The trip is so nice that we have to refrain
from stopping and photographing everywhere,
as the plan is to go to the gemfields.
In the evening we see a remarkable
phenomena: a tree loaded with dark brown and
white butterflies. They try to sleep here
next to each other.
Since we got a ventilator on loan, we
experienced that as a brilliant idea.
In Roma we bought a ventilator for inside
the camper, and it is used almost
continually. It gives a nice fresh breeze.
Today we did drive from Roma to
Springsure, some 400 km. There seems to be
here opalised wood and other treasures. We
ask the gas station owner some information
and after he understands that we are really
interested he shows us his collection. He
tells that the nice pieces now are
underground and it is really too hot for
digging. We agree and we get as a present a
nice piece opalised wood. Further he advised
to look at the camping as sometimes people
collect it, but leave it here as it is too
heavy. And indeed, we found some nice stuff.
This saves us a day digging.
Around us are thunderstorms looming. The
radio warns of hailstone of 3 cm. These will
wreck your car! And as we have no insurance
that cover it, we are worried of course. In
the night he activity is increasing, no
second without multiple lightning strikes.
Thunderstorms pass both sides of us and we
get only rain and -lucky us- no hail.
The next morning we run again an hour. The
heartbeat meter is an interesting tool to
monitor the effort. In this high temperature
it takes half an hour struggling till you
get he 'runners high', that gives you the
feeling you can run the marathon. In this
phase the sustainable heart pulse is a nice
160 per minute. Though the heart pulse comes
down quickly after the run, you still soak
of transpiration some 20 minutes after. Then
a shower and this marks the finest hour of
the day.
There is abundant bird life in
Surespring. Many kinds of parrots, cockatoos
are flying around. The big white
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (cacatua galarita)
is ever present with his squeaky call. It
is a large cockatoo with a narrow yellow
crest that is raises and fans when exited.
Its plumage is mainly white with a yellow
wash under the wings. The call is a harsh
screeching.
After cooling down we
set off to the north. At first we
downloaded our emails in the village library
of Springsure we are leaving for The Central
Queensland Gemfields with telling names like
Emerald, Rubyvale and Sapphire.
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