We started the day at 4:30am about 30 minutes later than planned but all good. Plenty of stops along the way. Coffee at Toowoomba. Breakfast at Jackson with Margs folk (Pat and Joyce) at their memorial. Ella and Beth are old family friends come across to have a yarn. Looks like the ANZAC day memorial was held in the hut.

We start to leave the mining traffic behind but encountering plenty of cattle road trains, particularly the further West we go.

The predicted storms and rain evaporate as we go further West. Some high cloud but no rain, it will make for a warm night. The country is dry but there is plenty of grass about in a lot of the paddocks, except where there are sheep.

Fuel at Roma and lunch at Mitchell. The habitat around the Maranoa River, which flows through town, is slowly recovering. Still huge trees in the water course from the last big flood. We top up with fuel at Charleville and head onto Quilpie. Kangaroos thick as we head further West. 1 per kilometre, and once we hit 4:30pm one every 500m then 100m forcing us to slow down. 

We pull into Lake Houdraman near Quilpie in time to enjoy some Chilli Con Carne as the sun sets. An emu walks past our camp and finches are gathering at the stream leading into the dam. It’s been a long trip but it’s a good bitumen road so we take advantage of it.

Track (16/05/2015 4:48:31am) – Brisbane – Quilpie in Explorer. You can view a map of it on Hema Explorer Cloud. The temperature monitor confirmed it was a great day : )