The rain stopped and it looked like it would be a while
before the next round so we thought that we would head to Yowah (opal
territory….again) via Quilpie.

It takes a little over 2 hours to complete the 210k’s to
Quilpie, we didn’t need to hurry – every road to the south of Quilpie was
closed and nobody knew for how long. We spent the Saturday and Sunday nights
staying and waiting to see what would happen with the roads, the good thing was
that the caravan park wasn’t crowded, and bad thing, it was cool thanks to the
southerly breeze. Plenty of traditional caravan park entertainment to be had
over the 2 nights – you know the sort, big vans  in, tired people driving from Birdsville and
tight caravan spots.

Sunday was Fathers Day so Jo took me out for breakfast at
one of the cafes in town – sorry, let me do that again.

Sunday was Fathers Day so Jo took me out for breakfast at the
one cafe in town. Very nice it was too!

We drove the 4ks out to Baldy Top Lookout. On the way out and
on the edge of town we passed a young woman jogging her way out. If you have
been to Baldy Top before, you used to be able to drive half way up (years ago
we did and had lunch half way but did not walk to the top). These days there is
also great day use area (where the ferals camp). At Baldy Top they have removed
the road to go up and now you need to
walk up the base slope, up the steps to the seat which is where we parked in
the past, Jo and I had a rest on the seat before exploring the top (which was
easy to walk up from there). After checking the views we came back to the seat
just as the woman jogged into the car park – 6 times she ran up and down the
steps, it was lucky that we were sitting down I tell you! She completed the
steps and then ran around the base before heading back to town.

To round the day off – we spent an hour or so in one of the
artesian spa’s in the caravan park before dinner.

We gave up heading to Yowah and headed back towards
Charleville before turning off at Cheepie onto the 150k’s of dirt down to
Cunnamulla. About a 100k’s out we did take the turn off to Eulo thinking that
some time there would be good, but before we had gone 2k’s we found that on
this road there was no bridge over the flooding Paroo river. Stopping on the muddy but ok
road, it was a bit of a long reverse with van to dry ground. All in all, It was
a great drive, we only saw 2 cars all day.. Refuel at Cunnamulla (219.9cpl)
before stopping in a camp about 30k’s further down the road – heading south.

We have never seen so much water beside and occasionally over
the road. From Charleville to Quiplie to Cunnamulla and beyond there was always
water next to the road – to get off the tar meant finding the right spot to do
it. With wet weather coming from the south west it seems that it was pushing us
back to the east….

We decided that we did not want to cross the border just yet!