9th September

We have decided to go home! We need to see second oldest son Don who has had a bit of medical attention, and now Helen. She is now in Melbourne's St Vincents Hospital for surgery today. At least in Melbourne she is close to the children and grandchildren. There will be a queue of visitors before she knows it.
We will track as near as direct as we can. Skirting Mackay for Nebo, Moranbah Clermont and aiming for a modest 500 km to Emerald for the night.

The shortcut around Mackay ended up being a slow-cut; hilly and twisty with lots of roadworks - averaged about 50kph... Anyway eventually made it to the Peak Downs Hwy then the Gregory Hwy (we left the Gregory Development Road at Charters Towers)
We have stopped for tonight at the Emerald Botanic Gardens free rest area (between a highway and railway... again).

Only 1750km to go!

Tomorrow we will continue south on the Gregory until it turns into the Carnarvon Dev Rd to Roma then St George - 600km.