17^th– 18^th June

Emerald
Showground's! We drove into Emerald intending to camp at the free-campsite on
the river near the center of town. This turned out to be the carpark for the
Botanic Gardens, under a rail bridge and beside the main highway to Gladstone.
It was on a slope, and it was packed with about 40 RV’s and vans.

 

We opted for the Showground’s which provide power, water, toilets and great hot showers for $15
per night. We set camp, had some lunch and went shopping, but at about 3pm Nick

called to say he had arrived at the caravan. Never known Nick to be early in
his life, but things change…..apparently!

 

It was great to see Nicko. He looked well and was looking forward to doing a weeks mustering on
a friends property at Clermont, however, after that he needed a new job. Almost
timed to perfection he received a call for a position as property gardener/station-hand he had applied for that morning. Yes thank you, he got the job, on the largest property in Queensland, Davenport Downs, large and very remote….about a 4 hour drive SW from Winton! This sounded like good news and Nick was really happy.

 

The next couple of days was taken up with organizing a bulbar, driving lights and UHF radio for
his Triton 4WD ute. We decided to have a meal at the local Irish Pub which is
both large and very Irish, but, though Nick was in his best T-shirt and boots,
we were invited to dine elsewhere due to dress code violations! That night he
threw the swag on the ground under our awning and the next morning he was off
again…till we meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but enjoy and be
safe Nick.



The next day we had a daytrip out to Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale where they find….you guessed it, Rubies and Sapphires, and that’s what Evi did, she found a couple of small
Sapphires when we went panning. Who says Roscoe doesn’t know how to show a girl
a great time?