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Published: August 3rd 2009
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Toowoomba Japanese GardensHi all, I’m sure many of you will be glad to hear that we have eventually left Brisbane (woo hoo) on our trip around Oz. We left on Mon 27th July after several false starts and after a few great weeks staying at my mam and dad’s. So far, everything has gone well and we have not come across anything that we have forgotten or need, however it has only been a week since we left!
Our first drive took us through Toowoomba where we stopped for a peek at the Japanese Gardens which are owned jointly by the Toowoomba City Council and the University of Southern Queensland. The gardens are well worth a look if you happen to be passing through Toowoomba. They are extremely well kept, very pretty and have several areas where you can sit, get your flask out and enjoy the views. One of the great things about this place (I thought) was that they allow dogs so Woody got to enjoy the views too! From here we travelled further west to a little camp spot on the Yarramalong weir, just south of Pampas off the Gore Highway. We experienced two amazing sunsets here, the first
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Toowoomba Japanese Gardens of many I’m sure, but were soon jumping into thermals as the temperatures dropped very quickly! No-one ever said camping was glamorous and I’m so glad Rich and Woody are the only ones who see me!!! Rich found it highly amusing … although I still think he looked far worse than I did!!! We were glad of the thermals though because the next morning we found that the minimum temp recorded on our thermometer was -0.1 degree. OK, could be far worse but it was still very cold. Since then we have experienced an average overnight temp of 2 degs. Needless to say we’re looking forward to the warmer months!!!
We stayed at Yarramalong for two nights and tried our luck at fishing here but neither of us appeared to have any. We felt slightly disappointed until we noticed that the resident heron, who was out at 6am each morning and there until sunset didn’t appear to catch anything either!
Our next stop was at a road side rest area in a little town called Bungunya along the Barwon highway. Not much to this little town although that’s not to say it is peaceful. Bungunya has 5 resident
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Heron at Yarramalong Weir roosters and there appears to be a competition between them to be the first to wake the town … so about every hour or so from 12am right through to 8am in the morning all you hear are roosters which get louder and louder! Not a very restful sleep. There is a very sweet primary school in Bungunya which must only have about 10 children, reminiscent of Glenelg. The main industry here is the harvesting and processing of grain which is obvious by the number of huge grain silos in the area. We spoke to a local about these in Yarramalong and he said when they have a good season and have an excess of grain, the farmers pile it up in fields and throw massive tarps over it. The sulphur crested cockatoos and galahs think this is great because all they need to do is peck holes in the top and they have an everlasting food source, Score! There were lots of these at Bungunya! After the rooster episode we decided that one night in Bungunya was enough! On to Nindigully ….
We arrived at Nindigully which is famous for its outback pub, having one of the longest
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Camp spot at Yarramalong Weir running liquor licences in Qld (1864). Nindigully is another extremely small outback town consisting of the pub and 3 houses. It is situated by the Moonie River which makes the camping spot very attractive. We camped along the river bank and then only had about 50 metres to walk to the pub, woo hoo! The facilities for campers are provided by the pub and if you feed the cow at the end of the bar (money donation) you can use their showers …..a very welcome hot shower after cold washes in the camper! The pub is nice with very friendly and informative staff. They offer lunches and dinner although Rich and I only took advantage of their $2 pots at sunset happy hour. This is where we spent “Happy Friday” …sorry Mam/Dad! We did toast to you though! The history of the pub is displayed in pictures, photos and letters in the dining room and is worth a peek. Roxie is the Nindigully pub dog. In typical country style she isn’t owned by anyone but the pub and she seems to love it. When you walk through the door, you are instantly greeted by this little madam who demands all
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Sunset at Yarramalong of your attention and then will continually bring her ball for you to throw (yes inside the pub) until the next unsuspecting patron walks through the door. She seemed to take a fancy to Woody when we were walking past the pub and Woody was only too obliging to play with her!
Nindigully is very popular with travellers (caravan, motor homes and camper trailers alike). It is usually deserted at about 10am but by 4pm in the afternoon it is a bustling little town with many travellers setting up camp for the night and hitting the pub. Then they are up at dawn packing up and heading on to the next place so it is empty again by 10am. I think we were in the minority staying two days, but we did notice that we were not alone. We would definitely come back to Nindigully for a few days and would probably bring kayaks next time as the river looked very interesting and perfect for kayaking. Apparently, Nindigully comes alive at New Year too! One thing I have noticed about this kind of camping is that the majority of people travel with dogs. We were concerned about taking Woods
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Huge grain silos at Bungunya ... rooster country! with us but the outback people welcome them with open arms. He is also our little guard dog and is very good at letting us know when people are approaching the tent, admittedly we have to pick most of them up after they have encountered his almighty bark! He is really not very subtle! He has settled in really well to this lifestyle ….almost as well as Rich and I.
On Saturday we left Nindigully and headed up to St George. Here we took a walk along the Balonne River (which is very wide at this point and just to the north of the town) and stocked up on food and such. It is difficult to imagine, given the water level in the river now that they were facing the worse droughts in 100 years from 2002 to 2004. Cotton production (their main industry) was reduced by 60% and many people had to move out of St George and neighbouring towns to find work elsewhere. The town appears to be doing very well now which is good to see. St George is a fairly old outback town itself. Sir Thomas Mitchell reached the Balonne River on St George’s day
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Eddie ... the wild echidna crossing Gore Highway at the same time we were. (23rd April) in 1846 hence its name (a little bit of pub trivia for you!). St George does have a few tourist attractions but none that were really appealing to either of us so we headed 14kms north to our chosen camp spot on Beardmore Dam Road.
Once again we found ourselves next to water, the Balonne River, but this time it was further up river and much narrower. After sunset the temperatures dropped quickly again but this time we were prepared and had already made a camp fire which we were all grateful for … even Woody! Yesterday (Sunday) we took a walk along the road to the dam itself. The dam was interesting (more so to Rich than me ….) but I found the wildlife much more interesting as we walked along the road. We must have seen about 50 wild roos, in herds of about 10 to 15, crossing the road in front and behind us, you knew you were in the outback. After we had walked for about an hour or so (with a fairly constant stream of roos …very cool!) we saw shapes moving alongside us through the trees …big shapes! Then about 20
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Poor Richie ... missed out again! meters or so ahead of us 4 adult, wild emus just sauntered across the road, reached the other side into the long grass and started to run again! They must have been about 2 metres tall and very very exciting for me! Oh and I almost forgot to tell you there are quite a few echidnas out and about round here. We’ve been visited by several wild animals (which we have nicknamed snoopers) nearly every night … I love camping in Oz!!!
Well we’re on the road again and heading to our new destination. Don’t worry the new destination does enable to wash our clothes, have a hot shower and recharge all the gadgets.
To say we’re well and truly relaxed is an understatement!! Because it is cold in the mornings it isn’t rare to find us still in bed at 9am some days (bliss). Quite different to getting up at 4:45 / 5am to go to work. We’re having a great time and would encourage you all to do this at some point!
Hope this finds you all well, safe and happy …. Til later …..
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Leah
non-member comment
Love it...you lucky things!
Sounds like you have gotten off to a great start...continue to keep us updated!