Travelled through Cracow, Theodore, Banana, Moura and
Bauhinia Downs to Rolleston
Camped overnight Friday at Rolleston
THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WHILE THE PICTURES LOAD
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.
11.11am
Drizzle turned to showers as I took this picture of the Hotel Cracowafter 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.
11.12am
Judy took over driving as the cold showers set in.
11.30am
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.
3.07pm
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.
3.16pm
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.
3.18pm
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.