• Departed Tolderodden near Eidsvold Thursday

• Travelled to "Fairyland", south of Cracow

• Camped overnight Thursday at "Fairyland"

Day 2

Thursday 11th August 2005

Click on the picture for larger version

Our first morning of the trip, at Tolderodden Rest Area, was cold but sunny, with a glorious blue sky. I stripped off and had a wash in the shelter shed after the other groups had left. By then the weather was pleasantly warm.

We were pretty relaxed about getting moving, so eventually got away around 11.00am.

As we headed towards Cracow, the road was bitumen but soon turned into very dusty, gravel corrugations.

Around 5 cattle trains lumbered towards us covering us in dust. It was so thick I had to pull over each time to allow it to settle as there was no way I could see through it.

After it seemed all cattle trains had passed by and the road had become a little better, I decided to pull over to check the caravan

We found the caravan door was locked!!
It was then that I realized that I had left the caravan keys behind in Kingaroy.
Luckily (or unluckily) we found the window beside the door had a broken catch and it easily slid open.

After we got inside we found the fridge door catch – a piece of heavy gauge wire – had jumped out of its position from the results of the road corrugations and allowed the door to open.
Most of the contents of the fridge had fallen out and onto the floor. What a mess!

Among other things, a box of a dozen eggs had smashed and pooled all over the floor, under the fridge and down into the chipboard surrounds. The smell of rotten eggs was noticeable for a lot of our trip!

Poor Jude got in and cleaned it up and we continued on.

We were not to know but we were to experience a similar event further into our trip involving a bottle of mint sauce.

After a lot more dust and jolting from the rough road we arrived in Cracow and had lunch near the park across the street from the Cracow pub.
The dogs were ecstatic that they could finally run around.

I tried ringing my Uncle Jim and Aunt Betty various times on the mobile phone – the signal was very strong, as there was a repeater on a nearby hill – but I found it engaged continuously. Later I found the number we had was an old number!!!

I knew from the map that we had to travel in a general south direction from Cracow to get to them, so took a punt and headed out along another gravel road hoping we’d eventually see the sign “Fairyland”.

After passing "Cracow Station" and meandering through a series of gullies for what seemed hours, we arrived at their gate.
 

We arrived at my Uncle Jim and Aunt Betty's property, "Fairyland".

The houses on the property are set in front of the Auburn Range, which has a large covering of Cypress Pine. I wondered at the name "Fairyland". It did look very pleasant as the late afternoon sun shone over the green grass towards the range.

Betty told me later that the wife of the original settler looked at the scene around her after good rain, which caused a number of  waterfalls in the hills and commented how it looked like a “Fairyland”, hence the name.

The van was setup in front of Jim and Betty’s house and then we chatted into the early night.

We met my Cousin Doug, his wife Juanita and their children, including the oldest, Sarah, who was very bright and loved chatting.
Their children are taught by Juanita - through Distance Education - as the road into the nearest school at Theodore is subject to flooding in many places. (When it does rain!!!)

The weather forecast was for rain developing overnight as we went to bed around 10pm. At that time the sky was crystal clear and full of stars.
I had seen a smoky look high in the sky in the north west corner of the horizon around sundown and assumed it was the upper trough due through the area.

We made sure the dog beds were under cover in case it did rain.