At 8.30am., Rob helped Bob to manoeuvre the van out of the yard & we set off in the direction of Ballarat with 1,866km to drive. It was already warm & a little humid when we left but the sun soon began to burn off the cloud cover, revealing blue sky & decreasing the humidity. Just after 9am., the Glass House Mountains came into view, their weird peaks & shapes seeming like the habitat of witches & goblins! Vast pine forests lined our route, replacing the tropical vegetation to which we had become accustomed. Signs advertising strawberries, pineapples & bananas appeared at the roadside (the fresh pineapples are particularly delicious & juicy!)
Some of the place names that we saw were very thought-provoking leaving us to wonder about their derivation: Pumicestone Rd; Anzac Ave; Pioneer Rd; Deception Bay; Woolshed Creek & Fortitude Valley.
Whole house removal is obviously a normal occurrence as we saw a large number of wooden homes, stored & waiting to be transported elsewhere. Maybe, moving one's house is less stressful than having to buy another! Personally, we have found that just packing a caravan is quite a big enough task in itself!
As we neared Brisbane, we realised what long journeys, morning & evening, Rob had completed whilst attending his course last week. Everywhere in Australia is so far from everywhere else!
All the usual trappings of a large city began to appear - MacDonald's can always be relied upon to pop up wherever you are! Along with signs for the Gold Coast, I also noticed directions to Ipswich, which added a homely flavour. We could now see the high rise buildings of downtown Brisbane & sincerely hoped that the SatNav would steer us clear of those.
Lovely purple jacaranda trees cropped up frequently, adding colour & beauty to the urban environment. Pink & white oleanders also contributed to the "softer city look". Many wonderful Queenslander-style houses dominated the area. The Inner City By-Pass had us towering above Brisbane & giving us a fantastic overview of it. However, the route was a most demanding one for Bob & not the easiest along which to tow a caravan! As we crossed the Brisbane River & were finally out of the city, I'm sure Bob breathed a sigh of relief to encounter easier driving conditions again. We entered hilly country & could often see mountains in the distance. A sign informed us that we were 3,434kms from Darwin - another reminder that we were in a BIG country!
We stopped for coffee along the highway, at a fascinating place, where they seemed to sell a bit of everything - flowers, gifts, citrus trees, refreshments, etc., etc. - it was called "Stop & Smell the Roses". Whilst drinking his coffee, Bob read a newspaper article stating that temperatures in Ballarat were zero at night & about 12C during the day! He turned pale & asked, "Why are we going there?" I had to remind him that golf was one of the attractions.
At Laidland, we encountered a bushfire, which was very scary as visibility, due to the thick smoke, was almost nil! The smoky smell hung inside the car for quite some time.
More signs appeared, this time advertising crabs, prawns, barramundi & red emperor fish, as well as water melon. This was a very fertile area, with a variety of crops & brilliant bougainvilleas on either side of the road.
On our approach into Toowoomba, the terrain became very steep & we laboured up a long hill. We were now in high country & the large town was a very attractive one with parks & green, tree-lined streets. It had a well-kept appearance, a beautiful cathedral & all the usual shops & facilities.
The region between Toowoomba & Millmerran was a very productive one, with vast areas of cultivated fields. However, we spent long periods of time waiting between traffic lights, as road works were underway along the route. This was frustrating as it held us up considerably & had us sitting amidst a lot of dust & dirt.
We stopped in a lay-by for a drink & a snack & decided that our refreshments were probably akin to "convict tucker" - the biscuits were dry, the butter was sparse & the coffee had gone cold. We really needed to do some shopping! With that in mind, we set off again in the direction of Goondiwindi, which was about 80km away. On arrival, we stayed at the same park we'd used the last time we travelled this way. It became much cooler in the evening & we changed into warmer night clothes.
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