Nogoa River to Emerald

I packed up early today, and was really glad I had when it started raining before I’d reached the gate to the park, which is only a few kilometres away. The road to the park is about 14kms, then it joins the Cungelella Road which is 65kms long and has about six stations on it. There’s only one more station after the park road leaves it. So I was somewhat surprised to watch a road train pass in front of me as I neared the intersection. As it had three trailers, and you tend to stay in the centre of any dirt road, there was no way I was going to be passing it for the next sixty kilometres, so I stayed well behind and enjoyed the view. There wasn’t much dust because of the rain. When we reached the development road, there was another road train which had stopped just before the intersection, and my road train stopped behind it. Obviously the Mount Vexation Station was destocking. Both road trains were full. They must have started work really early to get all the stock on. I’d left the campground by 8:00am (so it wasn’t much later), and sunrise was at 6:52am. They’d be stopping often to keep the cattle in good condition.

I realised that the developmental road was in much poorer condition than Cungelella Road. Not that the developmental road was at all bad, but the Cungelella Road has been really smooth, with no corrugations or rocks.

My journey back to Springsure was uneventful, although it was nice to be driving through such pleasant surroundings another time. When I reached Springsure, I went back to Staircase Range to find the turnoff to the place where a Chinese road gang had hand cut a road cutting in the 1800s. Then I stopped at the Virgin Rock viewing area on my way to Emerald. Evidently the Virgin Rock looked just like a picture of the Virgin Mary holding her child to the first Europeans here, but it’s eroded a lot since then, so it’s difficult to see anything. The Eclipse lookout I visited a few days ago is just above it and it was interesting to see where I’d been from a different perspective.

Emerald is quite a big town, so I spent the afternoon resupplying stuff, washing clothes and generally getting ready for the next part of the trip. It’s only 10kms from the Tropic of Capricorn, so I’m now in the tropics. For the next few days I’ll be travelling along the Tropic of Capricorn and the Capricorn Highway.

I decided to plan this trip so I was driving no more than four hours a day, and I like the flexibility this gives me. I can decide to stay in a place and see more the next morning, or stop for some time on the way, or get somewhere early and spend more time there.