Chilly Stanthorpe

Wed 8 July… On we go, another 300k’s closer to the arctic circle! The scenery is lovely from inside the van but perishing cold outside. It’s just not what we are used to. The journey down from Esk was quite pleasant, very hilly at times but always something to look at. This is still farming country, mostly beef with some arable. The farmhouses ( homesteads) are nearly all made of timber with corrugated iron roofs and they remind us of cricket pavilions with their fancy wooden verandas. Having said we are still in farming country, it’s noticeable how much more congested it is. The towns are not so far apart and are larger than the ones we have been through these last few months. There is much more traffic the further south we get. Why they all want to live down here in this weather beats us.
Our first big town this morning was Toowoomba west of Brisbane, we know when towns are big, they have ring roads. The next big town was Warwick, which is not a bit like our Warwick. We are now in what’s called the Granite Belt, supposedly a good wine producing area, we may find out. The town we are in is Stan Thorpe just a few minutes drive from the New South Wales border, and we have brilliant internet,(broadband!) costly but it works. Navigator is now in the process of seeing whether we can get test match special on line! We have already been listening to this mornings Johnny Walker programme on radio 2. We just need to track down radio 4 long wave and if we do, and the cricket goes to plan we may stay here one more night! We have now taken to using George the Gorilla indoors! It create a bit of a fug in the van but Peter thinks it’s better than freezing his nuts off!