Last night, it rained, and it rained. It also rained today. We had a very wet and muddy pack up this morning when we left Kingaroy and headed north to Cania Gorge. Despite the heavy rain and low clouds, the drive wasn’t too bad as there weren’t many trucks on this section of the Burnett Highway and the road surface was no where near as bad as yesterday. However, one section was under reconstruction and was just a great big mud hole. Not only was the mud on the road, it is now on the caravan and the car – Leslie has something to look forward to now, when we arrive in Cairns!
It is quite obvious we are now in Queensland – the long grass and Brahman cattle are a giveaway, as well as the old country Queensland houses. The township of Gayndah even had a tropical look to it, even if the temperature was only 13 and it was raining, with lots of lush tropical plants, palm trees and some beautifully restored old Queenslander houses. We crossed the Burnett River here; the raging torrents of the last wet season are now just a trickle in the wide, sandy river bed. However, the debris from the last flood is very apparent.
We stopped for lunch at Einsvold, a small town with a R.M. Williams interpretive centre – R.M. moved to this district in the 1970s with a couple of his sons and the family still own a number of farms in the area. The display was interesting and included a wonderful bronze sculpture by Wayne Strickland, depicting R.M. and his horse. Amazingly, there was no gift shop! Apologies to all those who were expecting a complete outfit of R.M. Williams gear.
With only about 30 kms to go, the road suddenly took a turn for the worse. Not only did the surface break up but the lumps and bumps returned with a vengeance. Shortly after passing through Monto, we turned off the highway for the 12 kms drive into Cania Gorge, passing between the high sandstone cliffs on the way. The Big4 Caravan Park is in a lovely, peaceful bush setting and we have a very large site, which the local kangaroo population have obviously been living on! Shortly after setting up, the first king parrot arrived and sat on the awning strut, with a very hopeful look on his face. As soon as a piece of bread (multi-grain, of course) appeared, parrots arrived from everywhere and were more than happy to be hand fed. Then the rainbow lorikeets moved in! The park also has an official bird feeding time at 4.30 pm daily. These must be the best fed birds in the region!
No comments:
Post a Comment