Yowah

 We did a little detour to Yowah. Had the gps set to take the turnoff to Yowah but driving along, we saw a sign to Yowah, 30 kms! What the?  We turned around and yep it was bitumen, this must be it.

It wasnt! As 100 metres into it uit turned to gravel but we had both been brought up on gravel roads so what the hell, we continued. It appeared that they had had a grader over it and it was a pretty good road for half of it. Then it got rather ordinary with some wash outs but Warren took it slow and we made it to the bitumen jyst outside of town. 

There's opal in them thar hills! Yowah is famous for tge Yowah nut. There was a store/ caravan park with a working artisan bore out the front. Then we took the road to the Bluff which had 360 degree views.

Warren had discovered Vancouver on the dial, only 23,000 kms that

Eulo.

 After a late start, going to the service and then nit being able to get fuel until 11am, we stopped at Eulo instead of going tbrough to Cunnamulla like we intended.

The caravan park was at the back of r the pub with something out tge front.

I noticed that the pub was having roast pork fir dinner.

What a feast. Cabbage, beans, zucchini, roast pumpkin and mash, several slices of pork and crackling, gravy and apple sauce. We were able to sit on rhe vernadah with Lucy to eat. 

ANZAC service

 Turned out the town was having at march and service at 9am.

While watching the march, we got chatting with a young couple who have their dog there

Lucy and he got friendly and the woman worked at the servo and told us ut would open at 11am. 

That was a win/win sitation, we got to go to Anzac although we were both undressed. Next time we are away aroubd Anzac, we will pack our medals. 

Water power Thargomindah

 Water is quite plentiful because of the Great Artisan bores. We left town and drove out a little waý to get this cache.

The water is very hot and needs to go into cooling ponds.

I put my hand under the water and while it didnt burn it was hot. After we went to fill with fuel except the service station was closed and their auto card machibe was out of action. There was only about 50kms left in the tank, looks like we stay another night. We had forgotten that it was Anzac day and therefore a holiday. Back we went to the cp and cecided to walk into the town centre.

Quilpie to Thargomindah

 Maybe I have spelt that right this time, anyway we went the ling way around which took us past Jackson, a mining camp and Noccundra which is a pub in the muddle of no where. Both these "towns" we had to drive off the main road, 30 or 40kms. Yep, there was a cache at each and the furthest west in Queensland.

This was Jackson, we couldnt enter the mining camp which was off to the right but we got what we went to get.

The pub, there was a busload of people there and the bus driver had the engine exposed, playground and public toilets on the right of the pub.

It is dinasour country and a farmer had fashioned this near his letterbox, we had to turn around to snap a pic. Getting up clise and personal, a little bird flew out, so we looked inside and there was a nest with three eggs.

The road and all the pebbly rocks.

The Bluff Quilpie

 This was about 7 kms out if town.

It appeared almost out of nowhere, we parked in the car park and Warren said he would do this one, he knows how I dont like stairs or steps. I didnt count them byt think there was about eighty steps. He let Lucy off the lead and she raced away like a loon. 

Three 4wds pulled up soon after us and the younger three guys went up, one guy drove back to town to pick up supplies and two older guys stayed with the vehicles. Chatting them, they do a trip each year, one guy works as a tour guide but hes a mate and he organises where they do and stay. They had been at the farm stay the night before on the Darling river.

Lucy of course made new friends and ended up with a sore foot. We think the ground and rocks are too hard for her, she picked up a couple of prickles as well, they hurt. We left her in the car with the air con going and back gate open so she could see us but she wasnt interested in getting out. 

We do that now when we are setting up or packing up the camper, she jumps in the back and just watches. She is out of the way and by in the car, she knows we are not leaving her behind.

A couple of hours with her off her feet and it was okay again.

Quilpie

 

First cache was here, ten ks out of town. Can stay at the lake.

Another cache which we didnt get last time, Warren found it quite easily this time around.

All the smilies around Quilpie,yay for us.

Charleville

 We needed petrol and we needed to find the big red roo. Parked up and walked into the town centre.

Just to put the size into perpective.

Walked back a different way and discovered the court house.

Painted river walk on the way out.

Red Lizard bush park Charleville

 We have stayed here before so we went back again. Its six ks out of town and fairly quiet. The toilet block is in the centre and vans etc park around it. There is a patch of lawn around it and the camp kitchen but nowhere else.

The toilet block is all corregated iron, doors and walls on a concrete slab, not sure that I would want to be there on a hot day but it seems to work, very easy to clean. Its part of a farm with sheep and cattle through the fence. Lucy was watching the sheep intently while we were having coffee, it appeared she didnt know what to make of them. 

Morven part 2

 Nothing like some art work.

A mural of sheep and a kelpie.

I suppose we were there for twenty minutes and did not see a soul.

Morven

 We stopped here for a break, the road goes on to Charlaville or it turns north to Augathella, we have taken bith roads but not stopped at Morven before.

Great kids park on the side of the road, fully fenced.

Toilets were across the way with an old kerosene tin hut. In the depression days, many lost their homes and as kerosene was used a lot, huts were fashioned from these. I guess it was shelter from the elements.

Roma

 Almost lunch and time for some groceries. I would shop while Warren and Lucy would go for a walk. Silly us, we took all the shopping bags out of the car except one which we were using for dirty clothes. They took a tumble onto the back seat of the car. 

I was surprised to see them just across from the car. Apparently Lucy went so far then sat down and refused to move. Warren said he couldnt be bothered dragging her so they waited under the shade of a bottle tree. He said he knows now once I say about her when he runs parkrun. 

One cache was out the road so that was our lunch spot, Warren found it while I was getting lunch on top of the van. Yes, it was a stop but no tables or seats. Second cache further out and we got that as well, both had been written up as did not finds. Next one along was one at a small community hall and we hadnt been able to find it before. I was going to give it a miss but Warren said we should have a go. Well, we found it in about ten minutes after reading the ligs which suggested the coirds were out by about ten metres. Yay, three for the day, there were others byt we had already turned them in smilies on trips before.

Chinchilla

 Pulled in at 1.30pm, set up and went out around the town.

Had 6 caches on the list and only managed 2 and part of an adventure lab so that does count as an extra one.

Of course there was one here, not fond of these welcome to town signs, when tge road is busy, luckily fir me, it wasnt at that time. Next one was on a quiet road but still had 70 metres to walk in thigh high dry grass, I didnt even get out if the car, no way was I going in that. One was reasonably new with a dnf three weeks ago by an ecperienced couple, we didnt do any better. 

Drove out to a weir only to discover the entrance was barracked and therefore we couldnt get to the last three, one was in the top oldest in Qld.

We stayed at the showgrounds, which we had done before.

Jondaryan

 We stopped here for lunch. Nice little park. 

It had the usual piece of artillery.

It had one lone pine tree in the park which had been propagated from the pine in Canberra at the war memorial. The one in Canberra had originated from the area of the Lone Pine battle overseas.

Next stop for overnight was Chinchilla, arriving approx 1.30pm.

On our selection.

 This was a radio show when I was a kid, more commonly known as Dad and Dave.

Dad and Dave were Australia's counterpart to Ma and Pa kettle. There were several if not hundreds of Dad and Dave jokes, Dave esp was a little bit thick.

Dad was actually Steel Rudd and they had a small farm and were always poor.

We turned up a road called Steel Rudd and up on a rise was a shingle hut. It is not a replica but built by the local community groups to show how people lived back in the day. I think Dad and Dave were set in the early 1900s. 

Inside the hut were stories, one was about a young school teacher who came to live with the family fir a month. Mrs Rudd had partitioned a corner for her and hung a hessian bag so she could have some privacay, at the time there were three other young boys besides Dave, they couldnt understand why she left after a week. 

Mary Poppins house

 In a very small town of Alloura, sits a lively restored home. It was the childhood home of PLTravers who wrote Mary Poppins.

P L Travers was the name that she wrote under, Travers was her fathers given name and he worked for a bank and the house was the for the manager. 

He died when she was youngish and the family then went from family to family, to keep up the spirits of the younger children she made up stories and later she penned Mary Poppins.

It is a private residence now and I am sure they have heaps of people stopping and taking ohotos. I think the family lived there in the early 1900s

Soldiers Memorial

 Stanthorpe is in the granite belt and there are lots of outcrops of rocks. We ended for an earth cache regarding granite and it happened to be at this memorial.

We had to walk up past a house to get to it, the wall that had questions about it was off to the right. It was a curved wall that went between two large rocks.

I loved the clean lines of this with shelter and seats inside

Clifton

 Heading back home, we stopped at Clifton for a little adventure which took us to the local rose garden, the railway station and church.

Love the mickey mouse locks.

Stanthorpe, coldest place in Qld.

 It does have the coldest temps recorded in the Sunshine state, but it was nice and sunny when we were there. Four days later, they did have the first frost for the year.

We checked into our air bnb just as the the rain started, so we had a snooze and then ordered dinner, thank you mr pizza. Masks at the time were mandatory so we stayed in. 

Later we headed out around the town, visited a vets, the local park and finally the big thing in town which was a temperature gauge.

It is a brick structure and was reading 16.7c at 8.30pm but I only had short sleeves and didnt feel cold, luckily there was no wind.

Heading to Stanthorpe

 Our first cache was a letter box called Noah's Ark. Before we got there I had to answer some questions regarding the ark, one was how many daughters in law did Noah have? 

I had also thought it was two but no, wiki said three so soon corrected that.

The letter box itself was in a line of three country letterboxes with a padlock. The answers to the questions opened the padlock. Once opened, there was a flask inside and then the log to sign. Unfortunately I didnt think to take a photo.

I took one of the next one.

 

It was down a large stump and was attached to a cut out black cat. Awesome!

Two days in Stanthorpe

 Once the rain cleared, we headed to Stanthorpe for two days. There is an Apple shaped geo art out there and rumour has it that they may be cancelled in the near future.

The apples are puzzles and I did work out about half if them but Sheridan had done them all over two or three trips and as she was driving, she drove me to the general area. I think we got about 34 for the two days. It is about a three hour drive.

We visited a dike. This was an earth cache and due to the recent rains, the water was quite high.

Spelling is so important!

 At the event over the weekend and there was fun stuff to do. One was a type of getting to know the area/campground. Given co ordinates and once there, had to put in the correct answer before going off to the next one.

Sheridan and I were cleaning the toilets and before going into the mens, a young guy cane out and we asked him to check if there was anyone else in there. We didnt want to surprise anyone. He checked and told us it was all clear.

We put the sign about cleaning out and were chatting while cleaning. The door opens and it is the same guy. He had come to see Sheridan as he couldnt get the camp kitchen answer to work. As they both went out, I heard him ask if he should have put in greý rather than silver.

The question was, "What colour is the sink in the kitchen" answer silver as it was stainless steel.

He had been typing in sliver, he now knows how to spell silver.