At last a rest day, Sunday was a long hot day and I was feeling very weary.   Our hosts John and Robyn have welcomed us to stay as long as we like!!!! John did say we would be charged rent after the 1st week.

During the morning Potts, Rita and myself  were invited to join the CWA meeting here in Calliope.  After listening to Potts and myself talk about the walk we enjoyed a delicious morning tea. We said goodbye to Rita this afternoon, so sad to see people leave who have shared their lives, food and love with us in close community. Rita had brought a wonderful lamb roast with all the trimmings potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and peas to be cooked by Potts in his special camp oven. A great big thanks to Rita, we all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially John with the shank . Also thanks to Kim for preparing the veggies and a wonderful pavlova for afters.  Thanks also to Kim, Liz and Piet for painting our banners, they really look great.  I was early to bed (again) this time in a BED complete with air conditioning.

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No Stars this morning, the sky was overcast but that meant we had cloud cover for a lot of the morning and that makes walking much more pleasant. Last night was Sheree’s first experience of camping out and she was very excited to be walking. I was pleasantly surprised at the pace we were able to walk. Adele had earned a few blisters on her feet the day before but with the help of band-aids she soldiered on with no complaints.  After about 12 klms Sheree was feeling exhausted, then Adele spotted a beautiful running creek.  We left the trolley beside the road to let the guys know where we were, then struggled through the long grass, stripped off and soaked in the wonderful cool running water. The guys stopped and waved to us from the bridge then continued on to set up camp. This revived us all and Sheree was able to continue on till the next break. After food and a good rest, Potts and Bindi joined us in the last 5 klms  That night we were joined by my friend Di and her husband Bill from Brisbane , Kim and Rita from Brisbane,  Peit from Kin Kin and once again Liz, she just cant stay away.  Di quickly set up (on the esky) a pre dinner snack, cheeses, dips, dried tomatoes, fetta and olives.  While we were enjoying that Di then put a huge pot of beef and veg stew to heat, along with garlic bread. All this as we sat, some in chairs, others on mats and cushions in this beautiful country side, and watched the sun set in the west. After dinner with now three guitars, we all enjoyed a singsong, the first being the song Liz wrote for us about the walk. A few of us then retired to listen to the music as we fell asleep.

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This morning’s walk was so beautiful. There was a mist in the valley and as the sun rose, the glistening dew on the still tall grass was amazing.  Patches of spider webs were highlighted with drops of dew and flickering sunlight through the trees. It was another morning where I felt so privileged to be walking through this special great land.

Leaving Banana late (5.30) after a thick shake at the truckstop for breakfast, we experienced our worst day ever for traffic.  There was virtually no verge on the road and the cars and trucks were continuous. Bright lights and most not slowing down when approaching us made it a scary hour of walking.  They were all heading to the coal mine at Moura. Other than that the 22klms walk was pretty uneventful, Potts, Bindi and I made good time and Liz bought the backpack to our campsite and stayed the night with us.

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Today I began walking at 3.30am as I had earlier calculated a 35klms walk to Banana. The night before Jim had said it was only 28Klms but I had already set the alarm and was so glad I did.  I had been walking for over an hour when I saw a sign 30klm to Banana which meant it was 35klm in total.  I powered on thinking if I had to I would stop at 11am till 5pm, if I was late for the 5.30 gathering so be it.  As it happened, it was overcast all day, with showers of rain, not enough to be a bother, and I soon dried off.  I received lots of support from passing motorists, rested every few hours and arrived at the roadhouse at 11.30am. What a walk, I felt really happy with myself.

Guess what, another 4.30 start and one of the locals Claire just happened to be driving to Rockhampton today offered to bring Potts’ backpack to our pre arranged camping spot 25 klms out of Theodore. As it was Potts’1st day of walking for a week it was a real gift to not have to carry his pack.  This worked well for the first 3 hours the Potts began to have more leg problems. Claire stopped as she was passing and kindly took Potts the rest of the way.  It was hot and steamy so I was very happy to lay down under the very shady trees in Jim’s yard.  Potts greeted me with “ I knew you were nearly here, I’ve been checking on you”  Apparently the men driving the cattle trucks on the farm had been relaying my progress through their CBs  .Jim and his 3 brothers run the property, the other men live close by with their families. Jim was a real darling, invited us to have dinner with him, and he cooked us steak on the BBQ with steamed veggies.  We finished the meal and I went to bed while Potts and Jim had a good chinwag.

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Wow! A rest day, first one for nearly 2 weeks.  A sleep in, washing clothes  and a sausage sizzle for lunch with the locals. Nine people came along to enjoy a shared meal and we listened to their concerns about the coal and gas industries. Afterward we packed up and moved in to Ann’s home closer to where we were to start in the morning and also as there had been predicted storms during the night. The other exciting news is yesterday I received a phone call from Jane in Canberra to tell me I had a meeting with UNESCO on the 7th March. Whacky do, not that I’ll get a chance to say much as there are 8 other people from environmental groups and only one hour to all have our say. Just to be included is significant recognition of our walk and I am thrilled.

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There’s something very refreshing about getting into the tent at night knowing that the only thing to do the next day is get up, get dressed and walk. We were up and away before 4.30am and out to the drop off spot within 15 minutes. How quickly the distance goes by in the car! Knowing we only had 20km to cover this day, June and I set a cracking pace back towards town and despite my heavily taped heels (I had developed some slightly worrying blisters the day before), were soon into the swing of the walk.

After a long drive from Brisbane arriving about 9.30pm Nomes was up and ready to be on the road by 4.30am.  It had been a cool night, I put on my thermals for the 1st time,  so the early start was a bit coolish. Nomes was in stride in no time and we set a fast pace from the start, sometimes in excess of 5kms hour. Dawn broke and Nomes experienced her first, not so spectacular dawn (because of cloud cover) but very special nonetheless.  We had cloud cover most of the way which was great and helped us power ahead.  For me the time passed quickly as Nomes and I found many similar interests to talk about. We had left Potts and Bindi to pack up camp and he caught up with us at 8.30am and cooked us our usual breakfast of oats and tea. Over breakfast Potts suggested he drive into Theodore and set up camp, then shuttle us back out the next day as we had done in Taroom.  That meant we would be in one place for 3 nights as Sunday was a rest day. We covered 27kms by 11am which left us both exhausted but very happy to be in Theodore and able to enjoy a great thick shake and the rest of the day off.   Ann and Lorriane our Theodore supports had both been in touch, but because we were in a day early and they were busy with billets from Wavell Heights School Band (who were putting on a concert Saturday night) would meet us the next morning. We went to the local IGA then spent a leisurely afternoon in the free camping grounds (with hot showers) – yay.

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