Thursday, 13th June ~ almost home, Charters Towers, Qld

This has been our biggest day on the road in 16 weeks !  550km !!

We had a foggy start to the day  in Springsure (you may have already seen my previous post with a foggy pic from this day).

Our smoko break was in Clermont. On past journey's, we've had a few 'interesting' overnighters in the van park here (one time: cattle sales = lots of mooing all through the night;  one time: rodeo = lots of loud speaker noise calling the events, followed by partying until the wee early hours! In short, we've never experienced a peaceful nights sleep in Clermont).

But Clermont does have this gorgeous haven .. Hoods Lagoon. Perfect as the escape you need to break the journey.

The 1916 Flood is Clermont’s most iconic event. Striking suddenly after a rain depression, the flood washed away Clermont’s central business district and claimed at least sixty-five lives. It is still known as Australia’s second worst flood in terms of loss of life. Visit the 1916 flood marker on the corner of Capricorn and Drummond Streets to view the height of the flood waters and read the names of the citizens who perished. The Piano in the tree in Capricorn Street (opposite Ivan Bettridge Park) is an eerie reminder of the height and ravaging force of the flood waters. Although it’s a replica today, there were originally three pianos found in trees after the 1916 Flood. A mass grave of the flood victims is also located in the Clermont Cemetery.

 




















We're starting to encounter a number of those wonderful road trains !! 
B-double, B-triple (actually called a Type 2), B-scared !! but maintain composure and all will be well. We did experience a 'holy shit!' moment .. of course I was driving. An oncoming B-triple starting swaying, thankfully, the swaying eased as our paths passed (no pic sorry, too busy holding on with very wide eyes!).

Here's a pic of a B-double passing us (he passed us a few times during the day - he obviously stops a lot)... don't you reckon he's big enough though! But there's bigger ...

Something other than the sign to note here ... the road (track / highway) that you have to share with these giant buggers !

Here's today's lesson in trucks for you ...  (thanks to Wikipedia)

thankfully, we haven't encountered anything like E, F, G, H, K .. yet!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train

We're back into...
~*~ thongs;
~*~ short sleeves;
~*~ skirt / shorts;
~*~ ice in my wine;
ahhhh, I'm home .... home sweet home

I will need time to acclimatise though, I'm starting to feel rather Hot !!

Bird No. 300 !! and still a few km to go until we're home, so the count may rise a little further. Who has the honour of being named bird 300 , I hear you ask? .. a Red-backed Kingfisher ! Very nice. We spotted him as we were driving along the highway, on the wire, just south of Charters Towers, no time to take a pic, here's one I took earlier.

We'll be leaving our little house on wheels and arrive at the big house, about late morning ....

thanks everyone for reading,
thanks for a happy, safe, epic journey.
xo xo