We’d packed most of our things yesterday. Only the cold stuff was left to be put into the fridge and freezer and I wanted to quickly finish some jobs early in the morning. One of them was printing out a form to be handed in later in the morning at the Woodies, because I had a few items for a competition that I wanted to be judged (in the novice section I haste to say), get some books from the library, do some banking and that was just about it.
Well, first of all I found out that only the items for the competition were to be handed in today. The form should have been submitted last Friday! Never mind, I was going to try anyway. Next was the banking. Since we are planning an overseas holiday next year and the exchange rates were in our favour, I wanted to get some money into our Dutch bank account. However, my local bank didn’t like the fact that I wanted to transfer money to an overseas bank account which had an Australian address attached to it, so that was the end of that. Took us a while too before we had all the appropriate details like the IBAN and BIC numbers, but at least I know how it works, albeit we weren’t successful.
Eventually we were ready to leave, so first stop was the library where I was lucky enough to get a loan extended for the second time. I’m not usually such a slow reader, but sometimes other things get in the way. Next stop: the Woodies. Again luck was on my side and my entry was accepted. Some more business was finished in no time and we were nearly on our way. Just a bit of grocery shopping and topping up of fuel and we could hit the road. To top it all of, Frank had forgotten to bring his GPS, which was a nuisance, because my expensive GPS doesn’t work with coordinates, which is also a nuisance! So, hit the road we did (finally at 11.30am), but without the use of our trusty ‘bible’, the book with the 3500 or so campsites in it… We just had to go about this trip a bit differently.
We had a smooth ride towards Brisbane, once we had decided where we were going, because we generally don’t put much effort into planning when we are just going away to relax. We had lunch at a service station along the road, since we had skipped morning tea and kept going into the direction of Ipswich with the general idea of ending up somewhere in northern New South Wales.
And that’s where our plain sailing came to a halt for a while. Before the Gateway Bridge the traffic was banked up because of an accident, so it was slow going. After having cleared the bridge, but before Mt. Gravatt the traffic started banking up again, but not only that, we also heard a big bang and all the warning lights in the van lit up. Frank checked the book, but couldn’t find straight away why that was so and we also thought that a rock had hit the van. Anyway, after taking off from the emergency bay the indicator for the cooling showed an extreme high temperature, so we stopped again and this time Frank realised that the big bang had been the snapping of the V-belt. The clever man he is he carries a spare, so the problem was fixed in no time. We had a cool drink and were soon on our way again, with Misty unperturbed sleeping in the back. She doesn’t have a care in the world…
When we got past the road works the traffic flow improved and we were on our way again. While Frank was driving I planned our stop for the night. It was going to be at the Maryvale Crown Hotel, just south of Warwick, which we reached at about four in the afternoon (site nr. 786; 28 04 18S, 152 14 22E). Not bad for a day like this. I also started working on this posting, since we worked out that we could save battery life if I would use the laptop during our driving time. Just before Cunningham’s Gap I took over for the last bit of the trip so Frank could enjoy the views. As you may be aware by now, every time you go west, away from the coast, you have to cross the Great Dividing Range. I never tire of the beauty of the range, wherever you cross. Cunningham’s Gap is in my opinion one of the nicest crossings I know in the proximity of Brisbane. A long sloping road with beautiful views, particularly in the late afternoon sunshine. Although I have also been on this road at sunrise when the sun casts its first rays on the hills of the Gap. However, that’s probably more then 20 years ago now and I don’t think I have even travelled this road during the last 15 years. So, we enjoyed it at our leisure, because the van doesn’t have a lot of power going up hill…
I don’t have a lot of pictures of this first day, but will try and do better during the rest of our trip. Frank took a few pictures with his camera, but had also forgotten to bring his card reader, so I can’t download them. The few I have taken are of the campsite with a storm brewing in the distance, although this didn’t eventuate.
We’re going to stay the night here, of course. We’ve paid for power so we’ve been able to cook a quick and easy meal in the microwave and will probably watch part of the next series of The Tudors tonight, which Kevin so kindly provided.
So, see you tomorrow…
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