Friday 11th August Lake Maraboon Holiday Village

Today our journey took us from the centre of the cane growing area, near Mirani to the coal mining, cattle raising, grain and cotton growing area near Emerald. Instead of looking out for cane trains and sugar mills, we saw long coal trains and mining towns. We travelled for about 4 and ½ hours to reach our new destination, Lake Maraboon or Fairbairn Dam, a 20 minute drive from Emerald. We stopped at the coal mining town of Middlemount for coffee before continuing on and stopping just out of Emerald for lunch. We were once again impressed with the neat, tidy, well-resourced mining towns, all with great infrastructure for those living there. The huge coal mining companies do a

ll they can to look after their employees. We arrived at Lake Maraboon around 3pm and set up. We had visited this spot last time we stayed in Emerald and remembered the caravan park situated next to the lake. After setting up, we went for a very pleasant walk down to the lake. It was a beautiful, warm, balmy, calm afternoon and the lake looked amazing. I am hoping the calm conditions continue tomorrow as I hopefully can put the kayak in. There were quite a few small boats coming and going. Red claw is being caught and the fish. We’re not sure about but everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves.  We finished the day having a very pleasant drink on the deck of the bar/restaurant which overlooked the lovely pool. Pizzas are cooked and served here on Friday and Saturday nights and the aroma coming from the food was wonderful. We think we will have pizza tomorrow night for dinner. The Garlic, crab pizza sounded delicious!