Maleny to Darwin Day 1 - to Duaringa via Rockhampton

So, I left Maleny bound for Darwin on Saturday 17 January (this is being written a few days in arrears).  I say "I", but  more properly it's "we" as Jess had provided me a companion. 

You should just be able to make him out keeping an aloof eye on me from between the front seats.  You might also discern that the back seat was pretty well packed tight with some of Jess's belongings. 





She, being the kind soul that she is, had left me the whole of the front seat for my bag - though not the foot well.  That was allocated to the washing basket.








I'd debated with myself which route to take.  They all converge on Cloncurry and Mt Isa, but Maleny is positioned such that going via Dalby, Roma and so on makes equal sense with a route through Gympie and places more directly north.  I went for the latter on the grounds I had been on the Warrego Highway a few years ago.

Off I went and I must confess the first few hours on the Bruce Highway were tedious. I got up to the Bundaberg region, and that was tedious, then Gladstone and Rockhampton where I stopped for fuel. All very ho-hum. 




I had stopped off for a break near Gin Gin.  A Jeff Seeney election car was there and I'm ashamed to confess that, depending on your sympathies, I neither polished his windscreen nor let his tyres down.  Sorry.



There's massive building of elevated roadways at Rockhampton, and surely flood waters would never reach that high ... well I think the entire east coast would be submerged if they did!  No photos I'm afraid. Too busy driving.

From Rockie I headed west on the Capricorn Highway.  Now this is what it's all about.  The traffic petered out after Westwood -  50 or 60 km out of Rockhampton - and I had the road to myself much of the time and was able to just sail along. 

What I had not expected were the coal trains, quite a lot of them and very long ones.  The line is electrified as far as Emerald and appears to serve mainly the needs of coal.  I was very struck by how clean they all were: the implication I read was the effect of environmental concerns.

I'd hoped to reach Blackwater by dusk but when I got as far as Duaringa I called it a day - 700 km seemed far enough.  There was a pleasant looking motel with a sign on the door directing potential inmates to the adjacent servo.  Having paid my money and received a key I made it into the room just in time to beat the torrential rain that descended for about half an hour before stopping and wandering off elsewhere.

For some reason I felt tired and slept really, really well.