Aug 2018

After striking heavy traffic on the Bruce Highway down to Calliope. We turn off at a colourful little town called Miriam Vale which is busy with RV’s, has spacious parking but surprisingly offers no camping.

We are on a mission to find the Lowmead Pub on Lowmead Road. In fact we pass by a sign for Lowmead Road but both Gabbi Garmin and Mrs. Google say “No, no, continue to Seeds Rd”. The air is becoming tense when Woody mentions that we’re a little low on fuel and I’m wondering where 700kms worth of fuel went to and we sail past a roadhouse and Woody says “I’m not going in there” and I’m wondering why. Seeds Road is no longer viable in fact it’s barely visible in the undergrowth. We now have two options 17kms down the unmade Gorge Rd or 43kms via the black top. We return to the roadhouse to rule out the fuel problem. It is quite busy so that relieves Woody of his concerns regarding diesel quality. I ring the publican at Lowmead and he assures me that Gorge Road alternates between gravel and bitumen and is indeed a good road. Twenty minutes later we walk into the pub and meet publican Sean Corso.

Sean tells us that a lot of people have trouble finding his pub. We have a calming drink and chat with a not so local, local. A Territorian who bought his property sight unseen because it was ‘near the pub’.

We park in the neatly mowed backyard with views across the paddocks. Sean warns us to watch out for snakes during the day and dingoes at night. There are toilets in the pub and more behind the hall next door which are spotless, because Sean and Tracey look after them.  We have dinner in the pub and it gets busy with locals. Sean and his wife Tracey are gracious hosts and even give us a few lemons for the fruit bowl. Woody has a steak and my Parma is huge. There’s even a hard-boiled egg on the side.

Next morning we wake to a blanket of wintry fog spread across the paddocks and we continue our journey to Bundaberg.