Gismo Queen and her King

Stanthorpe to Yarraman - Tuesday 12th July 2022

A great night’s sleep in our cosy little cabin, which just to keep extra cosy, I did get up at 5am and put some more wood on it!

We got up for our brekkie hamper and after our second cuppa, decided we had better get moving if we were going to make 10am checkout. Once in the road, I observed a giant roo sunning himself against a granite boulder but also noticed quite dark clouds in the distance. We reacquainted ourselves with Stanthorpe, including the bakery we got lunch from last year and the park we parked the caravans at. The we drive up Mount Marley to the lookout which you couldn’t do in a caravan. Surprisingly, lots of granite! Back down into town for coffee before heading off for Warwick. We stopped for fuel there but it was too early for lunch so we kept going. And then the rains started. And the temperature plummeted. We really could have stayed home if we wanted this kind of weather!! We reached Toowoomba  and managed to get our lunch in between rain showers. Then it was back onto the New England Highway heading towards Crows Nest. We travelled this way last year with the vans and turned off at Cooyer for the disastrous stay in Pimpumbungee where we lost our awning.

Well, it turns out travelling with your house on your back (aka caravan) is quite useful. After last night’s luck in getting accommodation, tonight was not so good. We tried the Yarraman Caravan Park for a cabin but they had no vacancy. So then it was down to the Gardens Motel where there was one spare room! It is pretty basic but will do for one night. We then headed to Blackbutt for a little reminiscing on Greg’s part but we were too early for dinner there so came back to Yarraman.

We made plans to catch up with Neill and Jude via FaceTime at 8pm so headed to the pub in Yarraman for dinner beforehand. They were actually quite busy which we took as a good sign. We placed our order for entrees and mains and took our seats in the dining room, although most of the workers (obviously the ones taking all the motel rooms and caravan park cabins) were in the front bar. We did some trip planning and chatted until my hunger got the better of me and I realised we had been there for 45 minutes!! 5 minutes later I bailed up a lady who I think was the owner and asked about our meals. A further 10 minutes later (yes, a whole hour since we ordered) she brought our entrees saying she had had to cook them herself. Given where we were seated, we could actually hear the cook and he was not a happy camper. Not our problem though. Eventually we got our mains and thankfully we had pre warned Neill and Jude that we might be delayed. Eventually we got back to the motel, made a cup of tea, and had a lovely catch up with Neill and Jude ahead of Neill’s birthday tomorrow. We have celebrated so many birthdays together that it was a shame we’re not together for this one but it sounds like they are having a wonderful time.

posted by Tracey @ 6:32 pm