• Departed Kynuna Monday

• Travelled to McKinlay and Cloncurry

• Travelled to a Rest Area 103km South of Burke and Wills Roadhouse - Rest Area QT628

• Camped overnight Monday at a Rest Area 103km South of Burke and Wills Roadhouse - Rest Area QT628

THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WHILE THE PICTURES LOAD

Day 13

Monday 22nd August 2005

Click on the pictures for larger versions

As we packed up at the Kynuna Service Station, a pair of curious Brolgas watched. They must be used to tourists as they were very tame, allowing me to get up close to take the pictures below.
 

On the road north again and the surroundings turned very, very dry.

The area had missed the band of storms that passed south of around Winton.
 

At McKinlay, we pulled into the town area to find toilets.

( The fascination with finding toilets is due to mum's health problems. Their location is something that is very important when you travel and stay in Rest Areas as much as possible, due to lack of finances, as we do .
So anyone reading this might be interested to note their location if they travel as we do. As a matter of interest, there is a website available to find toilet sites in Australia. The address is http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/default.aspx )

We found the toilets in Middleton Street in a well kept park but it had "closed" signs up. It looked as though the council was doing a really good job making the park green and they didn't want people tramping around before it was established. 
We looked around a little in McKinlay but as it was so dry, any attractive features were not obvious as most of the place was very dusty, other than the park where the toilets were, so we drove on. 

Ant nests started getting taller too, I assume due to the hotter climate.

We arrived in Cloncurry around lunchtime and pulled the caravan in near a park with toilets.
The park is located across from Woolworths Shopping Centre & beside the Cloncurry Police Station in Scarr Street. 
Next to Woolworths is a Bakery, myyyyyyy favourite place. Pies! I just had to try some for lunch. Yummmm. Amazingly, the girl serving came from Nanango but had moved to Cloncurry with her husband as he had to move there to a job. She said she hated the heat but liked the place and the people. She was really pleased to have a chat with someone from "home".

We sat on our camp chairs beside the park, eating, while the dogs lay tied to the fence, in the shade . We had driven far enough that the heat had become more of a problem than the cold, even though it was nearing the end of August - still a very cool time in Kingaroy. I was loving being able to get around in shorts again.

Mum has to monitor her blood pressure with one of those electronic units. She had been finding it was telling her that it was way too high, around 170 over 100, so we decided to visit a local chemist to double check the results. The chemist was very helpful but had nothing to test mum with. She was sufficiently alarmed though to ring the local clinic and arrange for them to see mum. They couldn't see her for an hour or so, so we went to Woolworths to replenish our supplies, as we were going to be out of areas with shops for a few days. The afternoon was getting short of hours and we hadn't decided on a camp spot. After looking at the possibilities I decided on a Rest Area marked as QT628. If we left relatively soon, we would arrive there in daylight. As it turned out, the clinic wasn't able to check mum and she was sent on to a private doctor nearby. That meant waiting for another hour in the queue. While Judy and mum waited in the surgery, I refuelled and returned. I stayed with the dogs at the caravan which had to be parked around the corner due to available parking spaces. I listened to the radio as I watched the sun get lower in the sky wondering what we'd do if mum's blood pressure really was too high. Thoughts went through my head as to where in Cloncurry we might stay if she needed to stay in town overnight. As the dogs were getting really restless from having to stay put in the back of the Daihatsu, Judy appeared and told me mum was next. Not long after, they appeared. Mum was told not to be concerned, that the machine must have been reading incorrectly, as her blood pressure was reading "normal". That was a great relief!.
So we moved off, heading west out of Cloncurry, then north, just out of town. The road south of Cloncurry was really well made. The road north of Cloncurry became very narrow for much of the way to our camp site. It was a challenge avoiding the long vehicles coming towards us. I had to continually, carefully move off the road well before any vehicle passed by us. Otherwise the broken edges of the road caused the van to lurch. I was worried about the tyre being damaged on the sharp edges. The road improved eventually and driving became a lot more enjoyable.

Below are two shots of the western horizon from the camp site.
 In the shot on the left you can see what I know as "the evening star", Venus.