Monday, September 12, 2011

East or west? East wins, hands down

Well Inverell is a lovely town - but it's very cold this September. It was my mother's home town. I always remember her saying that the water froze in the pipes overnight in the winter and she couldn't wait to get out of there. The war came and she joined the WAAFS - she was out of there.

It was there that I decided to continue my journey in an easterly direction, rather than heading west to sample the hot springs of Moree and go further west to visit my niece, Bianca, and her family in Mungindi. I'll have to save that for another time - in warmer months.

I headed north for a little bit until I crossed the border into Queensland. Stayed overnight in Texas - still very cold - but woke up to a sunny morning and wandered into the town in time to meet up with one of my cycling and walking buddies, John. We had lunch in the local coffee shop and he told me about the Cycling QLD Big Ride that he was doing. Eight hundred cyclists of varying ability and fitness levels are riding for 9 days between Goondiwindi to Brisbane. They have a rest day in Stanthorpe tomorrow. Much like the ride I did in 2005 which went for 9 days from Kosciusko to Kiama. The rest day was in Quenabeyan. Couldn't do it now, of course, but glad I did it then :)

From Texas I turned east toward warmer climes and after a pleasant afternoon's drive through beautiful farming landscape, I stayed overnight in a caravan park at Killarney. And phew! it was several degrees warmer than the previous nights.

Today I've continued east, through more magnificent scenery, including some tropical rainforest in the mountains, until I reached Southport on the Gold Coast and am now settled in with Tim and Oscar.

No more driving for a while. Just fun with Tim and Oscar and catching up with some other family and some friends - in temperatures that only require a light jacket, or even just a long-sleeved shirt - maybe a T shirt, if I'm lucky.

I have taken pics along the way, but this $%#&^# blog won't let me post them tonight!

10.04pm Monday 12 September.

1 comment:

Jannie Annie said...

Didn't you know that your mother was ALWAYS right?

Lovely pics and adventurous story.

But, stay WARM, girl!