Day 26 Moranbah to Wherever?

Ok.... now before I start tonight’s blog I have to let you in on a little secret, I LOVE driving! I think it started when I was younger & my parents shoved 6 kids into an old Holden station wagon & they would sit up the front smoking away with the windows closed & take us for “Drives”. It was fantastic, as claustrophobic & possibly harmful to our health, it was something that we all loved doing! I have even thought of different ways I could combine driving into my career.... even considered driving a taxi, now that would be cool!

 Good thing too as we did a shitload of driving today! Most of you will have read over the last few days that we were flooded in, our challenge was to get as far south as possible without drowning! Now you also have to keep in mind that Ness & I work in the safety industry, so staying safe is important to us (and our business would suffer if we did something stupid!) so for any of you that were worried, we will NOT do anything that is even remotely unsafe!

 But having said that, have you also ever had one of those days that you will remember for the rest of your life? One that makes you smile just thinking about it, and one that you will tell to your kids & grandkids & whoever else will listen to you!.... well I had one of those today.

 It started off early, as we have been getting up at 3 & 4am, it was hard for me to sleep past 5.... so I got up & had a shower, and started to pack up the van & car, Ness slept for about half an hour longer than me but then she started on the inside of the van, we were ready to roll by 8am! Cant beat an early start!

 Now we did not really know where we were going, I had spent time on the net looking at the latest road closures, we were listening to ABC local radio for updates & we even Phoned the RACQ info line.... so we did our homework.

 We set off to our first destination Emerald, which also served as an excuse to have a hot chocolate..... HC Report, Macca’s.... Not real flash, but at least they do Soy for Ness. We left Emerald & headed towards Rolleston, from what we knew the road to Rolleston was open, but we got 5km out of town & there was a flashing billboard thingy saying “Road to Rolleston closed”.... I want to know why they put the friggin sign 5km out of town?..... why not at the turn off!.... oh well that was an extra 10km I got to drive.

 So more research & phone calls to the RACQ road closure line, is it just us or does everyone else hate those voice activated information services..... first thing it said was.... “Thank you for calling the RACQ road closure information line, do you wish to hear the latest road closures”...... I mean why the hell else do you think we are calling? And then it asks you to say Yes or to hang up if you don’t. Ness said Yes 3 times & he came back and said “I’m sorry I did not hear that”...... lucky Ness had the phone, I would have thrown it out the window!

 So we worked out which roads were open & planned an alternate route! We went through a place called Dingo, imagine living there. And then turned onto the Fitzroy Development Road, this road was sealed for 60km & then dirt for 30km and according to the RACQ man it was open to 4WD vehicles.

 The tar section was ok, a few puddles & water at the side of the road, but then we hit the dirt.

 Man I have done some fun things in my life but this just about takes the cake, it was like ice skating for elephants! You have to remember we are close to 5 tonne, the road had been rained on for several days so was way past soaking up the water, there were many times where the car was going one way & the caravan the other! It was awesome, I was driving along with this big stupid smile on my face.

 Ness on the other hand was not as excited, I have to say that when I first met Ness she told me that she has never liked roller coasters or thrill rides, actually for those of you who know her she hates anything that she cannot control.... But she did an excellent job of holding onto her Jesus bar & staying calm (well on the outside anyway)

 Me on the other hand was excited & hoping this road would never end! The traction control light was flashing on & off and the steering wheel going one way then another trying to keep forward momentum.

 We came to a couple of creek crossings, and as they were only shallow decided to cross, we could see that other vehicles had been through, Ness took the opportunity to bail out of the car and decided to walk through & take photos (Check them out, as we have no power and limited internet tonight the photos will go up tomorrow)

 We made it through the creeks, Ness got back in & we drove the last 10km of dirt, slipping & sliding most of the way. Some of you might be shocked to read this..... but we were safe, we were only travelling at 20 – 30km/h most of the way through the dirt road.

 Ended up in Moura, filled up with fuel & then headed off to Banana (no joke!) and on to Theodore. We had planned to get to Miles, but when we arrived at Theodore there was a sign (at the turn off) saying road closed. We decided to go out & have a look at where it was closed..... and drove 70km before we found that it was definitely closed! & then had to drive back to Theodore where we will spend the night.

 So all up an excellent day, plenty of driving, some slipping & sliding & a new adventure to share with you guys.

 Goodbye, stay high & dry! (maybe we should listen to our own advice!)

 Ps ran out of time tonight but remind me to tell you about the party at the drug dealers last night.... it was a doozy, was still going when I got up at 5am.

Comments

[Brad Atkins]

You should have got some of that on video!
Was it better than Bonnie Doon ?