I finished my early walk and arrived at the coffee shop at five to eight first in line, or so I thought. There were two doors, damn it!. The door opened, but it wasn’t my door. So sadly I shuffled away. Then this older man at the ‘open’ door said to me “you were first”, I wanted to hug him. Corrie was there by now at the ‘open ordering only door’.

After taking Corrie’s order, the food person asked me what I wanted to drink, and I said “water”. She looked at me strangely then said, “no, what do you want to drink with your meal”? Thinking what else you might do with water, I hesitated for a moment then said again: “water please”, maybe a little too loudly. She then opened the other door for me to enter.

I sat by the fire (in heaven). She came with our order and as far away from me as she could, she passed the water with a straight arm and a crooked look. I took the water, drank it in one gulp, wanting to hug her too. So what’s the connection here with water?

I have been drinking bore water for the last four days and I hate it. Years in central western Queensland turned me off it for life. So I knew the only coffee shop in town would have some other type, and they did, it was called tank water. It’s not much of a segue, but this experience brought out some other ideas about Quorn’s water problems. Firstly why are they not permitted to join up with a major water pipe; secondly why haven’t they built a huge tank; and thirdly why don’t they use water sources like rivers.

Well you’ve heard about being up Ship Creek without a paddle, well we went down Waukarie Creek without siting any water. Maybe creeks don’t supply enough water, not sure. So not having a lot on my mind, as you can see, I was deep in thought about this as we walked along Waukerie Creek.

As usual we saw the large white and grey dappled red gums, sheoaks, cypress pine and others, along with all kinds of thriving shrubs and grasses. But many of those huge gums are dying. I don’t know whether the fact that this stony river is free of water has anything to do with it or not. I was however amazed that the trail we were on often criss crosses the creek. This would mean to me that the creek is always dry.

Along the walk we spotted some life however in the form of a huge kangaroo. I think he was red but if not, certainly not your every day grey. Then we met three lost young people who had just found their way again. We continued on past some amazing rock formations that chose our late lunch spot for us, where we had lots to digest, as a few sprinkles of rain helped to whet our appetite.