Thursday 31st October - Belyando to Clermont
A good nights sleep even though we were parked near where the road trains came in. Down to 20 overnight and back to 31.3 during the day. The day is overcast so a god day for traveling, as the clouds kept the sun away. We arrived in Clermont about 1.30ish and just as we parked up it started to rain. Bad timing on our part. Still Clive pulled out the awning a bit so I could get in without getting too wet, so all good. There are a lot of cabins in this van park, possibly as overflow for all the mining in this area. At least we are not packed in like sardines. This is the only van park in Clermont and as we had no phone reception yesterday it wasn't possible to pre-book. But yes, they do have vacancies @$30.00 a night. Seems to be the standard rate these days, and there are plenty of vacant spaces. As mentioned yesterday, the scenery along the Gregory Development Road is extremely boring and the road very bouncy in places. When we stopped and got into the van there is stuff everywhere that would normally not be on the floor. We are looking at possibly re-working the trip to go further east as the temperatures may also be a bit cooler. Although, after the rain had stopped this afternoon, a lovely cool breeze came up and I even turned the fans off. Storm warnings tonight, but nothing so far,8.30pm. This countryside is all about mining, as was the Belyando Van Park. Clive found out why it was all booked out and all the pre-fab buildings there. It's all got to do with the new Adani Coal Mine. These are for the surveyors and geologists working on the route for the new rail line. Clive was talking to 'Ol mate' next door as he has this cute little van. Seems he uses it to store all his prospecting gear in. Yes, you can go looking for gold if you really want to around here. Not a cheap hobby as his detector alone cost over $11,000.00. This trip he hasn't found anything, so is currently down about $1000.00. Maybe he'll strike it rich tomorrow. Yesterday they had about 3mm of rain out here. Finally at 10.30pm we have thunder and lightening and some more gentle soaking rain. As they said on the local news tonight, this will keep the farmers happy. We noticed driving down here that there was a green tinge to the roadside grasses. I forgot to mention that yesterday Clive went and bought some ice-cream from the Roadhouse. It was delicious. Clive had a mango one and I had vanilla. Eat your heart out Robyn May! Happy Halloween everyone. No trick or treating going on in this park tonight.