Days 29-32 Tuesday – Friday, 7-10/6/2016, Emerald to Theresa Creek Dam, high twenties no clouds, dry heat.

The drive through Capella and Clermont is an interesting one, rich dark paddocks of grain and sunflowers. There are curiously shaped mountains to the east. Capella would be worthy of a stay and a short walk is enough to endear us to the place. Clermont is a sprawling old Queensland town perched on a hill. There is a replica piano high in the crook of a gum tree as a sobering reminder of the 1916 floodwaters that left a piano perched 32 feet up a tree.

Twenty kms south on a really good bitumen road is the Theresa Creek Dam and campground. There’s a mixture of grassy and gravel sites in a number of quite different areas. As the land slopes steeply to the lake getting a level site is the biggest problem as we are soon to learn. When we think that we have the van levelled we realise that our jack is skewed at a dangerous angle. It takes some time and a lot of grunt on Woody’s behalf to get the van hitched back onto the car. We move a few feet and face the same problem again. Hot and bothered and not wanting to look like total idiots we move to another site which although further back from the lake turns out to be much better, more level, with good views and less crowded.

We have charming neighbours and a host of birds that demand feeding three times a day. Lorikeets hang upside down from the awning arm, apostle birds grumble about in the grass in flocks and blue faced honey eaters like to perch on the kettle handle…and poop.

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Sunrise casts a golden glow across the lake. Coots and egrets paddle about in the water lilies. At night the sky is lit with stars. Like most campers here, we book an extra night. This is just too good. It is warm enough to eat breakfast outside but there is no humidity. Heavenly.

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There is a little store that serves coffee and snacks and on Wednesday night they cook fish & chips for movie night on the lush green lawn. Cyclone Pete lights the braziers. What a sight, about thirty grey nomads with fish and chips and wine, slumped on their camp chairs watching the life of Patsy Cline and alternating between singing along and sobbing. This is better than Gold Class.

Cyclone Pete? “G’day, that’s what me missus calls me, cos I’m full a wind n shit.”

Towing Kms: 130kms

2021 Note: Theresa Creek Dam was indeed a heavenly spot.