Finally I have a few minutes spare(ish) to update the world again. Just got back from a bit of a road trip to check on a few cellphone towers, we drove over 1200 KM in the last 2 days. First headed up the coast to a place called Sarina, which is just below Mackay, performing checks as we went, and stayed there for the night. Then we carried on west to Emerald, and did some checks there, and then down to Blackwater, and then finally back to Gladstone. Pretty good chance for me to see a bit more of the country side.
There isn't much out west, mostly big open plains as far as you can see in all directions, and huge 3 trailered road trains. Most towns are about the size of Cave or Albury, usually with about one gas station doubling as a roadhouse to get meals.
You can see why most vehicles are fitted with long range or dual tanks out here.
There is a lot of mining around this area, the coal is coming out of the ground as fast as they can mine it. It is a huge industry without a doubt, and worth mega bucks. I was talking to a guy the other day who was telling me at one of the mines we work at, for every hour that a dumpstation is out of action (weather it be a shovel down, or a conveyor fault, etc) it costs them around $300,000 in lost revenue. That's a lot of dough in an hour! You can see why they run these mines around the clock. I think Christmas day is the only day which they shut them.
Around Blackwater we saw about 15 coal wagons all crumpled up on the side of the railway tracks, unfortunately I was driving and couldn't stop to take a photo. There was a train smash recently so putting two and two together I am deducting that the wagons were probably from that. Quite amazing to see the forces involved.
Work's pretty busy as usual, unfortunately I cannot be everywhere at once. Looks like I may be heading down south west in a week or so to do some checks for a pipeline company, should be about 6 hours drive down and then a week driving around doing tests then head home again. I'm looking forward to it, will be a good chance to see yet more of this intensely vast countryside.
Until you see it for yourself, it is pretty much impossible to describe. The movies don't really even come close to portraying sheer size of this place.
Right, I better go and get some dinner, here's some photos from the weeks efforts.
TTFN.
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