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I know well from many years of travelling with Majella that once we turn toward home there is no holding her. I had thought of deviating on our way from Charleville to Toowoomba but realised there would be no chance of holding her so our plan was set.

True to form for a day when we were heading for home, Majella was up and moving early. She was at the wheel and had left the van park before 7:00 am but it took about 15 minutes to get out of Charleville. Majella recalled that yesterday she had seen a sign about the 1990 flood thanking volunteers. Jane was among those while a high school student in Toowoomba so Majella wanted a photo of the sign but was not sure exactly where she had seen it. We drove out to the Cosmos Centre and around that area, eventually finding and photographing the sign before leaving town.

The road east ran first through plains similar to what we had seen yesterday but as we approached Morven there were some hills and that continued until we passed Mitchell. From there it was generally flat but as we approached Roma we began to see more cultivation replacing grazing. By the time we reached Dalby it was almost all cultivation with just a few cattle visible here and there.

Around 9:00 am we reached Mitchell. It was time to change drivers and, despite it not being time for lunch or morning tea, we had to try the pies at the Mitchell Bakery recommended by Bob Whittaker. They were good pies.

I drove from Mitchell, through Roma and on. We stopped again to have coffee in the van and change drivers at Dulacca.

As Majella drove on east, I searched Google for locations where I could get our gas bottle refilled. There are plenty of places that do ‘swap and go’ but the cylinder in the van had a special valve and could not be exchanged. Luckily there is a website for that and it indicated places that did refills, including a Camping World store in Dalby. The man there hefted our cylinder and wondered if we had used any gas at all. We had not used much and he was kind enough to weigh it before and after filling and charge for the gas he added rather than a flat fee.

I drove on from there to Toowoomba. By the time we reached there, fuel was running low. We filled the tank on the way across town and were home before 3:30 pm. Jane was there and Hannah and the kids dropped round to see us and the van on their way home from school. Tomorrow we drop the van back to Brisbane.