Inverell

   

We originally were going to stay for 2 days but eventually stayed for 7 nights.  One of the reasons we decided to stay was the towns south of here were being bombarded with wild weather and there were lots of road closures. The town of Glen Innes looks prosperous and they have extra wide streets. There are lots of beautiful parklands and because they have had  lots of rain this season it is the greenest it has been for a long time.  Keith will get to go fossicking next time around. It has been pouring all night and the gentle MacIntyre river is now a raging rapid river.  It happened so fast overnight and we move on towards Armidale today.

Glen Innes

The weather has cooled off a lot!  Glen Innes has Australia's Standing Stones a purpose built group of rocks that show true north, south, east & west and the winter and summer soltice.  The stones are a direct link between Glen Innes and Scotland.  They have a lot of Scottish history and tradition - they call Glen Inne region the Celtic Country.
The weekend after we were there they were hosting the Beardies festival. It is a local celebration of spring and gets its name from two of their early pioneers who had long flowing beards and helped new settlers in the 1840's.

Tenterfield

We spent 8 nights in Tenterfield at the Showgrounds.  We were there with 3 other ladies who were travelling seperately in their own motorhomes and enjoyed our time there.  We went to the Melbourne Cup Lunch at the Tenterfield Bowling Club and arranged to go to the Wine Blending Dinner as part of the Tenterfield Food & Wine Festival.  The wine blending  was a new thing for us and after the blending we got to bottle our wine and take it home.  The food for dinner was great and we wondered how they could make their money - it was really good value for money.
The Food and Wine show was on Saturday the 6th November from 10am until 4pm.  It was held in the RSL hall and it was all under cover.  This was the first time we had been to a Food and Wine Festival under cover usually they are outside. The town was small and the locals were telling us that the town was hurting so they have decided to concentrate on Tourism in an effort to get the town up and running again.

Stanthorpe

We stayed at the Top of the Town caravan park about 3 kilometres out of town. These walks are getting easier now and we are still are enjoying them. Stanthorpe is renowned for its apples and fresh fruit stalls. We visited a cheese factory and an enormous store and restaurant called Vincenzo's.  We are all stocked up on fresh fruit and cheese - wonderful!!!!!!!!

Warwick

We arrived just before their big Rodeo weekend.  There are a lot of people in town and a lot of interest in the Rodeo.  It must generate millions of dollars for the town.  We walked past the showgrounds and were amazed at how many people and horses were there.  A nice little town very spacious, lots of music in the streets and the gardens are roses and lilac.

Allora

What a beautiful independent camp site.  Close to town and once again on a beautiful creek.  It had very clean toilets, it was well lit and had a lot of tables and chairs.  We would stay here again.

Toowoomba

We love Toowoomba but this time around it was noisy, lots of cars and people.  The motor village where we stayed was around 4 k's out of town but an easy walk.  The population of Toowoomba area is about 120,000 people.  We had a great stone grill steak for lunch and they could do gluten free.  From our Caravan Park we could easily walk to 16 fast food outlets that is without counting any restaurants, cafes or food courts!  We think that they were building houses and units without kitchens.

Dalby

The caravan park was on the Myall creek and very close to town.  It was a very easy walk to town and the town was very prosperous - not many shops for lease or for sale.  It was a well kept town and it had a nice vibe. They had a lot of enjoyable walks along the creek with lots of sign boards about various sites on the creek.

Cooyar

Cooyar was an independent park beside it's famous swing bridge.   There was a $5 per night charge for the power and the toilets, etc were a bit of a walk.  The pub was great and  the locals were friendly.  It was a quiet night.

Nanango

We stayed at a caravan park not far out of town - Twin Gums Caravan Park.
We actually meet a neighbour of ours from about 27 years ago!  How freaky!  Nanago is famous for its chainsaw wooden sculptures and depicts the heritage of the town.  There had been a lot of rain and the park was sodden but our site was high and dry.

Kingaroy

We stayed at the Kingaroy showgrounds surrounded by beautiful gardens.  From the showgrounds you could walk into town and also the Kingaroy cheese factory.  We spent a morning at the factory and purchased some great cheeses - all hand made.  Philosopher celebrated his birthday here and we had a great time. 

Gympie

We tried for two independent camp sites today but with all the rain the Mary River was very swollen and had a flood warning issued for it today - so that was when we decided to move on to Gympie.

Gympie is a large town with lots of steep hills so it was good to walk into town.  There is lots of history background with the gold discoveries and a large timber monument to the timber workers.

Hervey Bay

We are here for a week how glorious!!! 

We have a beachfront site and can sit and stare at the water all day if we want to.  Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse about 4 days into our week.  It has become very windy and the rain is tumbling down.  The rain is not heavy just a niusance.

Hervey Bay is the whale watching capital of Australia so off we went on a tour.  It was fantastic we saw 40 whales or more doing their thing.   

AWESOME


Some strange signs though at a restaurant

Maryborough

Another lovely town but it had a very old population. We caught up with some mail from Sydney.

Once again some excellent walks along the river and into town. We do a LOT of walking.  The creator of Mary Poppins was born here.

Gin Gin

We really loved Gin Gin. It was a small country town. It was an easy walk into town.  The showgrounds had showers, toilets, water and power.

There was a Saturday market that was great to go to - lots of fresh fruit, veges and the usual market stalls including free puppies.

Lake Awoonga

A huge lake that is stocked with Barramundi so the Caravan Park was over run by fishermen. 

There had been lots of rain and some of the camp sites were extremely muddy.

We were lucky and got one that was high and dry with a great view of the lake from our own site.  We walked quite a bit as the rain did stay away for a while.

The Rockhampton Discovery Park was a beautifully kept and well maintained park. The amenities were great however the down side of the park was that the sites were quite steep to get into and lots of caravans scrapped their undersides.  The shopping centres were close to this park.  The rain began falling here and that was the end of our fine weather for a while.  We did a lot of walking because we were here in May last year and did the touristy things then.
After a week we moved to the Riverside Tourist Park which was only across the bridge from the Rockhampton CBD.  The Fitzroy river flowed beside the tourist park and there were lots of warnings about crocodiles in the river. The river was apparently good Barramundi fishing.