Goondiwindi – A taste of Queensland

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Stocking the larder and fuelling the vehicle were top priority before leaving Narrabri.

One of the challenges of refuelling is finding bowsers that are not covered by a low hanging roof. This often means joining the queue of caravans and trucks. At the first station we visited all the outside bowsers were ‘temporarily out of service’ so we had to find another place. Often located on corners, petrol stations can be easy or challenging to enter and exit. This one was located on a busy corner with the queue hanging dangerously close to the main traffic thorough fare. A unique range of vehicles seemed to be going in all directions; backing here and there as though they owned the place.

One vehicle caught Greg’s attention; a pig hunting set up. A 4x4 equipped with large roof mounted spots and a cage full of pig hunting dogs. They were definitely ready for action.

Once fuelled we headed round the corner to Woolies. We have been surprised at the size of Coles and Woolies in towns that don’t seem to be that big. They obviously service a much larger area than the immediate town.

According to the recent news bushfires are widespread across northern NSW and parts of Qld. Today we came across the first of these for our trip.

We have lost count of the number of vehicles that have passed us. Greg seems to enjoy talking with the truckies on the CB radio as they approach from behind and obviously are going to overtake.

Finally we hit Queensland. As if on cue it suddenly became hot. With the van set up, Greg started on his weekly TA note and Joan set about washing clothes. Being conveniently located next to the clothesline we could wash the sheets which require a larger hanging space than our handy clothes airer allows.

We watched with amusement as a group of people drove in with a mobile home towing a big Ford V8, parked in a site and were promptly joined by another couple of hard-core 4x4s. They set about washing them and then rushed off to have showers themselves. They were off to a wedding and these were the wedding cars. They all left, mobile home included just before 3pm, never to be seen again. A large bale of hay sits in the site. We are not sure if that was there before or not.

In the evening we were entertained by Paul Kelly blasting out from somewhere nearby. It sounded like an outdoor concert. A quick google search failed to support this theory, so we are none the wiser. This morning bright and early we were awakened by a PA system … probably from the same location. Not as pleasant to listen to at 6am. Lots of horse floats suggested it may be a gymkhana of some sort.

Sunday is omelette day and Greg impressed us with his culinary skills as usual.

As we exited the caravan park we noticed the wedding group had returned. Perhaps they couldn’t find their original site so just set up in one that was free.

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Comments

[Anita]

taxing my Aussie vocal knowledge!
Hi J and G, I am enjoying your blog updates... sounds like you are having a fun trip. Your latest post stumped me twice on vocab, though.... bowser? gymkhana? Will google ;-). Cheers, Anita

[SilverLinings]

Goondiwindi vocab
bowser - gas pump gymkhana - horse riding event demonstrating practical skills. In this case it was similar to a quarter horse competition with points for separating cattle from a herd.