To the edge of the 'Outback' - A Road Trip.
Day One- Brisbane to Bollon.So..........Roxy was all packed by 9.30 am on Friday. We finally managed to set off just before 11 after handing over to Danny and Xiaoling.We headed to Toowoomba and there 'Elaine' rejoiced as we got a pie for lunch before heading up the Range and on towards Dalby. Dalby is the centre of Australia's richest grain and cotton growing area. Will got very excited at his first sight of the cotton fields and wanted to stop and collect some seeds......but we needed to keep going. At Dalby we headed to St George which was 303 kms away. It is very strange for someone from the UK to leave civilisation and then drive for an hour before you come to the town. The road was mainly straight as far as the eye could see and with trees on either side for mile after mile after mile (or kilometre after kilometre after kilometre).Will spotted the first emu but I saw the next group. We were constantly watching for 'daredevil' kangaroos ready to leap out in front of us. There was lots of evidence of those that had not quite made it and come a cropper. We even saw a dead boar lying at the side of the road with its four legs up in the air. Further on we saw a live one amble across the road ahead and disappear into the bush.We filled up with petrol at St George and carried on. I had a Wikicamps app on my phone at it said that there was a campsite at Bollon, 113 kms away. About halfway to Bollon we were suddenly hit by a torrential downpour. It was quite difficult to drive even with the wipers going full pelt so we pulled over at a roadside rest area and waited under a shelter. The Gideons had left a bible for weary travellers but we didn't have time to read all that so just read the graffiti.As the rain eased we set off again and it started to get dark. We were even more vigilant for suicidal, crepuscular kangaroos but avoided collision.It was dark when we got to Bollon but we found the camping area beside a creek and set up our tent. It was right beside Bollon Cemetery which made me a little uneasy. There were strange glowing lights in the darkness among the gravestones which, when I investigated, turned out to be solar lights and not ghostly spirits.Will made dinner and then we were in our tent by 8.00 pm.
Road Trip Road Kill Count (This is what we saw.....not what we killed. We didn't hit anything.)Cat - 1Goat -1Cow - 1Emu - 1Possum - 1Wild Boar - 4Fox - 5Wombat - 6Kangaroo - Hundreds!Flying Ants - Thousands! (Ok....these are the only things we hit.)