Monday 31 Dec 2018

The social in the camp kitchen last evening was good fun AND I learned of another great rail trail that I am going to follow a week or so from now. This one goes from Kilkivan to Kingaroy, and I’ll connect to the BNT again at Nanango. It will be a great diversion and 0 – 2% grades, who can pass that up! The other trail trail I was already planning on following will be a few days later, from Blackbutt to Esk, which is a portion of a trail that runs from Yarraman to Ipswich.

It’s a leisurely start to the day with the post office not opening until 11:00. So I wandered around town a bit, to the site of the old copper smelting operation, and I also found a Lions Christmas Cake at McKay’s Store, the last one they had! I’ve been looking for the past couple of weeks but they were sold out everywhere. So now I possess 1.5 kg of solid energy food! Then read my book for a bit and had my last leftover beer from the 6-pack I got yesterday. Why not, I’m only going 29 kms today to the Burnett River crossing.

Old stamp mill, I think, beside the little museum (closed)

All the bells and whistles

So there I was at the PO at 11:00, as well as a nice lady whom I had a good yarn with while waiting. But, guess what! At 11:30 they were still not open and a passerby told us then that they wouldn’t open at all today, nor tomorrow of course, it being New Year. So I decided to move on anyway and call them in a couple of days to have the parcel redirected. Since I’ll be in Biggenden tomorrow there isn’t anything really essential I need from my box of goodies.

It was a really easy day, about 30k with no difficult bits at all, to the Mingo caravan park where I had a can of Coke and a bag of chips,

but where I would NOT stay! However, a bit further on the other side of the river was this lovely spot.

At 15:00, after a swim and a cup of tea, I was still the only one there. Let’s keep it that way.

Total: 36k 2:15h 225m+ 345m-