Committed Travellers

It didn’t take long to pack as we had stayed hooked up. The sun was shining and we had no dramas driving out of our campground area. Over one hundred caravans, motorhomes, 4WDs, buses and trucks had to leave Wandilla Station today. We followed another Roadie along the dirt road to Eulo.

Several Roadies had stopped in Eulo for coffee etc, but we decided to head to Cunnamulla 67kms to the east. Several caravans were already parked in that small town. Anita bought coffees, a pie and a sausage roll from the bakery. We didn’t loiter as we didn’t want to get stuck in a convoy of caravans.

We followed the Balonne Hwy to St George for nearly 300kms. Bollon is the only small town along that road. I went to the only cafe and was surprised to be served by a Frenchman. I bought a couple of his lovely small quiches and a vanilla slice.

Wallam Creek is still in flood at Bollon. Water was flowing over a weir wall and under the highway. Bollon has previously been devastated by floods, but since 2015 has been protected by a levee bank.

Several 4WD vehicles drove past heading west, apparently on tag along tours. We had a good run without any delays and by early afternoon had set up in the Pelican Rest Tourist Park. Anita’s priority was to get some washing on. I had to take our caravan step across to the clothes line which is much too high for most women to reach.

I drove to the bridge to take some photos of the Balonne River in minor flood. Six weir gates were open at different levels producing rough water downstream. On the other side of the bridge I saw a man carrying more than a dozen large Murray Cod, when the bag limit is only two.

This interesting bush is growing in the caravan park. The leaves are very evenly spaced along the branches.

We treated ourselves to dinner at the Rivers award winning restaurant at the Riverland Motel. Our meals were excellent! We took leftovers home to very appreciative Blue and Tilly.

The moon rose and the sun set as we sat down for our final ARC dinner.

Wandilla Station is a working sheep and cattle station. The Music in the Mulga festival has been held on the property for 12 years. This was the third time we have travelled here with ARC. The grader is essential equipment for maintaining roads, especially the road into the property.

Tilly loved the red dirt and spent a lot of time outside on her lead. Bluey preferred to walk on the red dirt rather than the spikey tufts of grass. He loves being with us when we go to listen to music, laying on a lap sleeping.

This morning it was sunny but there is so much moisture in the air that condensation was running off our awning. We had our last ever ARC breakfast. After washing up I started to clean the tables ready for packing up after our final dinner together tonight. Therese Proust produced a Magic Sponge and despite our scepticism it did an unbelievable job. We could not match the outcome scrubbing the tables with Gumption.

I walked to the stage area for coffee and an apple turnover. This truck is a working bakery producing fresh bread, pies, Danish pastries and a variety of other foods. It claims to be the world’s first mobile bakery. There is a second truck which carries a huge diesel generator to power the bakery.

There are portaloos scattered around the campground, and semi trailers that are kitted out as toilet and shower blocks. The happy helper volunteers clean the toilets twice each day.

There were uninspiring walkup artists on the stage this morning, followed by a charity auction raising more money for local charities. The Wandilla Yabbie Race is a popular event, where people buy their yabbie sometimes paying over $300. The maximum prize is $150 and most winners donate their winnings back.

Some Roadies entered the Fashions of the Field. Pam and Michelle entered as cowgirls but were not winners. The Bulloo Flying Angels had trouble sitting down in their outfits.

The ARC tables were set for our final dinner. Beccy and her staff musicians cooked a BBQ dinner and sang a few songs on an emotional night.

There has been no more rain, thank goodness! The other large motorhome got bogged while moving into our campsite, leaving large ruts. Our road home has been flooded but will probably be open when we are due to head home on Monday.

The flooded roads prevented the main sound equipment from getting here. Normally there are two stages but without the equipment only one is operating. This means there are delays changing artists. The sun came out and we had to find some shade. The woman sitting next to me ate an apple and Bluey stood staring at her. I asked if he could have her apple core and he ate the lot!

We had pizzas for lunch. A Dalby business towed in their trailer with a wood fired pizza oven. There were very good and large enough to save a couple of pieces for later.

Bec Hance did another show this afternoon, but will be leaving early tomorrow. There was some other good music but we listened to most of it in our van.

We finally had a long outback sunset now that8 the cloud cover has gone.

This evening the Bushwackers performed at Music in the Mulga for the first time. They were stranded at Brisbane because Rex cancelled the flight that would have brought them to southwest Queensland. The band has been performing for over 50 years with more than 100+ musicians. Dobe Newton has been in the band for 49 years and Roger Corbett 43 years.

Gabi Blissett is a classically trained violinist who was a finalist in the Australian Celtic Music Awards. She has reinvigorated the Bushwackers with her skilled energetic performances.

Dobe Newton twice praised the support band for the their talent. Pete Wilson and Anthony Taylor played guitar, and have probably not played any of the Bushwackers’ music before. They were intently following the music on an ipad.

Beccy wowed the crowd with Wild at Heart. Kellie Brouhaha was her guitar and vocal support, with the re-named band Sensual Chocolate, featuring Anthony and Pete.

We had Beccy breakfasts and I helped with the dishes before we left Charleville. About halfway to Eulo is the tiny town of Wyandra where there is one shop-cum-post office-cum-cafe. The only coffee on offer was plunger or instant. My plunger decaf was undrinkable but it was worth $5 to visit the shop with it’s eclectic collection of items for sale, such as dog floatation vests.

We refuelled at Cunnamulla and joined up with our Roadie mates at Eulo in their 7 tonne motorhome. We led the way along the rutted, muddy road with a couple of cattle grids to add to the driving difficulties. We arrived at the Festival without mishap, but when driving to their allocated space, the 7 tonne motorhome got bogged with the back wheels going down.

The truck has levellers so they lifted the back while one of the Roadies dug out a lot of dirt and used 4 maxtrax to allow the motorhome to drive forward. They had to do this twice before being parked beside us. While all this was happening I looked after Anthony’s dog named North, who peed and pooped beside our van!

We walked to the festival stage arena to see Bec Hance do her show with Pete, Anthony and Mick (on Banjo and guitar).

We spent $20 to get internet access, but can only use it near the festival arena, as there is no coverage back at our van. At least I could catch up on my blogs! The connection at our Charleville caravan park was almost non existent.

Amber Joy Poulton is over her bout of Covid so was able to performlast night, with Kellie Brouhaha, Anthony Taylor and Pete Wilson. She was supposed to start at 8.30pm but her session did not start until 9.10. It was getting cold but I had rugged up Bluey on my lap to help keep me warm.

Beccy made the decision to stay put one extra night in Charleville, because of the risk of flooded roads on the way to Eulo. The rest of our tour will be at the Music in the Mulga country music festival. The road is sealed to Eulo but is mostly red dirt from the small town to Wandilla Station where the festival is held.

The rain has eased at Eulo but the dirt road needs to dry out more before all of our vehicles travel along it. It rained most of the night so we woke to lots of large puddles. Blue found some grass that was not prickly or muddy.

Beccy took the Gold Roadies to lunch at the Coronnes Hotel. She was relaxed in the company of Roadies she has come to know during ten or more ARC tours. The food was not fantastic but the decor in this hotel is fairly original, made from Queensland silky oak.

The park staff had to fit non Roadie vans in because we were supposed to have left this morning. The non Roadies benefitted by being able to enjoy a great concert performed by all of our entertainers. This is a poor photo of Bec Hance and Beccy Cole during the show.

The rain continued on and off but was never heavy. After breakfast we drove to town to refuel and buy groceries. Our first stop was the bakery for coffee and snacks. Bluey had to wear his raincoat.

The rain didn’t encourage exploring Charleville. We had planned to have lunch out but reconsidered and enjoyed leftovers in the Bushtracker. We availed ourselves of the toilets behind the museum.

There are no clothes dryers at our caravan park because it doesn’t normally rain here very much. We did a load of washing hanging it inside the van where it took two days to dry.

This is Little Fancy holding the hand of a bedraggled teddy hanging near our van. We haven’t had heavy rain, but lots of light rain.

Tonight’s concert was to be put on by Roadies so there was unusual activity with people rehearsing and dressing up. Our dinner was prepared by park staff – boiled potatoes with bolognese sauce, sour cream and grated cheese, followed by a selection of desserts. I chose a rich cheesecake which was tasty, and took Anita’s dessert back to the van for later.

A couple of the Roadies’ acts were very good with one or two cringeworthy. At the end of the show Beccy announced this would be the last ARC tour. She has to close the business before the divorce property settlement. She is very keen to restart a similar business so we can look forward to that. The Roadies were very supportive of Beccy and understood why she has to do this.

It was a bit chaotic cleaning up after breakfast this morning. Over a dozen Roadies decided they would be heading home or going elsewhere for a variety of reasons, including the prospect of heavy rain. Breakfast was prepared in an undercover camp kitchen that has four double sinks and four large barbeques with generous surface areas. Each sink and barbeque had been used so needed wiping down.

We didn’t get coffee in Mitchell as the Bakery was unexpectedly closed. From past experience I knew the Mitchell Cafe served dubious coffee and had limited goodies. We were resigned to not getting our caffeine fix until Charleville, 200 kms away from Mitchell.

The small village of Morven is about halfway between Mitchell and Charleville. We drove to the recreation ground to use the dump site, but sheepdog trials were underway and I didn’t want to risk distracting them. Back on the main road we found a struggling cafe and ordered coffees which were not brilliant, but avoided us having to park in Charleville with the van attached.

It rained on and off all the way but had stopped by the time we arrived at one of our favourite caravan parks. We unhooked and I put out the awning. Our site is one of the higher ones so shouldn’t get too muddy if we get lots of rain.

As I finished setting up I spotted the resident pet sheep named Lamb Chops. Bluey was absolutely fascinated by this furry critter and repeatedly tried to get him to play, approaching just like he would another dog. Lamb Chops has been neutered and dehorned, though he may try to butt.

There are two large buildings each open at one end – a kitchen and a dining/entertainment area that accommodates most of our group. With Amber Joy Poulton having tested positive, the other musicians had to step in and do a show she was scheduled to perform. They chose lively songs that had many Roadies dancing – another fabulous night.

After breakfast I walked to the bakery before all the goodies were sold out. I then took Blue for a walk into town to do some washing at the laundromat. The caravan park laundry was busy, but I ended up back there as none of the laundromat dryers were working. There were periods of very light rain, enough to stop clothes drying on the line.

I walked back into town to explore parts I have not visited, such as this museum. I was too late to visit so will have to wait until our next stopover in Mitchell.

I managed to look through the western clothing store and not buy anything. There are many unoccupied shops and dilapidated buildings. Even the shire council buildings are fenced off and no longer occupied.

With flooding rain predicted for parts of Queensland, I noted the 2012 flood height of the Maranoa River at the Warrego Hwy bridge. Most of our caravan park would have been inundated during that flood as was much of Mitchell. The river flowed over the bridge at the top of the safety railing.

Beccy implemented her wet weather plan for our concert, and we gathered at the golf club. I had not unhooked the car from the Bushtracker so decided to walk to the golf club instead of catching a ride. There was only slight drizzle.

Anthony Taylor was our entertainer, backed by Pete Wilson and Kelly Brouhaha. Little Fancy needed entertaining while Anthony was singing some quiet numbers. I showed her my videos of Blue and Tilly playing together, but she liked them so much she was laughing loudly. I persuaded her to sit on my lap and she soon fell asleep, but every time the Roadies applauded she woke enough to clap then went back to sleep.

I walked back to our caravan park with two other Roadies who wanted to stretch their legs. I totalled about 16,000 steps with my four walks to and from town.

The good weather continued for our drive from St George to Mitchell. We refuelled in St George then followed google map directions crossing the Balonne River via the Andrew Nixon Bridge. We didn’t realise this bridge is also part of the infrastructure for Jack Taylor Weir, built in 1953 to support irrigation for various crops. Anita captured a quick photo as we drove over this unusual bridge.

It was just over a 200 kms drive to Mitchell, but on a mostly narrow though sealed road. We got stuck following a caravan travelling at 90 kph, so it was a slow trip as we could not overtake. There is only one truck parking area on this road. The southern section of road had soft verges so it would have been risky to leave the bitumen.

There are no settlements, shops or service stations along the Mitchell St George Rd, but there is a school in the locality named Dunkell. According to wiki there was one teacher and 9 students in 2017. There is still a website for the school so it appears to be still operating.

There were no buildings near the road, only occasional signs to indicate the location of outback station properties. There was also no mobile phone coverage for most of the trip so it would be a bad road to experience a breakdown or have an accident. It could be a long wait for another vehicle to drive by, except of course when dozens of Roadies were heading north.

We have stayed in Mitchell before on different trips and like the small town. The artesian pool is an easy walk from the caravan park. There is a bakery and Foodworks supermarket serving locals and travellers. It appears only one pub still operates, with three others closed.

As we are likely to see rain I set up the awning with the waterproof privacy screen. This keeps the playpen dry and provides a place to hang out washing if it does rain.

We had a photo session with those of us who have a “Wilder Tart” T-shirt. Twenty years ago Beccy released her “Wild At Heart” album, so her recent concerts have had the theme “Wilder Tart”.

We had pasta for dinner in our van before the evening concert. Amber Joy Poulton has been unwell and we suspect she has Covid although she has tested negative on RATs. The rest of our musicians performed a variety of songs for Mothers’ Day. Beccy had her mum Carol on the phone for a chat and to sing “Mother Knows Best” with her.