Roughin' it!

Some trips are very well provisioned, with a full menu plan, including a few pre-prepared meals.  This one wasn't! I'd thought to include ingredients for our first dinner and had plenty of coffee/tea etc - but no breakfast cereal, so we enjoyed a small cheese platter instead!

I'd made two travel tea cosies before leaving home and was pleased with how well the smaller one worked.  It's so effective that I'll now need to make a handle cover as the metal gets quite hot!

It is possible to fold the trailer with the awning attached, so we decided to do that.  It was quite windy though and once folded, the lid didn't sit right - so we re-did everything about five times in total, assuming the wind had impacted.  

It took 90 minutes before we closed everything down properly - and we were both feeling quite frustrated by that stage (though there were no harsh words spoken)!

I'd packed more lightly than usual and hadn't brought much in the way of warmer clothes.  Neither had Nick, who was wearing several t-shirt layers!  I was pleased to have remembered extra bedding for our bed and Vaughan's as we'd all been cold during the night.  Nick chatted to the manager in the morning, who confirmed the temperature had dropped to 2 degrees at one point - which made us feel less soft!

We made a quick stop in town at the butcher cos we'd liked the rissoles during our January bunker stay, then continued onward.

Takeaway lunch was had at Roma's biggest bottle tree and there were a couple of roadside stops.  Elmer was making an odd noise at one point, caused by a metal strip breaking free along the passenger side.  It was decorative only, so the remainder was removed and we had a short walk while stopped.

Vaughan was keen to look at a sandy creek closer to Mitchell, so we bought afternoon tea in town and then back-tracked to the creek, for a wander after our refreshments.  No wildlife was found but it was very pretty in the afternoon light.

Given how long we'd taken to set up the previous night and the fact that it was 4ish, we stayed at Mitchell that night - on a drive-through, ensuite site. We opted for awning-less setup that night and all was accomplished much more quickly.  

In transit, our bed was covered with an old sheet with Vaughan's and Bandit's beds on top - along with the camping mats and a few other bits.  It was fairly easy to lift the beds down onto the floor area, replace the curtain and set up tables/chairs (which were packed beneath the bed).  The space between the cupboards (where I'm standing in the bottom collage) was mainly used to house our shoe bag, laundry hamper and fold-up step when traveling.   

Day 2, Miles to Mitchell - 244km

Miles Historical Village

The town's premier attraction is the excellent Miles Historical Village and Museum in Murilla Street  ..."

We've made a few rest stops at Miles on other trips, parking beside or across from the museum (top pic is from our Roma roaming in 2018) - but we hadn't visited due to time constraints.

When speaking with a tourist information volunteer (after visiting Chinaman's Lagoon), she advised the museum opened at 8:30am and an early morning visit was best, before temperatures rose.  

We liked that plan and arrived the next day, not long after the doors opened. Lots of interesting stuff to see and we spent a couple of hours looking at various displays before deciding we'd like a break in some air-conditioning!

The Historical Village is " ... an accurate recreation of a Queensland country town's main street at the turn of the century, which contains over thirty buildings including a bootery, post office, a general store, bakery, the Union Hotel, a butcher's shop and a dairy. The complex also features the old Australian Bank of Commerce, the Dalwogan siding with a steam locomotive, the Red Rose cafe (a replica of the first Greek cafe in the town which opened in 1925) and Andersen's Smithy where the famous Condamine Bell was first made."

Chinaman's Lagoon

We made a quick stop at Chinaman's Lagoon as part of our Condamine Bell tour (previous post) but other people were reading the signage at that time, so we returned much later in the day.  

I read about the water lilies, though it seemed to me there were some blue ring-ins flowering with the rare pink variety!

In the summer and early autumn the lagoon puts on a spectacular display of rare pink water lilies (nymphaea gigantea), a variety of lily that usually only appears as blue or white. These pink lilies are so rare that they have been classified as rare and endangered.

The lagoon was named for Sam Ah Sun and his story is included on one of the large information boards.  Although we were amused by some of the visual humour of the anecdotes shared there, the reference to opium use and charges was new information to us, so prompted further research afterwards - and we've learned some sad facts as a result of those investigations.  

Conloi Bore

We slept in till 10am on our first bunker morning - because our bedroom was much darker and more quiet than we were used to!  By the time we woke it was too late for an early morning walk to see the other bunkers, so we contemplated the day over breakfast.

A brochure detailed several self-drive maps and we opted for the wildflower tour because we turned onto the trail right from our driveway.

We didn't expect to see wildflowers but the country was very interesting, with many vegetation and landscape changes as we drove along.

There were a number of bentonite mines in the area and our brochure referred to one mine's product being processed into kitty litter by a plant in Miles (though no-one we asked knew of it's existence, so prap our information was outdated).

Bentonite is a white clay product derived from volcanic ash.  It has many uses beyond kitty litter and my first thought of clay facial masks!

The conloi bore was around the same area and we stopped to investigate. I found some neat graffiti on the side of the oil holding tank.

I decided to climb the ladder.  I'd packed proper shoes but left my new orthotics at home so wore speciality thongs most days - and they weren't ideal for ladder-climbing.  Thongs aside I'm not good with heights, so only made it part-way up.  Nick then climbed to the top and took some footage of the tank's innards.  (There is some information about the bore on the sign in the first collage).  

Further along the track was a plateau with clumps of spinifex and many grass trees.  It also had phone reception, so we appreciated an internet fix after our wander.  The full wildflower tour was 106 kilometres.  We had our late lunch back at the bunker.

Miles away ...

I became aware of Possum Park's bunker cabins soon after our relocation to Queensland, praps during our first trip to Dalby in 2017.  

We almost got there as an extension to our anniversary splurge but cancelled due to the lockdown weekend.  Once that was over, we booked again to stay four nights - and then added an extra night after arrival. 

There was no menu planning or pre-cooked meals this trip.  The extent of my prepping was to pack several small containers of my porridge blend for a few breakfasts.  

We shopped in Miles at the butcher and food market for some groceries to last the first three nights, then topped up provisions during our stay.  

The bunker had a full kitchen and we dined well from our joint cheffing.  Although we took a small picnic case, we hadn't packed our stove, kettle or a thermos - and it was pretty hot - so we came back to the bunker for lunches, tea/coffee (and afternoon naps)! 

We really enjoyed our stay away from the world.  (We slept in till after 10:00am on our first morning due to the bunker being so quiet and dark)! Our non-Telstra phones didn't have reception on site, so weren't a distraction.  

The TV stayed off and we played Scrabble several nights. When not winning Scrabble (!), Nick played his guitar - and wrote a new song. It was a very laid-back time, which we really appreciated. (There was some exploring but I'll post of those outings separately).