Shire of Balonne

Pretty packed day today and a trip of around 400km so we set the alarm early and woke up to the sound of relatively heavy rain (which had basically started last night when we went to bed). We showered and got ready and the rain had pretty much stopped by that stage.

We decided to back track a little and check out the Castle Glen distillery. I had little hope of it being open (and I was right), but we did manage to get a couple of photos out the front. As well as the obligatory pic in front of the “big Apple” of Stanthorpe.

Stopped off in town and grabbed a coffee (well Rob did, I’m trying to watch the calories). Went for a walk up the Main Street then to the park where we came across a couple of locals who on both occasions wanted to tell us how exciting it was the have water flowing over the weir. Apparently last nights rain was a welcome relief from the drought conditions they’ve experienced recently. I guess in the whole pandemic thing we forget about the other crisis going on.

Left Stanthorpe and drive out towards Inglewood. Part way there I gave Rob a bit of a break from the driving. It wasn’t too difficult though we did come across a few spots with a bit of water over the road which was a little hairy. Nothing major though thankfully. Spotted a bit of wildlife along the way including wallabies and an Emu. Eventually made it to Inglewood and stopped at the park in front of the bowls club for some mornos.

Made our way across to Goondiwindi stopping first at Yelarbon to check out the silo art. At Goondiwindi we had a quick drive by the border check point (not through, obviously!) then stopped for a nice lunch by the water at the Botanical Gardens.

Wasn’t a whole to see for some time after Goondiwindi. We stopped for arvos at a place called Talwood by some daggy water tower. Just in time too as just as we were leaving it started to rain. We noticed the sky looking a bit ominous ahead of us and were a bit concerned that we might get caught up in a nasty storm. The worst seemed to go around us though which was handy. It was tough not having coverage as we couldn’t just check the radar!

We came to a crossroads and had to decide whether to take the 60km round trip out to see some more silo art at Thallon. I’d heard there was also a big wombat there too and was concerned that we might not get another opportunity to come it this why so we decided to do it. Saw a second echidna on the way (first was not long before the turn off) which almost made the decision worthwhile on its own. The silos turned out a little disappointing as you couldn’t seem to get very close but the wombat was terrific. I’d already decided I was going to climb it for a photo and on closer inspection I saw that it actually had footholds on one side! After nearly twisting my ankle I made it up there and managed to ungraciously turn around for the picture. Next it was Robs turn before time to head back towards St George.

We arrived in St George just as it was starting to get a bit dark. We stopped for a quick cup of tea before heading back into town for dinner. Even though it was Saturday night there weren’t a huge number of options to choose from so we went to one of the two pubs there (Cobb and Co). Not a bad meal, although I could have done without the tv showing a goat getting castrated while I ate my dinner.

Got back to the park and it was dead quiet. Given that there was almost no one out in the town (even on a Saturday night) I assumed everyone had gone to bed. We had a quick look at the stars in the sky - amazing how much more you can see without the distraction of city lights. Then it was time to get warm in bed.Read more