The starting point

The starting point

Friday 1 May 2015

Water , Coal & Power

  After a splendidly quiet night - no rain , no drips on the roof & very little noise , the birds woke us at about 6:30 , we enjoyed the peace & slept in till 7:15 .
 Breakfast done , it was time to inspect everything and everywhere to see how much water had found its way in to things . First up , the kayak went on the roof yesterday ( with its cover on ) and there looked to be about 5 litres of water in the bag with the kayak - it had a play in the water without us !!
Next , we checked the underneath boxes for water - success - we found some !! We cleaned up and mopped up - it was only on the passenger side ?? there had been a lot of water sitting in the wheel tracks on the left hand side of the road that we couldn't avoid yesterday , and it was raining quite heavily for the majority of yesterdays drive .
 The washing was also done & out before we decided to turn the kayak cover into a kayak cockpit cover ( thereby also reducing some of the weight ) . Before we knew it , lunchtime had arrived - it was time to stop and sit for a while .
  After doing a few other tasks , we decided to get in the ute and go out to Callide Dam , Mine and Power Station - it was very nice of them to have all three of these so close together !! The first stop was at Callide Creek to check out some of the damage done when the gates on the dam opened -         ( during the cyclone ) . Trees were just pushed over , a concrete causeway had a section of the concrete roadway lifted and smashed , there was massive erosion !!



 Continuing on to the Dam , you could see that it hadn't been this full for quite some time , with the amount of small trees now submerged on the edges of the dam . The water had been about 3 metres higher than this - there was a tide mark of debris up above the existing waterline .


 There appears to be a select few lucky people who actually get to live here overlooking the dam - there were about 8 houses just above the day use picnic area & boat ramp . The road continued on , so did we - off the tar and onto gravel , over grids and passed many very healthy cattle , till we got to another grid where a couple of farmers were cleaning out the gravel from under the grid . We said hi to them , and that we were just having a casual drive - he said well that's nice , but the road doesn't go any further than my house - we said thanks , turned around and left them to it - I wonder what he was thinking ??? 
 Back out onto the main road and we were driving past the power stations next . Apparently there are three - Callide A , B & C . There is a lookout up above them , where you can see all three and where they are regenerating an area that has been mined for coal for quite some time . The grass on the hill was clinging to the smallest amount of dirt - it was predominantly rock , all sizes from very small to large .




  All of this a convenient 15 - 20 min drive out of Biloela , through some more very flat , black dirt country , growing more lucerne , and grazing brahman cattle .
 Back to Biloela to do a quick shop for some tea , fuel up for tomorrows drive , and a bit of hardware. 
We cleaned up some of the stuff that we had out , before heading in for tea . That's it for today !!


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