Stanthorpe

Wednesday was a travelling day. We left Eatons Hill in the morning and passed through the Scenic Rim and Warwick before climbing up onto the Darling Downs.
We passed through The Summit, the highest point on the Inland Country Way from Sydney to Rockhampton. This area is the home of the Australian fruit growing industry - we passed apple orchards, and stone fruit orchards on our journey into the Granite Belt.
Our destination was the Sommerville campsite at The Storm King Dam, after arriving at 2pm we were all set up by 4pm proving that the tent can be set up by one person.
Stanthorpe is 850m above sea level and one of the highest towns is Queensland. When we visited the weather was changeable with strong winds, daytime temperatures varied between 16 to 21 deg C and the night time temperatures dropped as low as 10 deg C. We had come prepared for colder temperatures but we had become used to the heat of Brisbane and found it a little of a shock to our system.
On Thursday we took a drive along one of the tourist routes which took in the villages of Amiens, Paschendale and a few others which were named after the end of the first world war. The Queensland Government designated the area for distribution to returning soldiers from WW1 who were encouraged to become farmers and build new lives on the land. Many endured and prospered, but some fell by the wayside, many of the owners of the fruit farms and wine farms in the area are related to the original settlers. The little museum at Amiens, run by volunteers opened for three hours each Sunday so we moved on to the local Cheese making factory to have a tasting.
The cheese shop was busy, we paid for a taste of each cheese prior to picking our favourite to have with a ploughmans lunch. The cheeses were delightful and the blue cheese in particular caught our fancy. Czytaj więcej