Gismo Queen and her King

Blackbutt to Ewingar via Caboolture

Recognising that today was going to be a big day's drive - although not much more than 400km but plenty of hills - we got up early thinking if we got to Caboolture early we could leave there a bit earlier. So the diesel heater went on at 6:30am given it was 9C in the van and we did all our morning activities, including filling our water tanks, emptying the toilet and pack up. We drove out of the showgrounds before 8:30am but stopped just around the corner at the Blackbutt Bakery for breakfast, which was pretty good indeed. Then we hit the road for the 103km to Sunland Caravans in Caboolture. We bought our van from them in 2016 because they won "Best of the best caravan" in 2015 and their off road van is really a good offroad van. And it has served us very well. But we had a slight issue with the power management system (which manages our solar, lithium batteries, inverter and 240V power when we are plugged in) 18 months ago and it never got fixed properly so we decided to go to the source - the manufacturers - to get it properly fixed. We had an 11am appointment but got there before 10:30am, hoping we could be on the road earlier as well, for the trek to Andrew's place. James - the Service Manager - loves a good challenge and this did present him with that. However, 50 minutes later he solved the problem and our inverter was back in business - not only running the toaster but also my hairdryer! Hooray!


So we were back on the road by 11:30am, hoping to get a few more miles under our belt before lunch. This was true urban driving - the freeway (and tollway) around Brisbane including over the Gateway Bridge. 100 or so kilometres later when we turned onto a much smaller highway and pulled in to get some fuel and have a quick lunch. But not long after that the fun roads started. The Mt Lindsey Highway is not a great highway, and the road surface deteriorated as the road became windy. Not a great combination when you're towing a 3 tonne van.


We stopped for afternoon tea at a pretty little rest area, but decided to do them as takeaways, as we were keen to get to Andrew's before dark - there was no way I was driving up his road in the dark! Not much further on we were stopped for roadworks and a bushfire but it did mean I got to drink my coffee in comfort with this outlook for my view.
On the road again, the road certainly didn't improve and our average speed of 30 km/hr kept pushing our arrival time further out. Ever so slowly, the kilometres to go decreased. We passed through small towns but the road didn't really improve much. Finally we came out on the Bruxner Highway and knew we were getting close. A quick stop at the Tabulam Pub for some beer for Greg and for me to stretch my muscles as my back was hurting a lot after that drive.


Ironically, the 38km drive out to Andrew's place on a very narrow strip of bitumem - in places, gravel the rest - was better than most of the preceeding 150km. The sun was setting as we turned into Andrew's driveway and we carefully navigated the van up the narrow winding driveway. Andrew has improved it since our last visit though and we were greeted at the house yard by two super excited dogs. Driving in, we managed to park the van on a rare piece of flat ground which also offers me a lovely view in the morning and then it was time for a well deserved drink and catch up chin wag with Andrew and Courtney. Jamie and Roy - the dogs - were also pleased to see us.

posted by Tracey @ 1:11 pm