6/04/2022 Glenore Grove to Coolmunda

Adventurous day today. Took us all day to reach Coolmunda but a fun interesting adventure….
As per my itinerary and route I had planned a back roads route to reach Coolmunda. However, there had been heavy rain and flooding of the Condamine river which had impacted some of the area that we had intended to travel through. I checked the RACQ website for road conditions but the info was 2 days old so we weren’t sure if our route was impacted. 




We started out taking backroads through Grantham then through pretty country side along Flagstone Creek road

Sections of this road had washed away in parts 

Passed through the lush farmland of Lilydale, a tomato growing area



We eventually came out south of Toowoomba at Middle Ridge, driving through the exclusive part of Toowoomba.. we then continued onto the New England Highway, stopping off at the lookout at Hodgson Vale

Attempting to take back roads again we turned off towards Cambooya and Leyburn via Felton
So far so good, enjoying the solitude of the countryside with very little traffic. Passing fields of sunflowers.

Then we started seeing warning signs of flooding but only a little trickle over the road at South Fenton where the RACQ map indicated flooding

 so we pushed on, thinking that we were through the worst. We crossed over the bridge over the Condamine where the water was not flowing over the bridge but was flowing very fast underneath 



This gave us false hope so we continued on. There was water everywhere around us



Finally  we came to a section where it was flowing over the road, only slightly but then it got deeper and fast flowing. 



At this point, one vehicle that had passed us was returning and told us that it got deeper still further on, so we decided that we wouldn’t risk going further, even though the driver from the next vehicle that came through was encouraging us and telling us we could easily get through. 
Bill had to reverse quite some distance through the water before we could turn. 

Fortunately the first driver that we had spoken to had given us directions for what roads to take to get around. 
A long way round, through Ryeford , then on to Leyburn, Karara, then stopping off at Gore for a very late bite to eat. There were flood signs with water over the road but very minor. Fortunately at the turn off to Leyburn we came across another driver who was familiar with the area reassured us that we could still get through

We finally arrived at Coolmunda Dam just before 3pm and pulled up at a great spot by the water.

We decided to utilise the BBQ at the site to cook our dinner



Ended the day with a pretty sunset

We have been tracking our travels with HEMA maps. 
This shows part of where we went on our first day to check out Wivenhoe and the route for our second day


This map shows, in a little more detail, the section of road north of Leyburn where we had to turn back just south of Felton and go around due to the flooding
























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