This time headed down to Blackwater "for a cuppa' with my daughter Rachel and her partner Jeremy.
Took the inland road...travelling west first to just past Mt Garnett then straight down the centre of Queensland using the Lynd and then the Gregory Development Road which incorporates the 'McEwen Beef Rd' to Emerald,then east for 75 kms and you hit Blackwater.
View Wonga to Blackwater in a larger map
Great roads to travel as you can pretty much sit on 100/110kms all the way,very little traffic but you do share the road with the huge road trains...some of them towing as many as 4 trailers at a time.
Some stretches of road have a bitumen strip and gravel edges...here where you meet a road train...they get the strip and you get the gravel...wouldn't argue with them either!..They are the 'Kings of the Roads'.
Hans asked one of them (on the two way) what they were carrying....he replied copper and zinc.(That equals Brass)
Stayed the first night in Charters Towers.
Arrived in Blackwater early afternoon...
So great to see Rachel and Jeremy again!
They have bought themselves a house... (a pretty 'flash' one by Blackwater standards!)
Had a very relaxing weekend together...great just to talk and share...
I got thoroughly pampered by Rachel...
She gave me a lovely manicure and pedicure!
Pretty awesome colour!Of course we played scrabble...our favourite board game!
When they bought their house...placed in the front yard were about 1/2 a dozen fossilised tree trunks that had obviously been brought in as a garden feature...
These now amazingly are in the process of opalising. ie turning into opals.
So after a couple of days of R&R we left onour return journey monday at 6am...
The road is long and very straight for long distances..as something to do along the way we tried guessing the distance of road ahead we could see...some stretches were as long as 10km's!
Due to the dust storms that have been blowing over the country for the past one to two weeks the skies and the countryside was hazy constantly through the trip...not ideal for photography.
There are numerous car and carvan 'wrecks' along the wayside...
This caravan appeared to be have left abandoned...but someone took a liking to the trailer structure beneath!
Wildlife seen along the way included red wing parrots, red tail black cockatoo's, kangaroos ..live ones and an endless amount dead ones in various stages of decay and being eaten by crows and wedge tail eagles.Dead black pigs also litter the wayside....saw two curious dingo pups in the middle of the road...slowed right down for them....and of course emu's and cattle.
A bit of excitment...two wide loads coming toward us...
They appeared to be carrying gigantic buckets for coal scoops for a mine somewhere.
Had decided earlier in the day to head for the Lynd Junction and stay overnight in a cabin there but when we got there, changed our minds and pushed on to make it home that night.
Left Blackwater at 6am ...back in Wonga 8.30pm....a 14.5 hour marathon drive!
But then it also gave us a day off to relax again before work.
A little 'welcome home gift'...our ti tree orchid flowers had opened! These are but the size of my finger nail...
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