Setting Off

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Augathella, Queensland, Australia

We set ourselves a big travel journey today of about 800kms. We plan to spend most of our time in the NW on this trip and wanted to get up to the area we’re going to be exploring as quickly as possible. Today’s part of the trip was ground we’d travelled last year on another COVID lockdown consolation holiday so we didn’t mind travelling through it quickly. We’ve hired a Kia Carnivale to fit the five of us in comfortably. I’m travelling with my sister, Jocelyn and friends, Helen, Margot and Jan. The luggage and supplies need some rearranging in the boot but we did what we could in the dark at 5am and we’ll sort it out properly when we get to our destination tonight.

We left early, about 5:30am, just as the sun was rising. The roads were already busy with the tradies and truckies heading to work. It wasn’t long before Brisbane was in our rear view mirror. With double lanes all the way to Toowoomba now the driving was easy, We hit the single lane roads after that. We ran into a convoy of army trucks, heading to the border perhaps, who held us up for a while but the further west we went the lighter the traffic became.

We’re off at last!

It was lovely watching the subtle changes in the landscape as we travelled onward. From the amazing highway through the range around Toowoomba, to lush green pastures of wheat, sightings of emus and kangaroos, splashes of colour in the yellow, purple and red wildflowers, swathes of golden wattle trees and the swaying, shiny grasses along the highway edges, it made for an entertaining days drive.

We stopped in Dalby about 8am. We’d planned to have a cuppa and a biscuit in the local park but Margot mentioned feeling like a cheese toastie and it didn’t take much to persuade the rest of us to join her! Margot spent most of her youth growing up in Dalby and Jocelyn was born there so we had to have a bit of a nostalgia tour of the town. It was nearly 2 hours later that we were heading off again. We put a few miles behind us before stopping again in Roma for a quick stretch of the legs and a look at a local sculpture exhibition in a park by the side of the highway. Very impressive. Our favourite was called ‘Family Tree’. There’ll be a photo to follow. Ten minutes later we were on the road again.

We stopped in Mitchell around 2pm for the delicious lunch of quiche and salad that Helen had packed for us and we washed it down with a glass of champagne to celebrate our escape from the city,

After a couple more hours of driving, a short stop in Morven to see the Rabbit Board Fence and to get petrol and we pulled into Augathella, our stop for the night, just on 5pm. Our cabin accommodation is right next to the local pub so it was the obvious choice for dinner. A hot meal (Jan tried to choke herself on hers, a scary moment with a bit of first aid having to be delivered) and a glass of wine and we were all ready to call it a day.