July 31st

Sculptured Bottle or Boab Tree

 The morning was cold at -1 deg. With this in mind we have decided to travel in an easterly direction for a few days instead of south toward Victoria. The forecasts for NSW and our home state are for severe weather particularly wind and rain. Even though the evenings are cold here in southern Queensland the days are sunny and quite warm.

We enjoyed Roma with its streets lined with Boab Trees. When we reached Miles and visited the Information Centre there was a metal sculptured Boab tree in the garden. The trunk was rounded as in real Bottle tree and the branches held a bottle on the end...I thought it was very inventive. My photo is not so great though!

The country today has been much dryer in appearance. Roadside trees of wattle, eucalypts and Prickly Pear continue. In fact the Prickly Pear we have seen today are the size and shape of a small tree.

Royal Spoonbill

From Miles and Chinchilla we continued east and then across country, so to speak, to Lake Broadwater where we have camped with a lovely clear view of the water. There are a few water birds including Pelicans and  4 of the most beautiful Royal Spoonbills.  These are quite large birds with a very long black bill with a spoon on the tip of it. The roads to reach this idealic spot are bitumen but are dangerously rough in some sections where the black soil has sunk.

We expect a cold night because of the clear sky and lack of any breeze.