Day 106 - 107 to Nanango

Sun's over there. I'm freezing over here.

 Day 106 Saturday 31st July, 2021 26.7km

2494.3 / 2604.6km

Day 107 Sunday 1st August 0km

Having spent a few hours relaxing the day before I had a plan worked out about how far I was going and how long it would be before I went through Blackbutt. So today I was going to walk to a camp just before Nanango at a public dipping facility then walk through Nanango tomorrow and then walk into Blackbutt the following day for resupply and rest. We had arranged for Blackbutt hardware to get the required gas cylinder for resupply.

Following the river

The walk starts out travelling a little further down the Brisbane River Valley before you turn up another road to climb a spur. This particular road up the spur reminds me of the Castle Hill Road in Townsville and I attack it the same way and plod my way on a seemingly never ending climb. I'm glad I don't see any cars coming down as it is narrow section of bitumen.

After a while it evens out and I'm on top a a range with the Brisbane River Valley on the left and can also see over to the west.

Climbed out of the Brisbane River valley

The track then heads along this ridge towards a national park or state forest and I can see Tarong Power Station in the distance. I pass by the state forest and the rural blocks are getting smaller and more civilisation as I drop down the range to the west. I was taking note of a seemingly endless line of discarded Bundaberg rum and coke cans on the side of the road as I came up the ridge and all the way to within about 7 kilometres of Nanango and have come to the conclusion it is the same person over many a trip probably going home. Looks like a 4 or 5 can trip. Multiply that by the 10 or so trips and you can get an idea of the number of cans I see along this section of road.

I drop down the range passing some more cattle properties and come to an intersection I need to take to climb back up and over into Nanango. I sit down here as I see the camp I want is on the road I am turning off and it's confusing me a little. But I see that I had misread the notes(again) and the camp is off trail by about 2 kilometres back down onto the Mt Lindsay Rd. So I decide to keep going down the road instead of turning.

A lot more blocks and then I come across the public dip that is a coue of kilometres outside Nanango. I can see I can camp here but there is a little graffiti sprayed about and as I'm looking at the water tanks I notice someone's been shooting holes in it. So the local hoons obviously come here to park up. Hope it's not tonight.

That's the Tarong Power Station in the distance

It was then I see a message come in that South East Qld is going into lockdown. Shit. I try and get hold of Belinda to get details. The last time this happened the caravan brigade dropped and stopped and there was nowhere for the likes of me to camp in places like Blackbutt and of course now we are much closer to the action. The zone of the lockdown includes the Lockyer Valley and after Blackbutt I head towards Esk and turn down into the valley to Murphy's Creek and Withcott. Trying to decipher what effect the lockdown will have on me over the next 4 days is hard so I decide to keep going the 4 kilometres into Nanango and pick up a room.

Looking west

Belinda found a room easy enough as there was a flurry of cancellations as people couldn't leave and I was the first of a wave of travellers stopping short and reassessing. I think the motel went from fully booked 12 rooms to only 2 rooms booked then back up to 10 rooms over the course of a couple of hours.

Mirkwood ?

3 day lockdown means: it will take a couple of days to get to Blackbutt but if it extends then I'm stuck as the trail heads into one of the LGA's that are in lockdown. I may be OK but it is a risk. If I have to stop, there is no guarantee on how long. We look at the possibility of Belinda's Dad picking me up and heading towards Hervey Bay for a week but if I go to Blackbutt he can't come out till Thursday meaning I will be stopped there for 4 days. If I stay I could ask him to come out Monday or Tuesday to Nanango meaning I stop here for one extra day. This is what is decided and it proved OK as the lockdown is extended and I can have a week off at Fred's place and see what happens. I book another night and relax.

Coming down towards Nanango

There is a bus service but it comes from Caboolture which is in the zone. After lockdown I can get back out here by public transport. NSW looks like a basket case who knows how I'm going to go getting across the border.

and walking into Nanango