He waxed lyrical about how beautiful this lake is and how it is a conservation refuge area for water birds and other wildlife such as kangaroos.  It is one of the few remaining areas where you can see the vegetation that was common to the Darling Downs before the area was settled.

It is apparently a lovely place for a picnic outing as the park is provided with tables,  barbecues and toilets on hand.  A perfect place to eat by the lake under the shade of the large blue and red gums.

And after you have eaten you can get a boating permit from the caretaker so that you can go out on the lake if you so desire.  The park is great for bird watching (of the feathered kind) especially from a hide at the neck of the lake.

You can even stay overnight at one of two camping areas - Lake Broadwater or Wilga Bush. Both areas have toilets and Lake Broadwater also has cold showers and picnic facilities along with caravan and motorhome parking.  Wilga Bush has fireplaces and a shelter shed.  You will need to get a camping permit before you arrive or if you forget, you can get one from the self registration station in the picnic grounds.

So by the time we driven along the 20 klms along Moonie Highway heading from Dalby to Tara, I am warming up to this visit to see the glistening waters and relax watching the birds wading etc.

Okay, we turn down the Lake Broadwater road and drive for another 10 klms and miss the turnoff to the lake.  So once we reach a closed gate over a stock bridge we realise we have come too far so we back track and see the sign to the boat ramp that we had missed on the way in.

We take particular not of the ‘Rules for Boating’

Here is a photo of the lake from the boat ramp.

Something of an understatement on this sign. Okay not likely to get my feet wet here. And althought there weren’t any water birds, there were plenty of kangaroos grazing.

In case you didn’t know we are currently in a drought situation, in fact nobody knows it better than me. I now live in rural Qld on a property in Tara and as we rely on tank water, I get up every day hoping it is going to rain.

Val assures me that when he last went to see Lake Broadwater it was full of water so I will go back after it rains and I am sure it will be beautiful.

We are in the process of moving from the beach in Brisbane to a rural area in Queensland which is a good 5 hour drive, although everyone tells me it is only 3-4 hours.

So we are off with the car trailer loaded up with stuff in the first of our moves. We are going to do this progressively a bit at a time.  Right! apart from the rain everything is going smoothly until we are on a down hill run, just around a blind bend, in between the towns of McClagen and Kaimkillenbun. In fact we are 24 klms from the latter, when there is a loud bang and the car swerves over into the wrong side of the road.  I heroically fight the  2 ton beast with its 3ton load back to the right side of the road and carefully bring it to a stop without flipping it.

Okay, let’s sit for a minute and let the adrenalin rush calm down. Now picture this - we are as I said just around a blind bend on a very narrow piece of tarseal that passes for a two way road in rural Qld, pulled off onto a very narrow dirt edge.

Yep, a blown tyre on the trailer.  While we are contemplating our predicament, a car pulls up and the occupants offer assistance.  Just as well really because it turns out that we don’t have the necessary equipment to remove the tyre.

The lovely couple to whom I am eternally gratefull, firstly for stopping and secondly for having all the right equipment, are Steve and Shirley from the far side of Tara. We live on the near side. Dalby being the measuring point.

Once the tyre is removed, it is determined that the wheel bearing has also done itself in. So there is no way we can hobble to the nearest one horse town in the hope of finding a mechanic. So I gingerly drive the car and trailer to the nearest safest spot where we are least likely to cause an accident.

By the way, mobile phones don’t work in this part of town.

Okay, we head off to the local pub in Kaimkillenbun to see if we can track down some help, but no, the mechanic is away camping, how selfish is he enjoying himself at holiday time while we are in this mess.

So there is nothing else for it but to head to Dalby, another 24 klms on. Off course by now it is getting on towards 5pm when the shops all shut and sure enough they have all closed early at 4:30pm because it is still holiday time. None of the three garages have what we need.  Val wants to just leave the trailer and carry on the further 88klms to home but I am a bit dubious about leaving our stuff on the side of the road where it will more than likely get knocked off.

Once we reach Dalby, where mobile phones do work, we make a quick call to our son who contacts some of our daughter in laws rellies and they get us a number of a fantastic chap who comes down and opens his store to provide us with the necessary items to fix the car.

Back to the car, in the middle of nowhere, and by now it is quite dark, so there we are, in the rain and poor Val is fixing the wheel bearing by torchlight.

Thank goodness Steve has left us a rag as the bearing has to be encased in gooey gunk. I of course have my trusty bottle of aquium hand cleaner which I never travel anywhere without. so clean up isn’t too bad.

We have a few hairy moments when Val is putting the brake pad back on but eventually everything is back to normal and we head off to Tara, finally arriving at 12:05am. So we have been on the road for 12 hours. A quick shower, cup of tea and everyone wearily hits the sack. 

Unfortunately, my camera was packed in the back of the car. However, this is not the first time this has happened to me.

We were travelling back from Tara to Brisbane and once again I had the car trailer with 3 motorbikes on board when a tyre blew out on the Land Cruiser. So much for retreads.  This was my first blowout and the family all said I handled it very well, I’m an old hand at it now. 

We stopped for lunch  at around 2:30pm at Wamuran and had the most delicious feed of fish and chips.  Then back on the road again and 4 cd’s later we arrived at Dalby.

I picked a change of pace for the music this time.  Usually my music consists of cd’s by Bollywood singers and the gorgeous Thai singer Tongchai MacIntyre, but this time we had Joan Armitrading, Warren Zevon, Elton John, Peter Blakely and The Delltones.  Val and I went to see The Delltones in concert on Saturday night at the Redcliffe RSL and  they were fantastic, in fact they were much better live than on the cd.  Usually it is the other way around, groups tend to be better on the cd than in concert.  Okay back to the story.

Once you leave Dalby for the final 88klm run to Tara, there are no street lights only reflectors on either side of the fairly narrow road. 

It starts to rain just out of Dalby and then in the distance we can see lightening and hear the loud claps of thunder. This storm is really dramatic, the rain is getting heavier and there are drifts of foggy mist adding to the problem of seeing the road. Of course Val, being a man, hasn’t figured out that you are able to slow down when you can’t see.  All the men in my household are speed freaks. 

As we take the turnoff to Tara, the sight is very dramatic as the whole skiy is lit up with lightening streaks travelling across the sky, usually the forks head down to the earth but as well as that, these streaks spread out across the sky parallel to the earth. The whole desolute area is lit up and it looks eerily bleak  and creepy reminding me of the movies ‘Wolf Creek’ and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (I’m a movie buff).

We finally reach our turnoff onto the muddy dirt road, full of water filled potholes. It doesn’t look as if the council have graded the road since we were last here in September.  The car and trailer slip and slide across the road which is like riding on marbles. fortunately we are the only ones silly enough to be out in this weather. “You can slow down, you know,”I venture to comment.  “I’m only doing 40klms “, is the retort.   So we continue to slip and slide all the way to our gate.

While we are driving up the dirt (mud) road I am thinking ‘What am I doing?”  Here I am a women who thinks roughing it means staying in a 3 star hotel and here I am on my way to a rustic cottage in the middle of nowhere with a 20klm drive to the nearest shop if you run out of milk, and 88klms to visit a shop that sells more than cow manure and gumboots. Maybe it’s good for my development.

So we arrive and finally get the car unpacked in the rain, settle down with a nice hot cup of tea and watch a couple of dvd’s before bedtime.  The rooms are full of spiders, moths mosquitoes and gecko’s. Hmmm, great, not so much nature at your back door as sleep with nature.

I lie there and listen to the heavy rain and thunder and watch the sky being lit up by the lightening and think that this is almost like a scene out of War of the Worlds and finally drift off to sleep.

Next morning we are up bright and early to a beautiful sunny (stinking hot) day. A total contrast to the night before.  The dam is nearly full which is great news, and the worms I put into the compost bin I started last time I was here, are still alive.  So everything is great with the world.

Now Tara is not a thriving metropolis,  however it is the main service centre in the shire and it has a population of around 900 people.  The Shire itself is spread out over 11,881 square kilometres and takes in Meandarra, Glenmorgan, The Gums, Moonie, Westmar, Inglestone, Hannaford and Flinton. There is a total shire population of approximatel 9000.

 There are a number of annual and bi-annual events such as theTara Festival of Culture, Camel Races, the National Sheepdog Trials, Shearing Championships, Rodeos, race meetings, country shows and the annual fishing competition, that attract a number of visitors from outlying areas

Tara is about a 3 and a half hour drive inland from Brisbane, where we live, and about an hours drive south-west of Dalby, which is the main large shopping centre for the Shire.  There is a main street in Tara which has various general stores suited to country living.

We have a total of approx. 128 acres split into two lots of 64 acres and because of the sandy soil and lack of rain, not much grows.  I am attempting to upgrade the soil with compost and sugar mulch but as we don’t live there full time, not much is being accomplished.  The idea of buying at Tara, apart from the properties being very reasonably priced, is that we want to start aquaculture in the dams and have brought some 15 foot swimming pools to start growing the fish before releasing them into our dams.

We had some pigs which recently went to market and are now in the freezer, so there is always some consolation in having a bit of land.

It is very peaceful and I quite enjoy our forays into country living and it will be even better when Val (hubby) finishes off the kitchen which at the moment is rustic to say the least.

As work progresses I will add some photos to the blog.