Townsville to Cairns - Home at last

Looks like
FNQ to me.











Hooray...our last day on the road and soon to be home sweet home.

Our last day on the road went without a hitch. We cruised on through Ingham, then to Cardwell, zoomed through Innisfail and arriving home before lunch.

This part of the trip was a doddle as we were in complete familiar surroundings.

When we arrived home, it was nice to have our neighbours across the road welcome us and then our next door neighbour did the same.

Total distance travelled was a little over 3,500kms and we spent about $540 on fuel. (goodness knows how much we spent on accommodation and meals), but anyway, we made it with our sanity intact and the car made it without any known mechanical problems.









Safely parked
in our garage.

Mackay to Townsville

The big Mango,
Bowen.











As being the party people we are (not), we woke up early on New Years day without a hangover or a dodgy tummy. We packed up the car...again....checked out of our motel room.....again....... and headed north.

We passed through Proserpine, the turn off to Airlie Beach and then had a short stop at the big mango in Bowen before continuing on. We wizzed through Home Hill and then Ayr. Just outside of Ayr, we were followed for about 20km by a highway patrol car. I thought for sure he was going to pull us over, but as we got to our turn off near Townsville, he kept on going.

We arrived at Townsville in time for a late lunch at a popular restaurant near our hotel room then with full tummies, back up to the room for an afternoons rest. We ventured out later in the afternoon to a pub across the road and stayed there for dinner. The waitress did not have her mind on her job that day as we got charged for 2 glasses of wine which we had, a bottle of wine which we did not order and then she forgot to charge us for our to main meals.

Ahh, Townsville, so close but so far, one more day on the road to go.

Biloela to Mackay

Rockhampton
beef capital.


An interesting little place is Biloela. An obvious stop over or a base for the mining industry workers to locate themselves. We ducked across the road to the local tavern for a nice dinner then an early'ish night.
Once again up early, breakfast then pack the car and off to Mackay. Our first stop was Rockhampton for a cool drink and some fuel. We took the roof off for the rest of the journey to Mackay to try and get a bit more air flow through the car as the temperature at Rocky hit 40 degrees!!. Whilst is was hot, the car coped well with engine temperatures staying within normal operating range.

There is not much to see along the way from Rockhampton to Mackay. The Bruce Hwy however is in quite good condition with 110km/h speed limit.

We arrived at our accommodation in Mackay and the both of us were feeling a little hot and bothered, so we cooled off in the air conditioned room before deciding to go for a walk and grab some dinner. Jacinta had a quick look online to see if there was any new years eve events that might take our fancy, but it all looked a bit dull so we decided to stay in. Wowsers.

Chased by the storms

We experienced the edge of the massive storm that swept throught the south east corner of Queensland last evening. The storm smashed Bogabilla and Goondiwindi before sweeping through to the Gold Coast. We were lucky that the worst of the storm passed to the south of us and that we wern't caught up in it.

picture of the storm passing through Toowoomba.

The next morning we woke up to not a cloud in the sky with predictions is was going to be a stinking hot day.

We passed though the townships of Blackbut, Nanango, Gayndah, Mundubberah, Eidsvold, Minto and pulled into Biloela at about 3pm - hot and sweaty. It was 36C when we pulled into the motel :(

No trip through Gayndah is complete without a picture of the giant orange.

There were more storms in the south east corner this evening but they are all to the south of us now so all we can look forward to is more very hot days!

Moree to Toowoomba - Queensland or bust.

Ah, Queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next.

We couldnt get away quick enough. The accommodation we chose to stay at in Moree was bloody awful. Anyway, up early, pack the car and back into town to grab some breakky, get some fuel and we are off again.

We arrive at Goondiwindi and slip across the border into Queensland. We continue on northwards on the Gore Hwy, passing through a few small towns and eventually arrive at Toowoomba. Wow, its a bit bigger than I first thought. Well, we locate our motel, (right in the centre of town) and had the hotel staff involved in a guessing competition as to what type of car had just arrived. With that soon sorted, we went up to our room, unpacked and then out for some lunch.

After lunch, we took a stroll through the centre of town then back to the room to cool down a bit and relax before our next and biggest leg of our journey, Toowoomba to Biloela.

Dubbo to Moree

Historic Dubbo Gaol


Well, that was the most boring part of the journey so far. Boring, boring, nothing to see, just plain old scrub country.

Anyway, our stay in Dubbo was quite nice. Our accommodation at the RSL motel, which is of course directly opposite the Dubbo RSL, was very comfortable.

We took a short walk to the Dubbo Gaol and paid our entry to have a look. Well worth the visit if ever in Dubbo.

We headed of early in the morning for Moree. We pulled up at the nearest servo for fuel and the usual checks, water, tyres, oil etc, and whilst doing all of that, the console operator (a young male) was trying to take photos of the car through the servo window, sooo, Jacinta kindly offered to take a few happy snaps for him as he was unable to leave his post.

So the journey to Moree begins. Well, it was boring, (have I already mentioned that), uneventful and without incident we finally arrive at Moree and check into our accommodation and settle in for a rest before our next leg of the trip.

Nothing exciting to see here

Fun Filled - West Wyalong to Dubbo Leg

Our schedule had us only covering 255km today but I think we took the longest time on record to cover that distance due to frequent stops.

We started with breakfast at one of the local bakeries at West Wyalong and an "up-down-and-around" through the town to have a bit of a look about and take a few photos.

We then headed out of town towards Forbes where we discovered that the new motor museum had opened recently. McFeeters Motor Museum is a fantastic stop off and has an excellent display of both classic and historic cars.

Some of the display at McFeeters Motor Museum.

The display kept us busy for quite a while and it's well put together with something to charm everyone. Robert was delighted to see a Pontiac Transam GTA (1987) included in the display along with a good selection of rare and historic vehicles. The museum's owners have a particular interest in British marques and there was a stunning display of vehicles of that genre. This spot is highly recommended for a stop over.

Stop by the McFeeters Motor Museum.

We then motored onto Parkes and enjoyed a lunch stop at the Radio Telescope visitor centre. This was also a great place to spend some time and we enjoyed a very good lunch. Of course there was the need to take some more photos.

The dish (and car)

We passed through Peak Hill and stopped by the old Holden dealership there. It wasn't open but there was some interesting sights to be seen through the windows.

Finally we have arrived in Dubbo, we have had a walk down town and have enjoyed a tour throught the Old Dubbo Gaol.