Day 50, 1/9/2019 Sunday Cania Gorge to Maryborough, 5 – 26

It’s a treat to hear currawongs calling when you’re under the shower even if they are begging for food. Outside the sun is burning off the mist and whip birds are…well whipping. Woody reckons this is the coldest morning of the trip, I think that he’s forgotten what cold is like.

On the outskirts of the park there’s a quaint old town called Moonford just a church and a hall and both are now houses and few other homes. Irrigated crops, cattle and three large bustards in a paddock.

Once more the GPS is trying to send us down dirt roads, he seems to want to get back on Highway One and doesn’t care how we do it.

We stop for a walk in Mundubbera. This area is renowned for its citrus especially mandarins. The town is busy with fruit pickers and the bakery is putting on a Father’s Day breakfast.

There’s a lot of that strange dead stuff that we saw in this area in 2014. Neat angled double rows of short dead stuff. For kilometre after kilometre we wonder why so many paddocks are full of dead stuff*.

We see our 2^nd frill necked lizard…in the middle of the road as I’m coming down a steep winding hill. Shiiit! I hope all the wheels straddled him.

Gayndah on the wide Burnett River is busy, a bakery, a market and caravans wherever they can find a parking space. We didn’t walk this town last time we came through as we’d been with friends who hadn’t grasped the concept of retirement so it’s time to bail out and nose around. We buy a couple of almond croissants, these ones a good sugar fix but don’t make the top ten.

We turn again at the Ban Ban Springs junction through rich red soil, there are corn and pumpkins for sale on the roadside. From Biggenden to Maryborough we wind through forests, it seems much longer than the last time we came this way.

We arrive at Maryborough Showgrounds to find the entry road blocked by racing pedal cars. We chat to the supporters and they suggest that we just find a gap and go for it as the High School kids are practicing for an upcoming event. We do just that and scoot up the road. It must look a funny sight a Jeep and caravan racing between two pedal cars. It’s only a few kilometres into town for a refuel, a BBQ chook for dinner, a drool at the great array of Queenslanders** (Maryborough and Bundaberg seem to have the best mix) and to check out the RV Wharf freedom camp.

We hear on the TV that Qld has had its hottest winter on record. That’s no surprise to us as we sit outside in the shade of the van.

Three German backpackers are camped behind us. They’ve spent the afternoon removing the gas tank from their duel fuel car so that they can take it on the ferry to Fraser Island. They want to do the 4×4 driving thing over there on the sand. The mechanic of the group keeps popping over to borrow Woody’s tools and when the job is done the girls reward the mechanic with …a haircut. Phew.

 

After a lot of winters here we’re really getting attached to Queensland.

Summary 247kms, power, water, toilets, showers, accom $20

*Queenslander is the name for a style of architecture popular in this state. Large wooden houses they sit proudly on high supports to enable cooling breezes to pass underneath. Often with wide verandas and decorative wooden fretwork. No two appear the same.

**And the dead stuff, well later Elle tells us that it is Duboisia which is grown for Boehringer Ingelheim and the extracted alkaline is used in the production of Buscopan.