Chapter One - Toowoomba to Eulo

2016 08 08 Monday

High Noon - the sun dramatically breaks through a cloud filled sky. The soundtrack for "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" pumps through my brain. In a grainy black and white photo, Bo and Jeff take our parting photograph, we lumber away to the West.

And so all good westerns should start and our movie camera is rolling and we are heading West.

We had lunch with Jill in Dalby and then bumped our way down the Moonie. The sun was bouncing through the trees as we dodged the kangaroos and a heard of feral pigs on the Chelmer Road.

Wendy and Jeff shared stories of Vietnam, the farm and we even discussed the question of Islam in Australia - and I didn't even bring it up.

Day one is nailed without a single shot, hung or drowned gun slinging cowboy in sight but stay tuned there is drama obscured by the peaceful western sunset.

TUESDAY

A slow start but we were in St George by 10am meeting up with Alison and Bruce and Wendy and Jeff came in to share morning tea by the river. Wendy as always supplied the most delicious slice - she is a terrific lady and a great cook.

The clouds had lost their fluffy appearance and now were grey with dark streaks as they coloured in dark areas away to the South West. Rain coming????

We lunched by the Nebine River and later we saw two echidinas off on a shopping trip as we motor past. We have all been this way before so we are really commuting to a point where we will slow down and engage more fully with the landscape and inhabitants.

Fuel in Cunnamulla and then we pulled up short of Eulo to spot some birds and ended up baking potatoes in a campfire as a slender moon avoided the odd clouds that wandered across the star filled heavens.

Well really that was sort of day one and a damn fine day it was.

WEDNESDAY

The sunrise is shaded grey by the clouds and the morning is cool. We make a slow start, topping up our water from the capped bore. We run the water through our filter to remove a little of the smell. An ambulance hurtles along the highway heading east. Alison and Bruce leave and we stay and look for some more birds, a red capped robin entertains us with his red cap and scarlet waistcoat.

We drive off towards town, another ambulance heads East followed shortly behind by a Police car. Alison and Bruce are pulled up in the street, two aborigines walk down the street, another Police car heads East. "Well you missed an incident." Bruce says.

"Some guy on ice threatened to stab himself and cut his throat." Bruce continues the story he had overheard from some aborigines talking and one had added, "he will give us a bad name." So maybe the guy on drugs was an aborigine - maybe.

Alison and Bruce went on ahead and we had morning tea by the Paroo River, amongst the caravans.

The road turns to dirt as we head for Hungerford. We see only one lone caravan, they tend to stick to the bitumen. The wild flowers are sprinkled amongst the mulga scrub.

We stop for a small beared dragon as we drive into the Currawinya National Park. It's an old station which has been bought up as a National Park. The River is magnificent, lined with twisted old river gums and humming with bird song and nesting white browed wood swallows. We camp on a small knoll with a view up and down the river.

In the afternoon the clouds thicken to rain just after the sun sets. We retreat to our camper and listen to the soft footsteps of the rain as she dances gently on our roof.

After it has rained for half an hour or more at this gentle pace, Bruce comes over to say they are thinking of driving back to the old homestead in case they can't get out tomorrow. We decide to not go, we can stay a month if we need to, so we have no need to move, the rain will pass.

Alison and Bruce quickly pack and it is quite dark by the time they drive down from the knoll onto the road back to the old homestead. Sue looks out the window and says they have stopped with their brake lights on. Later we look out the window and they are gone. We agree to talk on the two way radio in the morning to see what happens next.