Innamincka to Cooladdi
Today was always going to be a day of munching miles. Our plan now was to get to Roma in two days to visit mum, spend a day there then scoot home on Monday next week. Panther sat ready to go. All we needed was a favourable wind and the almost 600ks would be done in no time.
A few ‘see you later Innamincka’ pics and we were off. It seemed we had dramas though. We’d only travel a few minutes, then another photo opportunity would pop up. First it was barren gibber plains urging me to send a snap to friends on the Sunshine Coast highlighting the similarities in geography. Then a herd of camels decided to be stars followed by a few emus. To top off the lack of momentum, cattle and lizards were abundant on the bitumen. Whoever said this was a dry land devoid of animal life was not looking.
Finally we got properly underway. Panther humming along directly into a vicious headwind drinking fuel at a ferocious rate, only eased by slowing considerably to a ‘get there in about a week’ speed.
Turning left at the intersection near the toilets without water, beside the cattle trucks, near the man who would not shut up, changed our day. The wind was quite literally up our backside. Panther grew legs and flew, merely sipping at the liquid gold in the tank.
Eromanga was next with not much to offer other than a toilet with frogs in the bowl to match. G’s experience was complete. Fuel was available but only if you downloaded an app, danced a jig and offered your credit card to a robot on the side of the road. A quick calculation told us Quilpie was achievable on what we had left.
Rolling into Quilpie warm memories came flooding back. We are not sure why, but this town feels good. It is well looked after, has a strong community bond and a great café. Heading straight for the café that doubles as a service station, we met Simon the owner again. He had been a police officer in the Whitsundays when we were in Mackay.
Simon told us of a storm that had severely damaged his business. He continued with his plans for the old Cinema next door and gave us a tour of the historical building complete with rows and rows of old time theatre seats. It was a good way to experience Quilpie again.
We rolled out of town with bellies full of a seriously good bacon and egg delicious and some take away cakes. With only 122 ks to go we were powering along.
Finally we turned left past the Cooladdi Pub into the open paddock full of stunted trees providing hints of shade on what was a very hot afternoon. There was no doubt we were back in Queensland.
With only a couple of travel days to go our trip has pretty much wound to a close. As always what eventuated was only remotely like what was planned. Just the way we like it.