Day 91 – Monday 18^th October 2021 – 111 Km

Out of bed early & the weather looks a little threatening, a quick check on the radar shows that rain is heading our way. As I boil the kettle & toast the bread on the gas I start packing & getting the van ready to depart. Tereza starts packing & cleaning inside as well. Just as well, we just get all packed ready to leave & the first raindrops start to wet us as we get into the car, really good timing.

As we turn south onto the Bruce highway the rain gets a little heavier then lightens a little as we turn off into the town of Calliope. After that brief respite we get a little out of town & the heavens open, the rain gets very heavy with lightening & thunder. We slow right down with water pooling & running over the road, we are only travelling at between 60 & 70 kilometres/hour. I pull over to let a large truck & car pass by then pull back out & follow them. Then the hail starts, light at first then heavy, again I slow down even more before the hail thankfully passes & it is just heavy rain, a tropical downpour. We seem to dodge a few more storms that are looming & by the time we get to Mount Alma the rain has stopped & there is a bit of blue sky.

The road is dry & as we pass by Mount Murchison we see giant piles of mine tailings from the huge coal mines that are near here feeding the three Callide power stations. We pulled into Biloela around 10.30am & found the local shopping centre then pulled up in a nice quite street behind it, we needed to restock our grocery supplies. Woolworths is large & after our shopping we walk back to the Karavan & put the groceries inside. It looks like it may rain so we go back into the shopping centre, have a coffee with an early lunch of kebabs. Afterwards we wander down the street to the local camping store looking for some special soluble toilet paper. They didn’t have any, no-one had ever asked for it, I was the first.

We walk back to the car & go looking for a caravan park to stay a couple of nights, we find one close by & they have a spot so we drive in & set up. Just in time, as we finish setting up it starts to rain heavily, then light hail, then heavy hail, then lightening & thunder. We sit inside as a couple of storms roll through. Around 4pm it all starts to clear & Tereza makes a nice cuppa for us with a special mint chocolate treat.  We played cards for a while.

Our van has an ensuite shower & toilet for our personal use so we both take the luxury of a nice hot shower before dinner.  It is shear luxury after 2 days of bush camping by the river, where we had no showers.  Dinner is some fresh monster prawns in fresh bread rolls with some Tartare Sauce, simple but oh so yummy. More storms roll through, not as severe as previous ones thankfully. Another great day.