Yackety Yack, Day 56 – Sardines & Straight Talkers

Day 56 Monday 3/7/2023 Gin Gin to Miriam Vale, Qld

There’s a flock of ducks on the grass eating the pickings from last night’s equine visitors.

As we leave town light rain falls. There’s a range of hills to our west, the roadside grasses are getting taller and stands of palms are in the paddocks. Those subtle changes again.

There’s a large RV parking area in Miriam Vale located between the shops and the railway line with good clean toilets, an adventure playground, and a dump point. We’ve often dropped in here to use the amenities and shop as it is the jumping off point for Agnes Water and the town of 1770 on the coast. We’re expecting 3 trains to pass during the night but they’re not very loud and Elle is happy as she’s got some TV, one channel, but her least favourite.

Busy with passing tourists, Miriam Vale is a much smaller town than it feels. In 2016 it had a population of only 512 and from what we can gather they must be a bunch of straight-talkers who don’t waste words. Why? Well, there are a handful of shops selling pies and take away food, a general store called The Shop, and a pub, The Miriam Vale Hotel. There’s a sign outside the pub declaring “COVID NOTICE If you cough, sneeze or even look sick YOU WILL BE SHOT. Across the road there’s a big old fig tree in the park. It’s a Ficus Benjamina. Planted in the late 19th century it has twice survived being burnt. What’s it called? The Big Fig! Yep, straight talkers.

While Woody power walks the streets, Elle and I take the Tranquility Walk. You can’t miss it. It starts beside the dump point. We walk through pretty native gardens before wandering down a bush track to the Pioneer Cemetery. There are tall slender Moreton Bay Ash, the ones with crocodile bark at the bottom that gives way to a silky grey trunk. It’s worth the walk to get close to the native grasses that we are normally driving past and some of them are taller than us. Not that either of us would make a basketball team but still that grass is tall.

All afternoon the RV shuffling goes on, vans and motorhomes some just to visit, others staying. Happy hour entertainment is spent chuckling at the shenanigans of the late arrivals. Elle is longingly admiring the height of her neighbour’s TV antenna. It seems that some of her reception problems are because her antenna is as height challenged as we are. We get the odd sprinkle of rain but like a farm in a drought, the worst of the rain seems to miss us.

What an interesting bunch there are in this park. A few are on the road full time, there’s a young Irish couple heading to Cairns, a bloke working from his 4WD, and a happy young couple in a rooftop camper cooking dinner on a gas stove on the bitumen.