DH and I left Wandoan by 8am and headed towards the nearest larger town, Miles. We decided not to stop there, instead driving on to the town of Chinchilla where we had the most marvellous cooked breakfast. It was at a little cafe just on the outskirts of the town. I asked the waitress if the floods had affected this part of town as the business section of the town went right under. She pointed to the front door and said that the water came up to the door handles...and the door was at the top of a set of stairs!
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| The cafe at Chinchilla |
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| Railway bridge at Chinchilla still with flood debris |
On our drive this day we continually came across huge trucks loaded with mining equipment and vehicles as our journey was well and truly in the large basin of coal reserves that are being mined. These vehicles were enormous and had a 'forward' utility truck well ahead giving warning of the wideload coming as well as another ute following the wide vehicle. Prior warning is needed as these roads carry a lot of regular sized trucking vehicles who need to pull over if one of the 'super-sized' ones is coming; no room for passing in many cases!
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| One of the over sized trucks |
After Chinchilla we had a stop at a tiny town called Warra. A student teacher whom I once supervised (10 years ago) is the Principal there. The total enrollment number is 12...but 2 were away so I only met 10 of her students. You guessed it...it's a one teacher school! They were lovely children and very independent workers. (A bit of trivia here about Warra...Ludwig Leichhardt camped beside the creek there on his journey in 1844) :-)
Next stop was the centre of Dalby. It's very hard to get accomodation there these days because of the mining companies using motel rooms for workers, but luckily we only needed petrol (gas).
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| One of the wide streets in Dalby |
Next stop was Toowoomba where DH went to his favourite menswear shop for a browse. Then it was a drive 'down the range' towards the city of Ipswich and then home via the motorway.
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| Toowoomba business district |
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Toowoomba
Part of the road going down the range from Toowoomba |
A map of our trip. Wandoan I've market with a dot between Taroom and Miles. Chinchilla isn't on the map but it is south east of Miles.
Wow! The terrain reminds me a bit of southern California.
ReplyDeleteI loved the one teacher school and, well~ traveling with you!
Thank you and I sure hope that not too much damage occurred as a result of the flood. I am going to goog le for info as so as I post this comment.
The map is a great idea, and I am going to use this clever idea.
Jennifer