August 20, 2021
Around The Water
Coolmunda Dam
As a child on a cattle property in western Qld, my growing years were shaped by water or its absence. Brief years of flood and good fishing were in counterpoint to years of brutal drought. We pumped our water from stinking diminishing holes in a river turning to dust, dotted with the bones of animals that bogged and died.
That slightly macabre introduction is by way of explaining why I still thrill at the sight of water running in a creek or a dam brimming over. The sea is ok but give me an inland watercourse with a blue wren in the undergrowth, a storm of wild budgies in the sky, and a pelican 800km from the coast and my heart will sing. Which is why when we found this camping spot at Greenup Meeting Place, on the banks of Coolmunda Dam outside Ingelwood, we ended up staying for quite a few 'just one more day's.
Having a really good cafe right on site helped considerably as we settled into heavy-duty relaxing.
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This is meant to be a bike ride however, and although we still grieve the slow ride South that isn't excuse enough to ignore the bikes altogether. Well not for me anyway, so I took myself off on a little jaunt around the dam.
The ride was perfect. The weather was warm, but not too hot. The sun shone between showers of 'angels hair' (rain which falls but doesn't quite get to the ground), producing random rainbows. There was negligible traffic, the wattle bloomed brightly, and even when I had to spend 3km on the highway I was bothered by only two trucks.
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Back at camp in the evening, after sacrificing ourselves for a pot of tea and hummingbird cake, we built a fire in preparation for cooking our tea. Right on cue, along came Shelley, the owner of Greenup, on her evening rounds in her buggy.
"Hi guys!" She said, " I've brought some good wood for you! Let's get you a decent fire!" And before we could say "Thank you but we're planning to cook on these coals", she had built us a bonfire, cheerfully filled us in on the history of the river and how they had to dig it out to get water in the drought, and roared off to the next camp. Out of respect for her good intentions we waited until she had gone before pulling the fire apart and cooking/burning our pancakes on the now-too-hot coals. Although there could have been other reasons for the lack of pancake quality like lack of implements and the difficulty turning pancakes without melting our plastic spoon.
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Pancakes ingested, Shelley's good wood made a handy fire to keep the chilly night at bay while we tried unsuccessfully to identify which frogs we could hear.
Sadly, we leave Greenup tomorrow. We will have a few days of uncertain phone connection, so normal programming will resume when possible.
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 33 km (20 miles)
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