Toowoomba to Lake Murphy

In October 1844, Leichhardt assembled his group at Jimbour station and headed out to Miles. It took him a month but our bullocks were less troubled. We left home after morning tea and within 5 minutes we were in another world - driveway service at Zimms Corner where we topped up our fuel.
The road to Dalby was lumpy, patched and had several stops for road repairs. It all suffered from last summer's floods.
We stopped at Chinchilla information centre for lunch then turned north at Miles across rolling hills lush with dry grass. At Taroom we refuelled then entered the Dawson flood plain, heading out to Lake Murphy, an overflow of Robinson Creek and a campsite of Leichhardt.
The three other camps turned out to be friendly and interesting - sailor from Colac, an ex armed forces guy from Tatong who went to Nepal, Katchenchunga in the 60s and now helps a group in Uganda, and a couple from WA. We enjoyed a camp oven meal on an open fire and a walk under trees on the edge of the lake, which was full. There were lots of bird noises, a clear starry night with a big wind at some time, and a clear morning to sit in the sun and write.