As Stephanie had retired end of June, this was supposed to be our big 6 week caravan trip up to the Gulf, across the Savannah Way to Cooktown and down the FNQ coast, but it was not meant to be this time (again).
As such, we decided to do a 2 week trip without the van, just as a break away from the cold weather in Sydney and to give us a change of scenery.
We departed Sydney and headed up to our first night's accommodation in Glen Innes. This was an overnight stop on our way up to Tambourine Mountain on the Gold Coast Hinterland. The sunset on our way up was spectacular, and on the following day we passed the old unused Bungalla Railway Station, which was worth a photo as it was quite quirky!
We arrived at Tambourine Mountain and checked into our cottage. It was set upvery well and had a full kitchen, fireplace, aircon, huge spa bath and was actually very roomy and comfortable. We headed out for a quick look around as the sun was starting to go down. We stopped and took in some of the panoramic views of the sunset and the coastal scenery.
The following morning we drove to a spot where we could walk down to a waterfall. It was a pretty place, but unfortunately, Stephanie did the walk all the way down but I only got half way, as the walk back was too steep for me.
The weather was ok on the first day, but then the rain and cold set in and we spent one of our three days there wandering around the quirky shops and cafes, as well as having a pleasant lunch at one of the local wineries.
Another day was just too cold to go out and was spent enjoying the cabin and our cosy log fire.
Tambourine Mountain is a very popular spot for those living in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Certainly worth a visit but I would avoid mid winter!
After 3 days, we left the Gold Coast Hinterland and headed for 6 days of sunshine at Noosa Heads. We stayed on Hastings Street and managed to score perfect weather during our stay. We walked around Noosa, caught up with friends who live near Noosa but used to live in the same suburb as ourselves. We enjoyed the Hastings Street lifestyle - the cafes, the surf club and the beach boardwalk.
While at Noosa, we visited the Eumundi Markets as usual both on the Saturday and the Wednesday. The markets are always interesting to stroll around.
After 6 days of glorious weather, we left Noosa and headed west to Condomine for a pub stay and some stargazing during the new moon phase.
On the way to Condomine, we stopped at The Club Hotel in Chinchilla for lunch. As we were not overly hungry, we decided to order the smaller $16 "seniors" meals. To our surprise, the meals were huge and we were unable to finish them!
We arrived at the Condomine Bell Hotel around 4pm and settled in. Then headed off to the bar for a drink and to see what was happening.
We met a group of four people that were travelling together on their motorbikes and we ended up chatting with them and having dinner with them at the bar.
Around 8pm we went out into the dark night sky to do some stargazing. The number of stars that can be seen in the outback sky is just amazing.
We took some photos and though they looked OK, we decided to do some "homework" to see how we could improve the results for our next night at Nindigully Pub.
Articles found on Google suggested using a 20-30 second shutter speed, 45 degree angle, and an ISO of 250 - 800.
Now, since we didn't have a tripod to hold the phone steady, I also set a 5 sec timer on the phone so I could then press the photo button and have time to rest the phone on the car windscreen - which was angled around 50 degrees.
We headed off the next morning and travelled south to Moonie where we saw the biggest load of hay being trucked past us. We continued past the Westmar Roadhouse (which is in the middle of nowhere), then west on to
St George where we were staying the night. Once checked in at the motel, we headed to Thallon to see the painted silos and then to Nindigully Pub for dinner and stargazing.
Nindigully pub is one of the best outback pubs I have been to. This was my second visit. The pub is amazing and serves great food, usually has entertainment, is located on the banks of a river, and has the equivalent of about 3 football fields of freecamping space for travellers in vans, motorhomes, tents and camper trailers.
When we arrived at the pub in the afternoon, things were still a bit quiet. However, as the evening came on, the pub filled with people and the atmosphere was fantastic. We had dinner at the pub and then around 8pm headed out for some stargazing. The night sky was lit up beautifully and the night sky photos came up a treat!
After our stargazing, we headed back to St George to spend the night before heading off the next day to Lightning Ridge.
We headed off around 9am in a southwesterly direction. We passed a number of flocks of emus, lots of wallabies etc and our first stop was Dirribandi where we stretched our legs a bit by the river. We continued on to the border town of Hebel and visited the popular Hebel Hotel and lunched at the Hebel General Store.
The Hebel is a great old pub and has freecamping around the back.
Hebel itself is a popular destination amongst travellers as an overnight stop and, just like the Nindigully Pub, everyone has to visit the iconic Hebel Pub.
After lunching at the general store, we headed to Grawin to visit this popular opal mining area before finally arriving at Lightning Ridge.
Grawin is about an hour from Lightning Ridge and is a fascinating place and home to some interesting pubs, a golf club and a most quirky and unique population and a landscape that boggles the mind! You need to be a "special" kind of person to be an opal miner in Grawin and Lightning Ridge.
The landscape is desolate and covered with mounds of rubble from the mines, it's just dumped everywhere. You have to be careful where you walk, lest you fall down a mine shaft.
Miners' accommodation is basic, from a tin shed to a derelict caravan.
We visited the Club in The Scrub, which is a golf club of sorts. Basically, a watering hole with a quirky, mostly rough scrub and dirt golf course attached to it.
This was followed by the Glengarry Hilton, a pub that you can get lunch at if you are there before 2pm.
The pick of the pubs was the Sheepyard Inn. Most interesting and quirky. There is an area next to the pub "the bakery" where old vehicles go to die. It seems that vehicles are run until they can run no more and then they are just left to rot wherever they die.
After visiting Grawin, we headed to Lightning Ridge for the night and ready for the next day's sightseeing.
Dinner was at the bowling club. It was packed and we shared a table with another couple who were caravanning. We struck up a chat and stayed chatting with them until midnight!
Our next day started by visiting the John Murray Gallery, where we spent 45mins looking at various paintings and prints. An interesting place to visit.
We then headed to the Chambers of the Black Hand - an opal mine turned sculpture exhibit. The miner bought the mine and it turned out that it was a dud, so he began sculpting into the rocks under ground. After 15 years and 900 sculptures later, it has become the No.1 attraction in the Ridge.
Some of the sculptures appear below. It took 45 mins to go around and see them all. After the sculpture tour, we then did a mine tour where opal mining was explained in detail - this too was fascinating.
After the tour, we then grabbed a quick bite for lunch before driving around the Ridge and doing the Blue, Green, Red and Yellow Car Door Tours.
We called it quits after that, with dinner back at the bowling club.
The following day, we headed 800km straight back home!
A quick two week tour it was, but we certainly enjoyed the trip and visited some places we had never been to before, as well as experienced some things we'd never experienced before as well!
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