Gold Coast to Armidale

On leaving the Gold Coast, we headed south over the border into country New South Wales. The weather took a dramatic change. Whilst travelling to Casino, we encountered our first rain for 7 weeks. Casino was just an overnight stop so due to the inclement weather we stayed indoors and continued our journey to Tenterfield the following morning. The weather had improved so after setting up camp at the Tenterfield Scout Hall, we toured around the town and discovered some of its history. We also visited a winery to sample some of their fare and purchased a couple of bottles. That night it rained heavily and the temperature dropped. The following morning it was still raining with a temperature of only 8 degrees. We headed off to visit a couple of the national parks and the refreshing rain seems to have brought out the wildlife as we spotted at least 20 wallabies and a mob of eastern grey kangaroos that were at least as tall as me. It was unusual for them to be out-and-about mid morning. How many kangaroos can you see?

Tenterfield should be called “Boulder City” as the countryside is littered with masses of boulders.

We also visited the hideout of the bushranger Thunderbolt who was active in the area 150 years ago. Look closely, you can see Brian inside.

This is called Platypus Lake but we couldn’t find any.

The following morning was fine again with clear blue skies and sunshine so we had a pleasant drive to Armidale where we set up camp at the showgrounds. Just as well we had power because that night the temperature dropped and the rain started again. Today has been wet and windy with a maximum temperature of 6 degrees – Hobart has double this temperature. Anyway, we rugged up and toured the town with its variety of old buildings and many churches. Photo of St Paul’s church.

I must admit I like the look of Armidale as they have kept all their lovely old buildings.  It was so cold that we went to a pub for lunch as it advertised a roaring fire!

Off to Tamworth tomorrow.

Emerald to Gold Coast

Sorry it has been such a long time between blogs. The road to Roma was more of the same as far as remoteness is concerned. Nothing for miles and miles. We pulled off the road and spent the night roughly about half way and the following morning we completed the journey to Roma. I just want to add this bit about our overnight stay.  People we have met have told us that when free camping they pull up, wait 20 minutes or so & if no-one else turns up, they leave (as they would feel uncomfortable being the only ones there at night).  Well, as you can imagine, that didn’t happen with us.  There was no-one anywhere near, and I felt extremely nervous at night.

Roma, named after the wife of a Queensland governor, is noted for its oil and gas reserves, although it took quite some time for this industry to get established after many false starts. One natural gas well was left pouring out its gasses for 5 years before someone decided it could be useful. They constructed gas street lights and piped the gas to them. Roma was the first town in Australia to have gas street lights. However their new lighting system only lasted 10 days and the well suddenly ran dry- wouldn’t it rot your socks? Now there is a gas pipeline supplying Brisbane.

We looked around the town with its character buildings and visited a museum describing the history of Roma. It is getting cooler and the sandals have been replaced with sneakers but the shorts are still there (during the daytime anyway). Picture of me hugging a Bottle Tree, can’t quite get my arms around.

Feed one duck and see what happens!

It was then time to start working our way back towards the coast. Our first stop was at Chinchilla where we camped by the Chinchilla Weir, a free camp with POWER - the first one of these we had come across. The next day we were on our way to Toowoomba where we stayed at the Wirraglen Scout Camp, just outside the city at Highfields. Toowoomba is a very nice city with plenty to do and see. We visited the lookout at Picnic Point with its panoramic views of the city and the Great Dividing Range. Picture Great Dividing Range from Picnic Point.

There are plenty of parks and old buildings. Toowoomba Town Hall.

We visited the railway museum and discovered an ex Burnie railcar that was undergoing restoration. Apparently it had been sitting rotting in Burnie and vandals set fire to it. No one wanted it so the Toowoomba Railway Museum put in an offer and bought it.

Went to the toilet at the campsite this morning, flushed it and found a green frog jumping around in the bowl. It apparently is living under the lip of the bowl. Quite a surprise. Sorry about the state of the scout camp toilet bowl.

Brian actually managed to get the frog out of the bowl (luckily).

Today we travelled to Brisbane, staying again at the Samford Scout Camp. It was nice to be back at Samford (having stopped there on our way up) – we didn’t do much sightseeing so could relax more & do boring things like catching up with the washing.We did spend one day visiting Bribie Island which was only accessible by ferry until the 1960’s when a bridge was constructed. We toured the island and had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. More blue sky, sunshine and glorious sandy beaches. Bribie Island with pelican and Glasshouse Mountain in the far background.

Our trip down to the Gold Coast was uneventful. We again parked the caravan in the grounds of the Burleigh Heads Scout Hall and headed off to Southport. Visited Kirsty’s new office (they only moved in 2 days earlier) to collect the key to the apartment and settled ourselves in. Jon is working in Brisbane and it takes him 2 hours each way to get to work. He drives to the railway station at Helensvale and catches the train into the city and then has a 15 minute walk to work. He works in the IT department of the Queensland Education Department, a similar job he had with the Cheshire County Council.

We spent the weekend visiting a large local market and touring op-shops for a fancy dress party Jon and Kirsty were going to on the Saturday night. On Sunday we drove down to Byron Bay (Australia’s most eastern point), had lunch on the beach and visited the lighthouse where we saw a number of whales and dolphins. Photo Byron Bay beach and Kirsty and Jon at lighthouse.

 

We drove back via the beautiful Tweed Valley. Monday, Kirsty and Jon were back at work so Janice and I went to Harbour Town (more shopping) and were home for lunch.

Tuesday was my birthday so Janice and I walked around the Southport Marina, admiring all the leisure craft that we could own if we won Tatts Lotto. We spotted one with a price tag of $79,000 which was magnificent. While I was checking out our bank account we saw written in small print underneath“10% share”. Photo of “$79,000 boat” and marina.

 

Had morning coffee at Max Brenner Chocolate house where I indulged in a chocolate fudge cake,

then make our way back to Kirsty’s apartment for lunch. Toured around the Gold Coast in the afternoon looking at places we used to go when Janice’s mum and dad lived here and then all 4 of us went out to dinner at a delightful little restaurant called “My Place”.

Today the Prado went in for service so we are having a relaxing morning. Would you believe we have covered over 12,000 kms since we left home?