Western Downs

Woke up to a cold but pleasant morning In St George. Braved the cold to give my hair a wash, had breakfast then drove into town to have a quick look around St George as we didn’t really see a whole lot last night. To be honest there wasn’t a whole lot to see apart from an interesting bridge and a phone tower Rob organised out there many years ago.

Just outside of town there is a dam which sounded interesting when I read up about it but in reality wasn’t. There were quite a few kangaroos hanging around there which was the highlight.

Next stop the small town of Surat. About half way there Rob realised we were running short on petrol and I started panicking. Basically if there wasn’t any in Surat we were stuffed. And google was giving us mixed results. Thankfully it turned out there was a small station there - crisis averted.

We had some morning tea by the river and went along part of the river walk there which was pleasant.

Next we took the “Surat Development Road” our East. Had no idea what a development road was but it turned out to be a bitumen road with a plethora of bumps so you felt a bit like you were riding a roller coaster most of the way.

We arrived at a place called Glen Morgan where there was an old car yard and museum there, looked interesting but not very open so we just had a quick look outside.

Not far past was Meanderry which was the spot for our lunch. Unfortunately not a very picturesque place so we plonked ourselves next to some old military vehicles on display. It was at about this time, after Rob was speaking to some locals, that we realised that perhaps some of the strange treatment we’d received along the trip (including the finger from a P plater for no real reason) was because of the Victorian number plates the rental van had. Nobody likes the COVID state at the moment.

The town of Tara was our next stop. Still no coverage (been that way pretty much all day) so had to try and find the walk I’d read about from memory. Soon found the park and went for a walk around the river. Was hoping to get all the way around but the path across the water had been washed away so that was the end of that idea! Found the rememberance gardens which were a little underwhelming but did tell the story of the first settlers in the area which was somewhat interesting.

Then it was on to Dalby, our ultimate destination for the day. After plugging in, we went for a walk into town which was totally dead. Not sure if that’s because it’s a Sunday night or because it’s always that way. There were quite a few places for lease so that’s never a good sign. The walk along the water was semi pleasant at least. In the end decided to have dinner at the pub by the tourist park and ended up running into old friends Claire & Miles - it’s a very small world!

Bunkered up for a very cold night after that - getting down to 3 in the morning!Read more