Day 2 - Toowoomba to Injune: 453 kms

When I put the tent up it was a calm warm afternoon. The ground was pretty hard so I didn’t bother with too many pegs or guy ropes. As the sun went down the temperature plummeted and the wind started. The result was that for the night I was not really cold but not really warm either and my flappy tent flopped and flapped in the wind. So I did not have a good night.

I got up early this morning and used the luxury of the ensuite bathroom to have a cup of rooibos followed by my usual breakfast of bacon, egg and sausage with coffee. Then I hit the road and was leaving Toowoomba by 8am. The road from Toowoomba to Roma is not very exciting and it is riddled with roadworks and ridiculous speed limits for road works that aren’t there. But I reached Roma by 12:30, filled up with fuel (cheaper than Brisbane), pulled into the shade of a tree and had my snack lunch.

The temperature, which in the middle of the night had been 11C (feels like 9C) was by lunch time 39C and after lunch driving north it rose to 41C. Along the road signs had warned that Fire Danger was rated at Extreme. When I arrived in Injune, my night stop, there was a pall of smoke just outside town. I found my preferred camp site but decided to just sit and relax before establishing camp. A policeman arrived and told the few of us who were there to leave and wait in the town till they had put the fire out. It was very hot and boring sitting around doing nothing. Eventually they reopened the road so I came back and established my camp. There is no internet signal here so I’ll try and upload it when I get somewhere there is. If you never read it it’s because I’ve been burned to a crisp in the night!