Road Block!

We were packing up the caravan ready to leave when a sweet man gave us some travelling advice. He told us that the way we were planning on going had some BIG hills to climb and he suggested that we take the slightly longer, but flatter route via Blackwater. In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have listened to him. However we did get to make a few new friends along the way. Let me explain:

Nice, flat countryside to drive through

We were really glad we had listened to the man; the new route was a much nicer drive. Our poor old car is not coping with the weight of the caravan very well and she hates going over steep hills. In fact we are waiting for the day when she stops and starts to roll back down the way we came. So the route via Blackwater was much flatter and was a very pretty drive.

Not enough excitment to keep Zac awake!

All was going well until we came across a road block between Blackwater and Emerald. A full cattle truck had rolled over and was blocking the entire road. The driver had been air-lifted to hospital and there was a huge mess to clear up. The road wasn’t going to be opened for hours!

HUGE road trains though!

Luckily there was a good rest stop right by the road closure, next to the Blackwater Coal Information Centre. We turned the car and caravan around and parked out the front. The boys were very impressed by the HUGE coal bucket off one of the mining trucks. It was on display and it wasn’t until we were inside it that we really grasped how big it was.

We went into the Information Centre and had a look around at the mining models. Zaccy wanted desperately to climb into the display cases and play with all of the miniature coal mining equipment.

The displays that Zaccy wanted to play in

We had a wander around the beautiful Japanese gardens located out the back of the mining centre. The boys loved all the little bridges, paths, ponds and statues.

Passing the time in the Japanese Gardens

While we were waiting to hear news about the road closures we found a small play area for the kids. There was another family who were also trying to use the play area to entertain their two kids. We had already been there for about 2 hours and we were all starting to get the feeling that the road would be closed all night.

The coal trains were so long! We counted 70 carriages on one train.

We got chatting to Bronwyn and Gavin and their two boys, Jeremy and Liam. They had just begun their journey around Australia and had left their home in NSW only a week earlier. We were happy to share tips and advice and we all started sharing stories and getting to know each other. The kids were all getting along really well which made the wait much more pleasant.

It was starting to get late so we decided to see if there was any place to set up camp for the night. I had asked around and was told that the local council is very strict about no camping in the rest stop, and – road blockage or not – they would be around to fine anyone who broke the rules.

We decided to see if we could sneak through the road block and turn off to a Weir, about 20ks north off the hwy. After sweet-talking the guys holding the stop-sign, we headed through and made it to Bedford Weir before it got dark.

Another beautiful sunset

The Weir is a great little campground. It is free with hot showers, lots of open grassed spaces and plenty of friendly people. Bronwyn and Gavin had followed us to the weir so we spent that night talking over a few drinks. It turned out that we were heading in the same direction and had planned the same stop-overs, so we decided to travel together for a while.

The next morning we received news that the road was re-opened, so after a walk down to the Weir we headed off to our next destination.... The Gemfields to find our fortune!!!

My boys and their new friends

The Weir was very full!