St. George, Queensland

February 11, 2009

The road south wasn’t as bad was we thought with only one section under water. With our little rental car we have virtually no ground clearance. The local trucks all can do at least three feet since when it rains here every other kilometre on the road is a “floodway”. Translated that means that the government doesn’t want to build culverts or bridges so it is simpler to just let the water run over the road. Since it doesn’t rain that often it is a compromise that most people can live with.

About two hours out of Springsure the rain stops and we leave the clouds behind. The land starts to open up with vast landscapes on either side. Sometimes there are fences and huge (500+ acres) cultivated fields and sometimes there are just grass and trees. It looks like an African savannah. The only thing missing is the elephants.

We wanted to do something in Springsure before we left the area as there were some cool sounding gorges and walks “nearby”. In that part of Australia nearby is often only 30, 40 or 60 kilometres away which isn’t that bad. What was bad is that many of the gravel roads are impassable to a vehicle like ours after a rain. This is not the tourist season around here. Everyone waits until there is less heat and less rain. When we got to St. George we found out that the temperature was 41C (106F) two days before. For us they lowered it to 30C or so. Nice of them.

Found an interesting winery in St. George and spent an hour doing the wine/port tasting (it was a slow day). We tried all the reds and then all the whites and then some liquors and then the port. While we were doing this customers would come in and ask for the FGP port. Having tried all the port, and not having seen one like named that, we asked. It seems that the owner had one label for the tasting room (St. George Port) and another one for the regulars. If I can get a picture up of it I will but, just in case I can’t, then be sure to ask for the “Fucking Good Port”.

We don’t pass through many towns. Some are a few buildings while others are big regional hubs with 2,000 people or so. The stations that we see on the side of the road are only known by their mailboxes.