23/10/17 Back out there

  Well , we are back after having some time out with friends Garry & Linda .
Prior to going out to their place we had 5 days at Emu Park , and enjoyed a good round of golf at Emu Park Golf Club . It's a great little course set on and around a hill , and I ended up with 39 points - 3 better than my handicap on a course I hadn't played before - got to be happy with that !!
  We went into Rockhampton and had several days of talking & laughter . We were lucky enough to catch Garry on his days off between shifts , so that worked well .
  The countryside up here looks grey & tired , but that didn't last long as the next day after we arrived it poured with rain - about 120mm overnight and into the morning , then another 20 mm over the next few days .

  Fortunately , we were parked in front of Garry's shed so the back half of the van was undercover . Being Spring , there were plenty of flowers in the garden and hanging pots , here's a selection .

 The weather dried up so we went for a walk up the road for some exercise & fresh air , we found a weed growing beside the road with a large flower .

 We wandered past a variety of fences , but this was the pick of them .

 There was a nice sunset in the distance that afternoon as well .

 We also caught up with Heather , Pete & Hayden at Cooee Bay , for a fun afternoon & evening .
  The weather kept improving so we headed into town and up to Mt Archer for views over Rockhampton and surrounding areas . It doesn't show in the photo , but there's plenty of water lying around in all the flat areas around town , minor flooding has been happening as the water runs away .

 This is part of the picnic area at the top of the mountain .

 Back down in town we drove around some of the streets where the older buildings from the port are .

 We drove around Paradise Lagoons , plentiful birdlife around at the moment , pelicans , herons & a few brolga's as well .
 Heading back to the van via a few gravel backroads , we found this thorny dragon lying on the road warming up , it certainly wasn't worried about us , we drove past twice and got out & took the photo - it didn't budge .

 With all the rain out here , the grass seed has gone berserk , the grass getting greener by the minute - just what they need out here !!

   After an enjoyable week , we've headed back out to the beach again to play some golf , ride the bikes and swim - why ? you ask - because we can !!
  Off down to the surf club at Emu Park and we bumped into Simon - an artist who was just putting the finishing touches to his mural on the surf club toilet block - here is his work .

 Simon is from the Gold Coast , and was entertaining a couple of the local kids with some paintings . We may have to check out the Dust Factory in Currumbin Creek Rd at Currumbin , he has a website - www.simonink.com , if your interested .
 And there you have it , up to date , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=198H7zrY4BAEbWwGR6qlwYlXZJ2g&usp=sharing

12/10/17 Wild dogs & rainbows

  The next step in our trip to cooler temperatures leads us to Dingo , not the wild dogs , but the township of Dingo - population 150 - this week anyway !! The majority of the town work at the timber mills - there are 3 of them , one large , one small & another smaller again . There's a Post Office , shop , roadhouse and a hotel that opens at 4pm but not open everyday , a primary school and a tennis club that opens 3 days a week and has a liquor license , so makes up for the odd opening hotel . People will travel 200klms to play tennis here !! The caravan park now has new owners , she plays the guitar and sings as well , entertaining at happy hour .
  Dingo is at the intersection of the Fitzroy Development Rd and Capricorn Hwy and right beside the train lines that transport coal to Gladstone , quite a lot of coal . Each train consists of 3 electric engines , separated by 52 carriages each side of the middle engine . The trains run on average , every 15 mins from Blackwater and surrounds - that's a lot of trains & coal !! Fortunately for us , they were reasonably quiet during the night as we were only 200m from the tracks , the road trains going up the Fitzroy Development Rd helped fill in the gaps .
  Blackdown Tableland NP is somewhere we have wanted to look at for a number of years , fortunately it's only a short drive away from us , so we headed up - I do mean up - 894m above sea level , it was a nice respite from the heat as well with the temperature at one stage getting down to 23 degrees .
 First stop was Horseshoe Lookout with views toward the northwest . The escarpments are sandstone and vary in colour from cream to red .

  As we drove further along the tableland we could see random outcrops , weathered and eroded into strange shapes .

 Our main objective was to go to Rainbow Waters , it's the furthest from the entry to the park and has a waterfall and a plunge pool below it , there's a 2klm walk to get to it and 240 steps at the end to get to the pool . Along the walk through thick undergrowth we discovered lots of small flowers , butterflies and quite a few lizards , here's a selection of them .

We headed down the steps to a half way point , there is an overhanging rock with water coming out cracks and growing a nice little fern garden . In the drier section there are some hand prints - we were a bit dubious to their authenticity as there is a lot of other scrawled graffiti on the rocks , such a shame people feel the need to scratch their names etc . Down at the bottom there are several different steps & layers in the rocks and a large shallow pool .

 You can see the waterfall in the middle at the back , we scrambled over a few rocks and found a nice sandy beach area , crystal clear water dropping down from above splashing onto rocks below , a spectacularly beautiful spot .

 We had taken the liberty to change into our swimmers before starting the walk , and with a natural 20m round swimming hole in front of us , we took the plunge . The sun had been bearing down on this area all morning and it was getting hot , that was relieved by the cool clear water .
 Then it was time to play with the camera a bit .

 I had the drone in the backpack , so it was time for a fly . This is the pool .

This is the pool from above .

These are the lower pools and steps .

  Time for some more insects - Damselflies to be precise .

 Heading back up the steps gave us another view of the rocks & trees above us .

 Here's the road through the park to Rainbow Waters .

 We had lunch and checked out the camping area - tents or camper trailers - the road is too steep and narrow to be bringing caravans etc up here .
 An unofficial lookout on the way back down looks out to the east to northeast .

 Smoke on the left is a burn off near the Capricorn Hwy heading toward Bluff & Blackwater .
Back to the van after a great day out , we had a drink with a few of the others in the park and headed in for tea just before we had a storm come through .
 Here's a map link - best viewed in satellite mode as you can see the size of Blackwater coal mine :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=13tOOYpxkXSzt7TLaMr2a-kW0etk&usp=sharing
 To give you an idea of size , Blackwater has it's own shopping centre , schools , accommodation , light industry etc etc , the mine stretches more than 20 times the size of the town !!!! and it's only one of many around this area !
 Cheers .

8/10/17 Emerald City

 After our couple of days at the dam we headed to Emerald . The temperature has been sitting above 30 degrees for the last 4 weeks and temps of 36 are starting to wear a bit thin .
 With the temperature in mind , we headed down to the Botanic Garden situated either side of the Nogoa River . The western side is a more formal grassed area with lot's of trees , some gardens , playgrounds and a rose garden . It is in need of some TLC , there's still plenty of damage from cyclone Debbie , with broken branches still hanging in the trees . Another visitor to the gardens are the bats , not a huge colony , but enough .

 There's plenty of picnic tables scattered around the river bank .

 This is the Nogoa River .

 There are paths leading through the gardens , a pleasant walk on a hot day . The rose garden is in the retaining wall on left of photo .

 And here's some of the roses in bloom .

 A different flowering tree , with dark red , pink & white flowers .

 These are the 3 bridges going into Emerald - road bridge , old road bridge and rail bridge over the Nogoa River .

We drove around to the native section of the gardens and went for a wander around there . There's a double flower hibiscus - hadn't seen one like this before .

 There's a large Southern Cross windmill that actually pumps water & not there just for show !

 We headed around the Bauhinia Walk - these are the flowers of the Bauhinia Tree , they are flowering profusely at the moment .

 The walk went around a lake .

 From here we headed out to Fairbairn Dam - Lake Maraboon - 25 klms south of town . It has a caravan park and substantial picnic areas & access to the water . When full it holds 1.3million gigalitres , and has a surface area of 15,000 hectares - bloody BIG . It was built for water supply to Emerald & surrounds and for irrigation and a water supply to the mines .
 The dam is far from full at the moment , no water  has gone over the spillway for a long time .

 The dark line near the water line above is actually tree stumps in the dam - this is them .

There's a loop road that takes you back to Emerald after you drive across the dam wall & spillway . It takes you past a huge citrus orchard with it's own equally large processing plant .

 When we were here last - 2008 - it was after probably the last big flood , the water was flowing 5m deep over the spillway - that's a lot of water !! They are currently working on upgrades to the spillway , as can be seen by the huge crane towering up above the roadway .

 We've spent a few afternoons at the aquatic centre cooling down , the show ground where we are staying doesn't have a swimming pool - shame that .
 There's a lot of crops grown around this area thanks to the irrigation , including sorghum , cotton , wheat , sunflowers , citrus , table grapes, mung beans , chick peas & corn . There's also cattle grazing.  
 That's it for the moment , see ya
 Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LIZ6BODhbpmNAHMtxAv_SP-03jw&usp=sharing