Brisbane to Yelarbon to Nindigully Pub - 21-22 June 2014

To Yelarbon
Well, my last day of work was yesterday. I am now retired and many great adventures await. I am really excited so I feel the decision to retire was the right one.

We had 7 weeks ahead of us and most of the country we would be travelling through is new territory which is always good.

We left Brisbane and headed west. Our first overnight stop was going to be Yelarbon, about 30 kms west of Inglewood. We had an unexpected stop in Warwick though as Bruce wasn't sure if he had brought with him the spare caravan keys. I rang a locksmith in Warwick to check what time they closed, to find it was 12 midday. It would be a close thing as that was the time we expected to be there. He was a lovely guy and said to ring him when we got there and he would open up for us. That's certainly country service. We did that and got our keys cut. He was telling us about a trip he had done to Thargomindah for a job. He got hit by 2 kangaroos at the same time. Hopefully that doesn't happen to us.

The sky kept getting darker and darker and just as we pulled in to the Yelarbon Recreation Reserve, where we were spending the night, the skies opened. We had to just sit in the car and wait for it to pass as we couldn't see a thing. It was a lovely little camp area. It was $15 a night for a powered site ($10 for unpowered) and there were 4 of us there for the night. The buildings were from when there was a railway station at Yelarbon I'm assuming from the style of them. There were showers and toilets in the buildings and a separate laundry for use for $2.

We didn't get any more rain after the downpour and it was quite a mild night. Didn't even need the heater.

We chatted to the couple in the van next to us. They were from the Central Coast of NSW. They had a wedding to go to at Tamborine Mountain and had made a trip out of it, doing a loop out as far as Bourke and then up to Queensland and back across to Tamborine Mountain.

To Nindigully Pub
Our first main town was Goondiwindi. We filled up with fuel ($1.56.9 for diesel) but didn't have a look around. It looks like a nice town. The Royal Hotel looks beautiful and so well maintained. We will come back and spend a few days in the area at another time. It is not far from home. A couple of the larger buildings were the Community Centre and a large PCYC. There was also the Botanical Gardens. Nice wide streets with trees lining them.

We called in to Talwood. One of the ladies I worked with, Louise, her husband was the policeman there and they lived there for 7 years. Bruce took a photo of me outside the police residence (next to the Station), so I can send it to her. The current copper came out to have a chat to us. He seemed a nice, young guy. He likes it there.

We had also had recommended to us, by the couple at Yelarbon the previous night, a free camp next to the pub at Talwood. They said the facilities are excellent.

We had seen a lot of road kill today. Kangaroos, wallabies, even a wild pig. I imagine it will only get worse as we head west.

We pulled in to the Nindigully Pub mid afternoon. The Pub is the oldest pub in Queensland. It is also where they made the movie with Hugh Jackman, Paperback Hero. I liked that movie. The Pub is on the banks of the Moonie River and there is a huge area out the front of the Pub and down to the river where you can camp. There is no power but there is a toilet block and you can have a shower at the Pub for a donation. The area where you camp is all red dirt and there was a fair bit of water laying around so they must have had that storm we had at Yelarbon. We parked up near the toilet block where there were 3 other vans parked.

We had a walk through the Pub. It has a lot of character. with old hats nailed around the top of the walls. They look like they have now started nailing money on the ceiling. There is even the skin of a crocodile on the wall, which they have labelled as a Nindigully Gecko!

We also walked down to the river where there is a pathway along part of the river.

While we were looking through the Pub we said hello to a guy, Brian, and he invited us to join him and his wife at their table for dinner. It turns out he is camped next to us. When we went back to the van, we joined the campfire between the vans and he was there. He and his wife, Bonnie, come from Slacks Creek, which is not far from us. They are on their way home. There were 8 of us around the fire and we had a great chat of places visited and to be visited.

We had a great chat over dinner with Brian and Bonnie. They have had vans/motorhomes for quite a few years and have done a lot of travel around Australia. Brian has been retired for quite a few years so they have had the opportunity to travel too. We got some good information on some of the places we are interested in going to. Bruce and I had a nice meal as did Bonnie, but poor Brian had to send his pork chops back and then had to wait another hour before it came out again. And there weren't all that many people eating there last night.

As we were leaving the hotel, we heard that someone had ordered the Road Train Burger. This is a huge burger, which feeds 1-6 people and costs $60. We went out to have a look. It was a few families and their kids, totalling about 9 people, so that doesn't work out to too bad a price per head. The burger is huge.