We rounded off our last night in Goondiwindi with a campfire with our neighbours and a few other campers.

The next morning we left early to get good parking for the market. We needn't have bothered - the market was tiny and not very exciting, and there was certainly no problem in finding a park.

Oh well. We set off to see the silo art at Yelarbon. It was nice, but not nearly as impressive as those in the Wimmera near Warracknabeal. And we had to travel 50 kms to see one single silo, whereas near Warrack there is a whole trail of silos (6 or 7) within a 50 km drive.

We moved on to Inglewood, which was also quite disappointing. Got some questionable coffee in a cafe. Although the coffee wasn't great, the setting was nice and the sun was shining. The owner seems to be a big fan of Elvis.

With nothing else really on our to do list, we drove on to Millmerran where we had planned to spend the night free camping at the golf club. The town itself was very confusing with roads and highways going off in all directions. It is famous for a 'Camp Oven Festival', as well as a giant tepee. The festival was months ago, and the teepee was not that big.

We found the golf club and settled in quite early - all our plans had let us down so far. The golf club was lovely with well cared for greens and lots of bird life, but no other campers came in and we camped alone. The advantage is that we didn't have to ask anyone if we could run the gennie in the morning to have our cofee.

We then set off early towards Toowoomba. On the way there were a few small towns, mostly off the highway. We missed a couple, then decided to try Pittsworth. We missed the turnoff and considered turning back, but that was too hard. A couple of kms down the road we found another turnoff. This time we were ready. Pittsworth is a nice small town with cafes, murals on the walls (very popular around here) and a Woolies. Very exciting. Looks like Pittsworth is definitely 'worth' a 'Pitts' stop.

We continued to Toowoomba, climbing slowly up the range. As we travelled the weather got worse with rain, grey skies and eventually fog. The fog got thicker and thicker and as we reached the town we could not see a few metres ahead. There were traffic lights after traffic lights every hundred metres or so, which we only noticed as we almost drove into the intersections. By the time we reached the Tourist Info Centre we were exhausted and said 'We are not moving from here.' We found a bus tour that leaves at 10 am and 12. We had missed the 10 am, so we decided to do breakfast in the van and wait for the 12 noon tour. When the bus arrived he told us the tour is 10 to 12 - only one tour a day. Disappointed again. Booked in for tomorrow.

More on Toowoomba in the next entry.

Georgy's Bit

The Market in Goondiwindi was small, the silos in Yelarbon were small, Millmerran's Teepee was small and poorly kept. Teepee or not Teepee, that is the question. The Camp Oven Festival is the big thing and featured on the town map. It took us a couple of passes to identify the structure in the town centre. My first thought - it was round skip with pictures to prove it.

The Golf Club was too peaceful, broke a cardinal rule about minimum number of fellow campers but could not be bothered moving on.

Toowoomba is the closest thing to Antarctica in Queensland. Every town has a bad day, climate change and all, yet Toowoomba is consistent. Add to the mix the hilly nature, road design and local driver's ability to react to conditions like traffic lights turning green. Need some rest. Tomorrow Laidley.