THE FINAL RUN HOME ....

Another great trip -- six months looking at our amazing Country: agriculture, mining, landscapes and fossicking centres were all on our agenda. Interspersed with that, more importantly, were the people ... old friends and new.

Having driven through hundreds of kilometres of drought-affected country, it was refreshing to drive up the Bunya Mountains from Kumbia. It was cool and green at the summit, with lovely rainforest including Bunya Pines ... but a very short distance down all sides, drought conditions prevailed. I must just mention “prickly pear”. For those of you who love making jam from the fruit I can report the plants are flowering prolifically, indicating there’ll be a good crop for you in autumn. And we've noticed a variety with yellow flowers, instead of red – is this a new strain which may be resistant to cactoblastis? Hope not.

Kumbia has a great ‘free’ stop, almost. You pay for power now. The first night there was none. The Council workers explained that they’d been visited by vandals, who had also wrecked the men’s’ shower. Everyone used the women’s shower. But there was power available for our second night, and we still contributed our donation for the upkeep of this beautiful place ... lovely shady trees to camp under.

A night at Kingaroy Showgrounds allowed us to visit the shopping centre and stock up our ‘fridge again.

Then Goomeri showgrounds ... at $15 per night it’s good value, and you can walk into the village to partake of excellent coffee. Barry and Carole come here for the Pumpkin Festival at the end of May ... though I think it will be much colder then. Right now the afternoons are reaching into the high 30’s. But like so many rural towns, Goomeri businesses are suffering from the drought too – there’s no money coming into the town from farming to be circulated around the businesses.

G20 is happening in Brisbane currently ... is that why Google won’t bring up my Facebook page or my BLOG? Has everything been closed down for this, er, event?

Peter and Judy have cleaned our house, including the carpets. What thoughtful people. We hope they've enjoyed their six months in our house.

Since tomorrow is predicted to be a 40º day, we plan to leave early for the 2½ hour run home .... and we pray for no holdups with traffic, fires or our vehicle. Any rain or floods? Not likely.

PS. I have to apologise to G20 -- Google is working now! But it won't upload pics! Urgh.

FULL CIRCLE

Six months ago, after visiting our Care Outreach friends near Miles, we headed to Roma, then turned north to Injune, without even stopping in Roma. Several years previously we ‘farm-sat’ a property west of Injune. We contacted the owner and she said Come on out. When we arrived, Lynne [there are two of us!] had specially made a cake for morning tea ... as you do in the country! Her husband had died since we were there, and she is running the farm herself now with some family and neighbourly assistance. It was great to revisit, as we really enjoyed being able to help out in their situation.

We continued north, past Carnarvon Gorge, to Springsure, Emerald, and Longreach. We found the great free camp on the Thompson River, and stayed for three days. The highlight at Longreach was an arranged meeting with Jill and Ian Ezzy and their friends, at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.

My considered opinion of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, though, is that it’s lost some of its vibrancy. I’m not sure why. Its fantastic library has been relegated to an outbuilding, as has Hugh Sawry’s paintings. There’s nowhere to sit and read the books. Hugh was a mover and shaker with getting the Hall set up. Admittedly, Dick Smith has funded a good new film, but other things seem a bit tired. And, for lunch there was almost nothing to choose from ... and we were there for early lunch.

Then it was on to Winton, Hughenden and Mt. Isa where we had a great dinner with Arthur Robinson, ex Goodlife.

Why hadn't I written about it then? Well, my laptop and I kept having differences of opinion, and it wouldn't let me access my BLOG. I suppose the laptop was old, if something 8 years of age can be considered OLD. It couldn't cope with the newer software programs ... so I had to buy a new laptop.

Meanwhile John had difficulties with his IPad ... but the free wi-fi at Mt. Isa library enabled us to eventually get that sorted into a working model.

I wanted an Apple laptop, to sync with our other Apple equipment, but they don’t have those in Mt. Isa. I’ll get one in Katherine, I thought, as I remembered the nice man in the computer shop there who helped me out a few years ago. When we arrived, the business had expanded exponentially, but they still didn’t have Apples. Gotta go to Darwin for them, the nice young assistant explained. He and his sister, who was working there too, came from Maroochydore! We weren’t going to Darwin, as we had a rendezvous with W.A. friends at Fitzroy Crossing or Halls Creek. So I settled for a good deal on a Toshiba PC, with Windows 8.1. Now I was on an even steeper learning curve!

It was only when we got to Broome, weeks later, that I was able to access my emails, internet and BLOG all on the new laptop, and the old one could be put away ... although John still needs it to record books he has read.

So I didn’t BLOG about the Avon Downs free stop, or the station stay at Banka Banka with the pet heifer, or my completing the Grade 3 walk around Edith Falls, north of Katherine. I didn't write about the magnificent red cliffs near the Victoria River, or our great 3 nights at Wyndham with Fuzzy, the tame donkey, who came for breakfast each morning. Or our visit [finally I succumbed] to El Questro on the Gibb River Road.

The BLOG began at the beautiful Fossil Downs Station, at Fitzroy Crossing.

We've traveled mainly outback N.T., W.A., S.A., N.S.W. and back into Queensland.

Now we have come FULL CIRCLE and are back in ROMA, staying at the Pistol and Skeet Shooting Club. Very friendly people here. It’s the second-biggest shooting club in Australia, after Wagga. We went into the big Supermarket this morning ... and met one of our Care Outreach ‘advisers’ – we must be getting closer to home.

We've met up with old friends; we've made new friends, but now we’re looking forward to seeing our ‘Coast’ friends. It won't be long.

*** It was great that Ed & Bronwyn Gerlach spent a day/night with us behind the Drillham Hall and helped with Care Outreach.

Mitchell Cattle

        We're told the epicentre of the drought is in the area south of Mitchell.

This mob of cattle, being driven along the 'long paddock', were glad to have a drink in the Maranoa River, at Mitchell.

MITCHELL

This is bliss – our own en suite in the Mitchell caravan park. The nice people gave it to us at no extra cost – as it’s the end of the tourist season. There’s a toilet, shower and basin in a little tiled cabin, adjacent to each caravan site. We can leave our towels and toiletries there.  No more having to think of what we need when we leave the ‘van. We've stayed here before, although last time when we wanted to it was too wet, and we had to decamp to the Showgrounds.

Some of the Care Outreach team stay here, when they visit the property owners in the area. Vince, Team Leader, has developed a large client base. The area has suffered badly in the past few years: in 2012 they had the highest flood ever recorded when the Maranoa River burst into the town; since then it’s been drought.

Care Outreach assisted mightily during the floods. They have a very good reputation in the area. So much so, the Local Council requested the Mitchell Care Outreach team to make an extra visit this year, and assisted them with travel and accommodation to do so.

Driving up from St. George on Monday, there was very little vegetation for the stock. But the properties must have de-stocked everything they could, and just kept their breeding stock. Those we saw were in reasonable store condition.

We’re heading to Miles after here; the people we hoped to connect with in Roma are at the Coast! Then it’s just a slow meander home.

STAYING AT ST.GEORGE

Can you come for dinner on Thursday night?  An invitation like that is hard to refuse. Having been on the road for six months, most of our eating has been around the caravan ... with the occasional bakery bee-sting!

We were looking forward to connecting with Sam and Latasha. They had both been students at The Pines, where John and I volunteered for several years. Both were great students, although Sam had an objection to wearing shoes and socks in class. Hadn't he been brought up on the farm in the country? His soles were tough. It was sternly explained to him that OH&S has different rules in town.

At the caravan park we chose a nice shady site ... the season is over, said the owner. Just choose any site that suits you. One night we were the only caravan in the park ... which was a bit lonely; it was nice when some good company arrived.

And we had a great dinner with Sam and Latasha, Esther, Lily, Samson and Hope.

Latasha is amazing. She was my star pupil at The Pines, and I recall telling her that she was ready then to hit the speaking trail. Others were good too, but they needed a little more practice. Latasha presented everything with style, passion and conviction. I want to be a motivational speaker, she claimed.

Little did she know that a few years later she would have the greatest story to tell. Returning tired from Brisbane, she fell asleep while driving, and veered into the path of a B-Double. The poor driver did everything he could to avoid her – he tugged his steering wheel so hard it buckled out of shape. Under the truck, Latasha drifted in and out of consciousness with considerable injuries, and clearly remembers thinking: I have a choice now of living or dying. Samson, her third child was with her, unharmed. Thinking of Sam, the two girls and Samson, she decided she better live, and asked God to make that happen.

So the road to recovery commenced, with positive input from every quarter. But not without its considerable moments. We were at C.O.C. Chinchilla two years ago, when Sam and Latasha presented the whole story, including graphic pictures! Yes, Sam was taking pics of the scene and the B-Double while Latasha was being rescued. Our little contribution was to arrange [unintentionally] for a B-Double to be there, in the grounds. This left everyone in no doubt of the miracle of her survival.

It’s great to see her now, with little Hope having arrived, assisting Sam in his role pastoring the INC [Christian Outreach Centre] in St. George. Sam is still working on the farms, and Latasha uses her creative talents to present a children’s music ministry each Wednesday, among other roles. Last Tuesday was a ‘friendship day’, so the friendly people from their assembly had permission from IGA to set up their coffee machine outside their supermarket, give people a cup of coffee, and befriend them.

We also connected there with Shane Timmer, originally from Sunshine Coast but now building in St. George. He was building a new Sunday School room. Shane and Sarah care-took our house once, just after they returned from a round-Australia tour, and we were heading south.

Having already extended our stay from 2 to 4 days in St. George, it was really tempting to extend further. It’s a lovely town.