Emerald, Queensland

Monday morning saw us have a bit of a sleep in before saying goodbye to Carnarvon Gorge. We had a dusty trip back out to Carnarvon Highway as we ended up behind a road train hauling cattle. Part of the Outback experience; and we guessed they were heading for Roma as the Stock Sales are on Tuesday. Eventually he let us by and we were able to proceed dust free the rest of the way to the highway.

We had a good trip into Rolleston from there, where we stopped at a lovely park. Able to empty the loo at the dump point and catch up on some email. Enjoyed our morning tea before moving on towards Springsure where we filled up with diesel. Had a lovely mountain backdrop just out of town where we stopped for a quick photo session. Mount Zamia and the Virgin Rock!

Arrived at Higher Ground Home Stay just after lunch. This is a farm for  self-contained vehicles where drinking water is supplied for $7/night. A power site is available for $15 but power point locations are limited. We chose the non powered option with a bit of shade. No Amenities so no rating. Sorry girls! We got settled in before taking a drive to view the Fairbairn Dam and Lake Maraboon. Quite a nice area but again has been negatively affected by the government selling to private enterprise. Many areas are no longer accessible to the public which is sad because would have been some great camping areas. Still has a nice picnic/day use area with boat launch and swimming area. The water looked quite brown/dirty unfortunately.

Took a bit of an exploration drive around the property on our return. Has a labyrinth  of trails through the bush down to the river.  We followed them as they got more and more narrow, much to Sandra's delight!  I did forget I had the caravan mirrors on at one point which almost led to a bit of an incident. Luckily the screaming of my calm & professional navigator alerted me to the situation just in time!
We returned to the campsite and tried to keep cool in a shady spot.

Tuesday morning we took a drive into Emerald to do a bit of sightseeing/shopping. Our first stop was the Visitor Centre where we caught up on some Internet/email before they opened. Sandra was able to get a few quick phone calls in as well. The Visitor Centre had a huge Van Gogh painting of "Sunflowers" behind it with a mosaic walkway outlining the history of Emerald. Interestingly the painting was done by a Canadian artist?? Stopped for a quick Photo op at the Rail Station which was beautiful. We then did a bit of shopping at Woolies/Coles prior to a nice Pub Lunch. We did a walk around the Botanic Gardens prior to returning to the campsite. They were a bit disappointing as didn't appear to be maintained very well. The afternoon was very hot at 37 so we struggled a bit without air conditioning. We managed to get a bit of shade and used our 12 volt fan to try and keep cool. A hot night with an early bed time, as we were planning an early start Wednesday morning. Will be one of our longer day trips with almost 500 Km to Charters Towers.