Saturday 9th November - Moura to Taroom
Thank goodness it's cooler today. Down to 18.1 last night and only a top of 30.3. Most of the day was around 29 degrees with a nice cool breeze blowing, unlike yesterday. We saw on the news the enormous devastation being caused by bush fires not only in Queensland, but in New South Wales also. Our trip is planned for some of these areas in December. We left around 10.30 today and are heading for Taroom. Rather than go to Banana and then head south, we're taking a short cut by heading down the Theodore to Moura Road. This will save us about 70km. From here we turn onto the Leichhardt Highway. The Theodore Road was pretty bumpy but we've been on worse. The sky is so hazy with dust that you only have limited vision ahead at times. OK for driving, but long distance is worse. Very dry out this way too. We are slowly working our way down south, planning to arrive at Michael's late next week, to unload stuff that we don't need or haven't used in the last six months. This will help keep the weight down too. Along the way we saw the Dawson South Mine. It was quite spectacular, with the different colours of rocks where the mining has taken place. It's quite a large mine that the public access road passes through by way of a tunnel. Along the way we saw Boab Trees, not only beside the road, but also a lone one by itself in a paddock. We arrived at the Taroom Caravan Park about 12.30. Only one other van here, so we're at one end of the park while they are at the other. Again, a few cabins. Some of these are currently in use by a road gang team that are working around the area. A message on the door says you can only get Channel 2, so Clive decided to set up the satellite dish. Done in under 10 minutes. All channels present and correct and good reception. The van park backs onto the Dawson River, which is currently nothing more than a trickle in this part. It's supposed to be a cool night tonight, with a forecast of only 13 degrees. The crochet blanket is on the bed in preparation, just in case.