Sat, 23rd Sept, 2023 Granite Creek Rest Area, south of Miriam Vale to Rest Area, Ban Ban Springs, Qld (Brian’s birthday)

16.7 degrees at 6.30am. Birds and traffic started earlier!

A few clouds about and breezy. Will ring Brian for his birthday later when we are with Terry. Received an email back from Carinna, daughter of Terry Geck in USA who is the founder of Stagecoach Sauces. Maralyn had noticed it. Lovely message from her and glad to see if there is any family connection. Her aunt Joyce has done the family tree so I will try and get in contact with her to find the family connection. Sent the email on to Maralyn and David too.

We headed off - more clouds as we near Bundaberg. Very dry here so no need for the mower man but Churches of Christ are looking after him and instead of the mowing they have cleaned windows and anything else he needs a hand with which is great.

Steve got to work on the broken exhaust bracket - Terry has a welder so he was able to modify it so that should fix the problem.

Had a cuppa and rang Brian for his birthday. The wind has picked up. Terry said it was very strong yesterday. Not going to help our fuel economy if we have to push into this as we head south.

Terry and I continued chatting while Steve continued with his repairs. He also changed the breather again in the fuel filler section so hopefully we will have no more problems in filling up.

Everything fixed so we had lunch with Terry then headed off. First to the service station - yeah it filled up easily though we were nearly blown over by the strong wind. Around to the dump point then back on the road towards Childers.

Turned off towards Biggenden. A new road to mark on our map though Steve remembers coming along this road in his younger days coming down to Woodgate when they were living at Mitchell.

Windy road through hills and grazing land. Nice view of Mt Walsh as we near Biggenden.

Pulled into the rest area at Ban Ban Springs for the night. There is water is bubbling up and flowing this time.

When we were here in Jan 2021 it was dry but the Bottle Tree had leaves.

We drove back around to a grassy area beside the waterhole and set up camp. As I followed Steve down to look at the water I commented about watching out for snakes in the grass and Steve spotted a shiny black one under the tree. The snake quickly went under the leaves so we went back to the camper and closed the door!

Bit cool outside so had our drinks inside and early shower as I think it is going to be a bit chilly tonight.