Quick Trip North – Part 4 – The Final Instalment

SATURDAY

We were amazed at how difficult it was to find a cafe open for Breakfast in the main street of Toowoomba on a Sunday morning, but when we did find one it was lovely.

Another clock tower was spotted.

After our brief visit to Toowoomba we continued our drive south, following the New England Highway.  We continued to enjoy the scenery of the Darling Downs.

A church spire, in Warwick.

Some stunning rock formations, the region isn’t known as the Granite Belt for nothing.

We had a brief stop at some markets at Tenterfield and bought some bulbs for the garden.  Yep, I forgot to take photos again. Doh!

Next stop was at the little town of Drinkwater, where we saw an “Antiques” sign.  It was a relatively new business and he had some great stuff.  No, we didn’t buy the Reo.

As we reached the Glen Innes area we were once again treated to wonderfully coloured trees.

We could see smoke for ages as we drove along, finally coming to the source, near Bendemeer.

Down the Moombi Hills towards Tamworth.

We had travelled from the Darling Downs to the Liverpool Plains.  Two of the best farming districts in the country.

Our destination for the night on Saturday was Gunnedah.  We have stayed here a few times and really like the town.  We usually stay at the same motel.  I’m glad I phoned ahead earlier in the day, as the “No Vacancy” sign was up when we arrived. 

I’m not sure how I came to be taking photos of clock towers along the way this trip.  Each trip seems to accidently have a theme.  In New Zealand it was pretty churches, this time clock towers.  There really were some stunners.

We are turning into creatures of habit, as we always eat at the Ex-Services Club.  The food is fabulous, as is the case in most clubs in smaller towns.

SUNDAY

There was no need to be up and away too early on Sunday, which was a nice change. This was just a nice easy drive home over roads we are familiar with.

We were amazed at the numerous jetstreams going all over the place when we were near Tambar Springs.

The countryside was looking good near Coolah.

We did make one detour.  We have been meaning to visit “The Drip” for ages, but just haven’t been able to get there.  Now we know what facilities are there (a drop dunny) and how far it is to walk in, we will try to arrange a group of us to go over one day…….we just have to find the time to make it happen.

There were lovely, wispy clouds over Lake Windermere.  Notice how dry it is looking. 

We noticed that the closer we got to home the dryer it looked.  We desperately needed rain.

And look, while we were away the trees started to change colour here too.

So that’s it.  We travelled just over 4,000kms in ten days.  We spent time with lots of people that we wanted to see, at Nundle, Kingscliff, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.  We visited new places and enjoyed revisiting others.  The weather was good, often quite hot, with the exception of one wet afternoon.

Now we will have to settle down for a little while.  We have no holiday plans in the pipeline for some time.  Mind you, we still have plenty on our plate this year with planning building our new home.