Day 5 - Emerald to Dysart

Hello all, well today was our last travel day for a while. We will be working in Dysart for the next week.

 Last night we stayed in Emerald, it used to be one of the biggest central Qld farming towns, surrounded by thousands & thousands of acres of seasonal crops & vegetables. It now is one of the biggest mining communities in Australia & is going to get bigger. From what we see & hear, Emerald is in for big things. There are mining camps being built that will house not just hundreds of employees but thousands. Boom is a word we are hearing over & over again. Can’t help but feel for the local farmer or council worker, shop attendant, because the mines have pushed the price of houses through the roof!

Last night we decided that the master chef needed a night off & she can’t stand my cooking so we went out for dinner. We walked (rolled) into town & after checking out the local chinese restaurant, Dominos Pizza & the pub, we decided to have dinner at “Theo’s Cafe” I thought we would be eating greek food! But the menu was dinki di aussie! We settled on a couple of rib eye fillets, mine with pepper sauce, Ness had cheese & avocado on hers. Yum check out Theo’s Cafe in Emerald.

 Do you think I should enter into some form of commercial arrangement with the places that I plug?

 It has come to our attention that some of you don’t think we need to send the daily links through, Get over it! You have a delete button.... Use it!

 We were walking (rolling) home from Theo’s and had just passed a roundabout when from behind us we heard a loud screech & then a huge crash. Yep you guessed it, a car had failed to give way & they smashed! After a few minutes a fairly large crowd had gathered & both drivers were out & walking (one of them punched his car & started abusing the other) Ness & I decided there were enough witnesses & left the scene.

 Thanks to Brad & Jackie for their explanation of due north. For those of you who did not help us with an explanation I guess that means that all of you did not know either?

 Also thanks to Ben, he introduced us to Google Maps, Ness spent a while putting our route onto google maps & we will shortly send you all a link.

 We heard that it rained in Melbourne last night.... wish we were there! Hope my grass is green when I get home!

 The road between Emerald & Dysart is narrow bitumen most of the way with about 30km of dirt road. The first section of dirt road we have been on so far this trip. Happy to report that the Discovery & Trakmaster  handled it easily.

 Arrived in Dysart, the company that we are working for had arranged for the use of a full 3 bedroom house! We decided that this was way too much & asked if we could just park the caravan at the camp, now they call it a camp but they are really mini villages, they have a series of accommodation buildings that are quite modern, they consist of a bedroom, work area (desk & chair) wardrobe & fridge & TV (complete with Foxtel & free to air TV) and also a full bathroom. The camp manager had arranged for us to park the van on site, arranged an electrician to hook up power & organised for us to eat at the mess (another story in itself the food is great)

 The building going on up here is incredible, they are building a 300 person camp next door to where we are, & in town they are building 60 new BMA (the company we are working with) company houses. You could seriously buy a house here 8 years ago for well under $100K... not any more!

 So we are set up for the week, we will send pictures of the camp tomorrow, but it is pretty impressive.

 The site we are working for is looking for 4 safety advisors..... anyone looking for a career change?

 Tonight’s assistance required – What is the capital of Tunisia? Island who’s capital is Papette? – 6 letters, Hanging extension of the soft pallet – 5 letters, begins with L

  Funny or interesting things today...

•  Car crash last night, he was looking at some guy in a wheelchair & his missus walking/rolling up the street & forgot to give way
• Theo’s cafe, good food....or we were just hungry!
• Yards up here have sprinklers on! How long since you last saw a sprinkler in a front yard... it is awesome!
• Ness doing her crosswords.... she talks to herself!
• Google maps, My Maps.... thanks Ben

 Auf Wiedersehen till tomorrow

 James