Sorry no blog yesterday so will go back for a limited report. Nothing much really happened, just a big drive for PT from Roma to Toowoomba. Set up camp for three nights in Toowoomba. Mainly to have a look around town today and pack up the motorhome tomorrow, to return the motorhome on Saturday 1st June. Spending the night near the airport and fly out home on Sunday. We had our first rain last night since we arrived in OZ. Fortunately the day has been fine for us to look around Toowoomba. Cooler temperatures though but good for packing up.
Going back to yesterday 29th, we thought the roads might have improved the nearer we get to the coast but no, still very bumpy, they have been like this as soon as we crossed over the border to Queensland and still continued. Hope they get better from here on. There are still road works going on with these stop start lights directing the traffic along half the road. Above photo was showing how it stops the traffic and forms queues holding up the big rigs. Sometimes the queues are quite long. As we get nearer the coast a lot more traffic now on the roads and more built up areas passing through the small villages.
Above and below this is a very well developed park for walking, picnics and a great children’s play area. Chinchilla is a pretty small village. This is set back from the main highway over the train lines. Tucked away from all the highway noise. We made a coffee and got on our way again. A lot of tourists just wouldn’t know there was a village hidden away.
Continuing on our way we past cotton fields and many ploughed wheat fields getting prepared for planting.
TOOWOOMA
It’s now the next morning 30th May after our first night in Toowoomba which is an inland city on the Darling Downs ninety mins from Brisbane. It’s known as the Garden City and is loved for its well preserved heritage buildings, many from the art deco period, with an impressive collection of street art.
After our first night in Toowoomba. Thought it was going to be a wet day after a little rain overnight. Fortunately the cloud lifted for us as we had planned to have a look round the area. Our first stop was the Japanese Gardens. Just charming and so lucky the sun shone for the photos.
All developed around a central pond. There would have been about three bridges crossing over the pond in different places.
Hint of the autumn colours so tranquil.
Now leaving the Japanese Gardens.
Driving around the residential areas had these lovely old trees lining their streets
Some lovely well kept gardens in these properties too.
We were driving through these streets to take us to Queens Park which is a heritage listed Botanic Gardens. It is a well known park that is usually a mass of colour. . Very disappointed as it is way past the flower season and has been stripped of all its annual flowers. All the garden soil has been turned over and no colour to be seen. They were just starting to re plant for next summer season to produce a mass of colour with all sorts of different flowers. So we just had to imagine what it would look like. I have seen photos which showed how amazing it does look like in the flowering season. Unfortunately we were way too late to see this splendid show of colour.
Now walking around the inner city. (After taking the van back to camp.) As just can’t park an eight metre motorhome in a city, so came back into the city by Uber. Above is the Empire Theatre impressive building.
Across the road was this Old Church that caught my eye. Loved all the stone it was built of.
Mainly came back to the inner city as it is well known for its street art. I believe there are many walls painted but quite hard to find mainly down alley ways.
This is my travelling mate PT
The sun lasted long enough for us to complete what we wanted to see then the weather clouded over and a few drops of rain. It’s just amazing that this was our first sign of rain since we landed in Australia. Everyday has been a sunny day.
This will be my last post as one more day tomorrow in Toowoomba organising and packing up the van to return to Brisbane on Saturday after our amazing trip. Starting from Adelaide and going to finish in Brisbane in a couple days. The experience started in Adelaide and took us up through Woomera, Coober Pedy with all it’s Opal mining and underground buildings. Then we arrived at Uluṟu known as Ayers Rock. The walks through the Olga’s and not forgetting my big goal was to climb the 500 stone steps to get up to the rim of the Kings Canyon. Finishing off with the 6km walk around the rim. But what goes up has to come down and I think coming down steps is harder than going up. Then on to Alice Springs to do the walks in The MacDonnell Range. On and upwards through Tennant Creek turning off at Three Ways to cross over along the Barkly Highway to Camooweal. Next stop was Mt Isa to learn about this famous mining town. Continuing on across from West to East as far as Charters Towers. Then heading south to Lake Maraboon for a lovely break at the Lake’s edge. Further on down to the fantastic Carnarvon Gorge National Park. What an experience with all those walks, another amazing experience. Going on through Roma and now at our last stop before Brisbane,Toowoomba. Now time to pack up everything and head to Brisbane on Saturday 1st June and fly home on Sunday 2nd June. What an amazing experience we have had driving in excess of 6,000km, (haven’t worked it out exactly.) we have now had four motorhome trips, three around Australia and this one up the middle. This is going to be our last motorhome trip around Oz but definitely not the end of travelling in Australia. Thank you all you readers for following us, it makes my job writing the blog a lot more worth while. Signing off now as we have a couple of busy days of organising which will be of no interest to anyone. 😎
This is our trip April/May, 2024
We travelled 6600kms and used approximately 685 lites of diesel
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