Stormy Travelling

Saturday, 8 September 2018

Gunsynd (Melbourne Cup Winner)

Looking from Queensland to New South Wales

Not colour coordinated today!

Tree of Knowledge - used to mark flood levels

Colourful reservoir

Sandstone Bird Sculptures

Victoria Hotel

Quiet thoughts beside the dam

Birdlife with the setting sun

Departed Brisbane on Friday morning without any dramas and were soon on the motorway heading towards Toowoomba.  The rain had disappeared and the sun was once again shining as we travelled through the Lockyer Valley before the steep climb into Toowoomba.  After leaving Toowoomba, the road to Goondiwindi took a definite downturn in standard, becoming very bumpy as we drove across the enormous plains – along with many, many trucks! 

By the time we arrived at Goondiwindi, the westerly wind had strengthened, the temperature risen, the humidity dropped and storm clouds were building.  We stayed at the Goondiwindi Freedom Lifestyle Park, which was handy to the highway and had large drive-thru sites – all were a sandy dirt with some small and large trees scattered about.  The owner/manager was very friendly and chatty; the amenities were reasonable and clean with some very quirky signage – The Missus, The Old Fella, Sheilas, Blokes.  A large dam at the back of the park was home to a number of water birds (and probably snakes!).  With an eye on the building storm, we did a quick tour of the town’s touristy bits and visited Coles before settling down for the evening.

About 9.00pm, the first storm cell hit (and it was the most severe), with lightning, thunder, torrential rain, hail and extremely strong wind.  The caravan didn’t just rock, it actually lifted a number of times!  We were quick enough to get two hatches shut but not before the hatch over the kitchen area blew upright and water poured in through the blind cover.  After getting this closed, we noticed that the front window cover had blown open, so Himself, being very brave, stripped down to his boxers and made a dash outside to close the cover and lock it in place.  I discovered this morning that Rex (our artificial grass door mat) had taken refuge under the car!  Lots of water around and one car had half a dead tree up against its side.  We don’t appear to have suffered any damage, luckily.

Today we crossed into New South Wales, with Coonabarabran our destination for the night.  The wheat and cotton plains from yesterday continued through Moree and Narrabri, with a bit of canola adding a splash of colour.  Unfortunately, the bumpy road the lots of trucks also continued, although the road did improve south of Narrabri.  We have booked into the Getaway Tourist Park on the south side of town.  Unfortunately, the severe drought conditions don’t help the caravan parks look their best and we have a dirt site that once upon a time was grassy.  Just to keep the boys amused, the caravan park is having a new driveway formed and sealed, so we get to watch (and hear) all the roadworking machinery.  We were the first to arrive today and the park is nearly full already.

The answer to the bird question – babblers.