Having negotiated the hazards of the scary underground garage once again
and escaped into the daylight – overcast – we set off to the west on M5 to get to A2 and Toowoomba. The M5 is not quite what our Mways are like in UK. There’s hardly any hard shoulder, side roads join and leave higgledy piggledy, drivers over- and undertake all the time and the big wagons “push” from behind when you’re not going fast enough for them, even when you’re already going faster than the speed limit! – not that Tom would dream of doing such a thing!?! The end of the Mway was simply a set of traffic lights before we joined the A2 and that was actually a better road, for at least some of the way.
The land here is pretty flat but you can see hills in the distance on both sides. We’ve found that there are not a lot of hills or mountains here, unlike NZ where you couldn’t move for them. Just before Toowoomba, the land rises steeply and the road deteriorates quite severely. There are roadworks but, as it is a main highway and there are no alternative routes, I don’t envy their task. Toowoomba is huge and spread out, very industrial and agricultural as it is the main town for several hundreds of kms – the further west and north you go, the less populated it gets.
The A39, the Gore Highway, to Goondiwindi (pronounced Goonderwindee I’m told) is a revelation – straight as a die for mile after mile but very uneven and with hidden dips.
There are occasional bends just to relieve the boredom as there seems to be no other reason for them. There are wide verges and for much of the first part of the journey, great expanses of fields with the occasional tree then more trees appear and come closer to the road although there’s always a wide margin – we think it’s a fire break, anybody know any better? This stretch is through the Darling Downs, cute name eh? We saw our first road train, only 2 wagons long but that was long enough. They don’t hang around either! We stopped off in Pittsworth for our midmorning break, but all we could find was a café with no cakes – so we had a chicken snack each and they were very tasty. It was next to a charity shop, so we managed to get rid of the old suitcases.
We passed the Darling Downs Correctional Facility, a gloomy looking place in the middle of the most inhospitable terrain. All the land round here is very dry. The rains that hit Queensland in February obviously didn’t extend as far as here. Either that, or because it’s at a higher elevation, it drains away more quickly. There is quite a bit of sandstone around so that could be one of the answers. From Toowoomba to Milmerran, about 90kms, there are vast plains stretching on either side of the road with only the occasional tree. Then, although it’s still flat, more trees appear but not in any great abundance and they’re all quite small.
Shortly after that, we reached a roadhouse that had a sign saying “Last facility for 130kms”, so we thought we’d better call in and use the facilities. We had the hottest coffee ever, and it was from a machine that ground each cup separately. While I was trying to finish mine (Tom must have a cast iron mouth to drink his so quickly), Tom went out to take photos of a b-double
and ask the driver how exactly they’re categorised as such. Road trains consist of 2 (or more) separate units – an articulated lorry towing a trailer as big again using a towbar, and it has a maximum length in NSW of 36.5m (they do have longer ones in other states); whereas a B-Double has a maximum length of 25m and is effectively 2 articulated trailers locked together, with the wheels in the middle forming part of the leading trailer.
(I hope you’ve taken all that in – there’ll be a test on all these facts I’m giving you when we get home!!) Both types of vehicle are restricted to approved routes and they’re banned from some town centres and villages. This I can tell you – that they are very scary when they’re breathing down your neck, even scarier when you slow down to let them pass and they seem to take forever to do so!
Back on the road, it was just one straight stretch after another – Tom measured one at over 13kms. There were more trees closer to the road and hundreds of huge cacti plants,
up to 20’ in height, with loads of red fruit on them. We chuckled at some of the post boxes at the side of the road – when you looked for the houses they served, there was nothing as far as the eye could see – just dirt tracks leading off into the distance.
Eventually, we reached Goondiwindi and found our motel, the Binalong. Very nice, in fact one of the nicest ones we’ve had and with a swimming pool. Free internet access too, so Tom was happy – but when he came to get access, he couldn’t. He had to go to their main computer and sort it out. This is about the third or fourth time he’s had to do this. Some of the owners have no idea how the system works. Then he logged on to BBC Radio 2 and we listened to Terry Wogan’s show! – a real taste of home!
Later, we walked to the RSL Club and had a pleasant meal. It wasn’t quite as posh as the 2 previous ones we’ve visited, but as always, they were very welcoming and the surroundings were comfortable.
and escaped into the daylight – overcast – we set off to the west on M5 to get to A2 and Toowoomba. The M5 is not quite what our Mways are like in UK. There’s hardly any hard shoulder, side roads join and leave higgledy piggledy, drivers over- and undertake all the time and the big wagons “push” from behind when you’re not going fast enough for them, even when you’re already going faster than the speed limit! – not that Tom would dream of doing such a thing!?! The end of the Mway was simply a set of traffic lights before we joined the A2 and that was actually a better road, for at least some of the way.The land here is pretty flat but you can see hills in the distance on both sides. We’ve found that there are not a lot of hills or mountains here, unlike NZ where you couldn’t move for them. Just before Toowoomba, the land rises steeply and the road deteriorates quite severely. There are roadworks but, as it is a main highway and there are no alternative routes, I don’t envy their task. Toowoomba is huge and spread out, very industrial and agricultural as it is the main town for several hundreds of kms – the further west and north you go, the less populated it gets.
The A39, the Gore Highway, to Goondiwindi (pronounced Goonderwindee I’m told) is a revelation – straight as a die for mile after mile but very uneven and with hidden dips.
There are occasional bends just to relieve the boredom as there seems to be no other reason for them. There are wide verges and for much of the first part of the journey, great expanses of fields with the occasional tree then more trees appear and come closer to the road although there’s always a wide margin – we think it’s a fire break, anybody know any better? This stretch is through the Darling Downs, cute name eh? We saw our first road train, only 2 wagons long but that was long enough. They don’t hang around either! We stopped off in Pittsworth for our midmorning break, but all we could find was a café with no cakes – so we had a chicken snack each and they were very tasty. It was next to a charity shop, so we managed to get rid of the old suitcases.We passed the Darling Downs Correctional Facility, a gloomy looking place in the middle of the most inhospitable terrain. All the land round here is very dry. The rains that hit Queensland in February obviously didn’t extend as far as here. Either that, or because it’s at a higher elevation, it drains away more quickly. There is quite a bit of sandstone around so that could be one of the answers. From Toowoomba to Milmerran, about 90kms, there are vast plains stretching on either side of the road with only the occasional tree. Then, although it’s still flat, more trees appear but not in any great abundance and they’re all quite small.
Shortly after that, we reached a roadhouse that had a sign saying “Last facility for 130kms”, so we thought we’d better call in and use the facilities. We had the hottest coffee ever, and it was from a machine that ground each cup separately. While I was trying to finish mine (Tom must have a cast iron mouth to drink his so quickly), Tom went out to take photos of a b-double
and ask the driver how exactly they’re categorised as such. Road trains consist of 2 (or more) separate units – an articulated lorry towing a trailer as big again using a towbar, and it has a maximum length in NSW of 36.5m (they do have longer ones in other states); whereas a B-Double has a maximum length of 25m and is effectively 2 articulated trailers locked together, with the wheels in the middle forming part of the leading trailer. (I hope you’ve taken all that in – there’ll be a test on all these facts I’m giving you when we get home!!) Both types of vehicle are restricted to approved routes and they’re banned from some town centres and villages. This I can tell you – that they are very scary when they’re breathing down your neck, even scarier when you slow down to let them pass and they seem to take forever to do so!Back on the road, it was just one straight stretch after another – Tom measured one at over 13kms. There were more trees closer to the road and hundreds of huge cacti plants,
up to 20’ in height, with loads of red fruit on them. We chuckled at some of the post boxes at the side of the road – when you looked for the houses they served, there was nothing as far as the eye could see – just dirt tracks leading off into the distance.Eventually, we reached Goondiwindi and found our motel, the Binalong. Very nice, in fact one of the nicest ones we’ve had and with a swimming pool. Free internet access too, so Tom was happy – but when he came to get access, he couldn’t. He had to go to their main computer and sort it out. This is about the third or fourth time he’s had to do this. Some of the owners have no idea how the system works. Then he logged on to BBC Radio 2 and we listened to Terry Wogan’s show! – a real taste of home!
Later, we walked to the RSL Club and had a pleasant meal. It wasn’t quite as posh as the 2 previous ones we’ve visited, but as always, they were very welcoming and the surroundings were comfortable.
Place names we’ve smiled at today include – Seventeen Mile Rocks, Try-It Emu Farm, Scotland Yard Antiques (wonder where they come from?), Moonie and Nobby.
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