STILL CHILLING IN EMERALD -

We did have a quite day at home on the Wednesday in Emerald.  Steve wanted to do a few modifications on a few things he had made for the trip.  It gave me a chance to catch up on a bit of blogging, and rearrange the van to make it more comfortable and liveable as we were pretty much just shoving stuff in the van to get going just before we left Rocky.   After lunch, Ian, Kathy and I went for a visit out to Fairbairn Dam and Maraboon Lake, whist Steve finished off a project he was working on at home.  It is quite a while since I have been out here, and it has changed quite a bit.  It is a massive Lake, three times the size of Sydney Harbor, and contains 5 times the volume of water. 

 This gives you some idea of the spillway of the dam.  If you look closely you can see men and vehicles down there.  There is a lot of work happening here at the moment.  You can see why Emerald floods when they have a lot of rain and the dam is full.  There are no flood gates on this dam.

 There was plenty of bird life out here as well, and the birds all seem a little tame as you were able to get up real close to photograph them

 More views of the dam

 We wandered around and read all the plagues

 This was one of the many dams built in Queensland during Joh Bjelke-Petersen's day.  As difficult as manyt people thought a Premier he was, there was no denying that he got a lot of things happening for Queensland in his day.

 The views were pretty spectacular from up here... and there were some lovely picnic tables and barbecues that could be used for family picnics...

 After our visit out here we headed back to the Bray's to pick up Steve as we wanted to head into town to get a few things.  Ian and Kathy were chasing some brighter LED lights for their van,  Steve had a few things he wanted to get at Supercheap....

We were all meeting Karen in at the Neighbourhood Centre for their weekly dinner with some of her clients.  We needed to be there by 6pm, so we had about 45 minutes to  kill, so went for a drive around Emerald, checking out the Botanic Gardens.  We went for a drive past my sister and brother-in-law's home, and then it was time to head back to the centre for dinner...

We had a lovely evening talking to some of the less fortunate than ourselves.  I am sure they were glad to have us there.  I was also very impressed with the Ambulance out in Emerald.  If they are not out on a job, they volunteer their time, helping service these guys and bagging up bread and groceries for them.  They love it because it gives them a chance to also give back to the community.

We had a lovely evening with everyone and we were ready to head home around 8pm.
We have so loved our stay with Pete and Karen and family, and although we are keen to continue our travels we will really miss them.