Day 90 Toompine, Eulo, Cunnamulla, Bollon

 We awoke this morning to the sound of light rain falling on the roof of the Clipper. We packed up and headed over to the farmstay to say happy birthday to Adam, and have breakfast with the guests and Fiona and Adam. We had further chats with Renae and Michael, who are travelling and working as they do, and they are currently working at the farmstay. It’s always hard to say goodbye to Fiona and Adam, and today was no different. We know we will be back. The distance to get there, doesn’t seem as bad as it did the first time or when it’s not 45 degrees. We headed off and took the obligatory bus photo by the saw blade that marks the gate and that Juliet had painted back in 2013 on our first visit.

Winston and snickers the miniature Rottweilers 

The gate saw blade sign 

There was still light rain falling as we headed back to Quilpie to fuel up, before we headed to Toompine, the town that consists of a pub and that’s pretty much it. It’s known as the pub without a town, used to be a gold rush town but dwindled to the point of having just the pub. The pub has been restored and done up since we were there last. It was nice to visit and not break down outside of it, like we had twice in our old Scenicruiser in extreme heat. We always stop here cause the first time we broke down there, the Scenicruiser our old bus, broke a suspension part leaving the bus crabbing sideways down the road. It was 42 degrees and I needed to fix this before moving on. The only people at Toompine hotel were the publican and a cook. And he helped me realign the rear suspension by tying the pub Ute to the bumper bar of the bus, and driving away from it at 90 degrees and launching the bus sideways so I could bash a broken pin back into its proper place. Then weld it there to get us home. We spent 4 hours there in the heat that day, with the kids entertaining themselves by throwing rocks at a 44 gallon drum. Well kids sorry to tell you that they now have a playground, 12 years too late for us though. They let me shower there after fixing the bus and I shared it with 11 frogs.  🐸. Funny the things that stick in your head. So we always buy a drink there to say thanks again. 

 We headed on to Eulo, with plenty of the recently fallen rain in puddles beside the road. We spotted emus, and a few brolgas and goats. We stopped for lunch and then continued on towards Eulo. We checked out Eulo and Cunnamulla and did a walk around both towns to see the shops. Most of the shops in Cunnamulla were closed, and it was only 3.30pm in the afternoon. We continued on towards Bollon. 

With heavy cloud still around, the kangaroos seemed to be out earlier. I started hearing Matt saying 5, 10, 23, and I realised he was counting the Roos we had spotted. He had dropped speed, as there was also the occasional cow and goats with kids on the road too. By the time we reached Bollon, the roo count was 54. It was dark, so we pulled into the free camp ground and found a spot. It looks like they have done the area up, as there was lights alongside a footpath that led back up to the main street. We will check it out tomorrow, and see where the pub once stood (it sadly burned down in February this year). It was late, so we just cooked dinner and then got stuck into writing the blog.

The Bollon pub is another thing that sticks in my mind. In 2010 we did our first outback links volunteer placement in Bollon , and spent three weeks here on a farm 35k out of town. A great experience which led to many more in this end of Queensland. We spent New Year’s Eve 2010/2011 in the Bollon pub and it is the only pub that I have ever been in before or since where the punters left a $50 note on the bar as their tab, and each round would be taken from the money on the bar, and the change returned to the same spot for the next round as the bar staff knew everyone personally.  There was multiple piles of cash on the bar and I think I estimated about $450 on the bar at one point , then everyone went out the back to have dinner. Left the money on the bar, and no one was there. Mind you no one was on the street either cause everyone that was going out that night, was in the pub. All 12 of them. I think the publican drank more that night than anyone he served.  Interesting night that one…