Toowoomba on top of the hill.

2 nights at the show grounds great spot with a good view, lakes, huge area to ride the bikes and kick the footaball. Great storm to go to sleep with in the bus - no leaks.

We went to Picnic Point which looks over the beautiful Lockeyer Valley, Table Top Hill and the steep climb up to Toowoomba. A beatuful peaceful walk through the track and a fun play at the park. All four kids had a ball on the rotary pedal seesaw.

Wednesday we headed to Roma travelling through Dalby, Chinchilla, Miles. Staying again at a show ground, the outback town show grounds have heaps of room and this time of year are not busy.

Thursday (and Tuesday) are Cattle Sales at Roma - the biggest cattle sale yard in the southern hemisphere. So we headed down for a look. Feeling a little strange wearing our boots after so long in thongs, but Tim and Melorse were able to recall some childhood memories and Lotte and Archie enjoyed the experience. Back to the bus for some school work and maintenance. In the afternoon we went to the Big Rig which was very informative about the gas and petroleum history/ indusrty around the Roma area. Interested to learn petroleum was all formed millions of years ago from brocken down plant and animal matter. We also visited the largest bottle tree - similar to the boab trees so anyone who knows Melrose there was a need for a hug. These trees are amazing, almost human like; or even like a human stuck in the ground upside down.

Friday we headed to St George a friendly country town with wide streets lined with jacaranders trees and bordered by the Balonne River. We went for lovely bike ride along the river. Unfortunately Lotte and Melrose's tyres met with the large local thorns and we needed to find some tyre goo.

Saturday was a slow start, we first went to a private collection of carved luminated emu eggs. Absolutely amazing and well worth the $7 family entry. The detail and carving in each individual egg was perfect. We then headed to Beardmore Dam for lunch, some fishing and clothes free swims returning for dinner - home cooked pizza.

From St George we drove to Gundiwindi, this town is made by the agricultral business surrounding the area and the MacIntyre River which boarders the town and NSW. Having 6 main hwy's intersecting at this town it was a busteling hub. We went for a good walk along the MacIntyre River levey and this finished with a refreshing river swim. We stayed at the show grounds which was boardering the town, very open and easy to park the bus up for a night. Monday we rode into the town centre where we started a cotton tour of the area heading out to a farm to see where and how cotton is grown and then the harvesting to product process. Lotte and Archie being spoilt with their own special morning tea and cotton products. A quick pack up and a move towards Warrick.

With a group decision made to stay at a fram 38km west of Warrick we drove in to be pleasantly surrprised by a well orgainsed and freindly stay at Glendon Camping Gounds. Heading over a small wooded bridge to get in was a little scary seeing how much the boards bent from out weight. Maybe on the way back we will take the creek crossing! Discovering their was a dam with yabbies we thought we would try our luck and set a net, so with some dip and biscuites and drink in hand we headed over and set some nets and watched the sunset. After a windy nights sleep we woke to check the nets. We caught one small yabby about the size of our little finger, it certainly wasn't a feed but Archie left feeling very happy we had caught one eventhough too small. The next decision was do we go back over the bridge and risk breaking it and maybe damage to the bus or do we chance the debatable creek that we might get stuck in due to bottoming out?? Decision made we decided to go through the creek - bad choice the trailer jocky bottomed out and put us in such a predicament that we could not go forward or backwards. OH dear with Tim and Archie flying to Tas the next morning all sorts of thoughts were going through our heads. Luckily with some help from the lovely owner Jason and his son, some digging and raising the bus with rocks and planks of wood we were able to disconect the trailer and drag it backwards then luckinly enough reverse the bus back out. This now left us with the predicament from the previous day; will the old wooded bridge hold us the second time, especilly after seeing how much it bent yesterday? Butterflies in our stomach we had no choice, over we went luckily with no immediate harm to the bridge or bus. Still hoping to catch the Warrick Camp Draft we headed into Warrick and parked the bus up. Doning our boots again and RM hats, John Deer t- shirt and trying to not look too much like tourists we headed to the camp draft. We watched many compeditors compete, it had a great atmosphrer and was a fun experince. Learing about the stages and scoring with firstly the horse and rider cutting a steer or heifer from a mob in the yard (scored out of 24), the gates are then opened and they need to steer the beast in a figure 8, then between 2 bushy posts (score out of 70 for the horse skills) if the compeditors compleated the course they scored another 4 points. The competitor can also be disqualified if there is any danger or potential danger to the beast.

Another 2 hour drive and we arrived back safley to the Lockharts, now a very familar and liked place for us and the bus. Packed for Tim and Archie's big adveture back to Tas. Unfortuanaly for DiDi she has had a nasty fall and brocken her leg so extra nice that they will be back to help her and see her.