore I wondered if it may be suitable to stay there but found it lined with a group of very damp campers, so we decided to continue on.
It was only around lunchtime anyway, way too early really to setup camp.

As we traveled north towards Banana, the western sky had a really defined line where the cloud finished and blue sky started. Cold air was obviously following.

We refueled in Banana and I changed into a LOT warmer clothes. It was freezing!
The day before I had been getting around in shorts and no shirt.

Heading west on the Dawson Highway, we talked of the possibility of staying beside the Dawson River just west of Moura as we had done on a previous trip but found it packed out. As the dogs needed a run we stopped by the side of the road a little further west. I took them for a cold, muddy walk as Judy and mum prepared lunch.

This was the view of the windblown clouds to our south as we headed west out of Moura.
 

After having our lunch and pushing three muddy footed dogs back into their positions on their cover in the back of the van, we headed further west, looking at the passing scenery, through Bauhinia Downs and up the Expedition Range.

I had been hoping to get a shot of the many Wattle flowers (Acacia) lining the road and decided to take a shot after stopping on the Expedition Range.
This was the very wet result as I took the close-up but I'm sure the tree was very pleased at the rain falling on it.

As we came out of the cloud I took this shot looking east - back towards the coast from the Expedition Range. 
From here on we wouldn't see rain until Ravenshoe - 19 days later.

The Daihatsu Delta Van made it over the range with no problems, admittedly slowly but it didn't look like giving up.

With the sun very low in the western sky, we saw Rolleston.

After looking around the town we decided to pull in near two other vans, parked in what looked like a park area.
We spoke to the owners who had been told it was ok to camp near the toilets. The park was over the street from the toilets, so they assumed it was ok. We all decided to stay there unless we were told to move on, which we weren’t.

The night was cold with a blustery wind as we snuggled into our beds after another of  Judy's yummy meals.