Beautiful light this afternoon – wish we had have taken the time to stop and get some better photos!
Hooray – we finally made it on the road and out of Brisbane today and as promised we sang our Zac Brown Band theme song ‘Free’ at the top of our voices as we were leaving – it was a nice feeling! Video below – please excuse the singing – we’ll work on it!
We decided to head for Goondiwindi first as we have never been that way before. It rained for most of the day and we were getting nervous as we watched the temperature drop from 24 degrees to 14 degrees as we got over the Great Dividing Range – just outside Warwick – eeek! But it is not too freezing tonight – we have fleece liners in the kids sleeping bags and their flannelette PJ’s on and hoping that will keep them snug enough tonight – otherwise tomorrow night we will add a thermal layer to them!
We are free camped at Bungunya which is about 70km’s west of Goondiwindi – we even got free hot showers tonight – awesome and pretty clean to boot! Lots of driving today and not a lot of sightseeing as it was very wet and we wanted to put some kilometres behind us. No incidents today except that I split some delicious home-made chutney (it is soooooo yum Bern!) from my sandwich on my freshly washed pair of jeans which is very annoying when you don’t know when they will next see the washing machine! Lesson No 2 for the trip to be very careful when eating – especially when wearing freshly washed clothes – we already feel that freshly washed clothes is going to be a luxury!!
We finally out drove the rain at Goondiwindi this afternoon so we pulled over for a late lunch at the rest area and checked out the botanical gardens and the McIntyre River while we were there – very pretty! We then drove through a muster happening on the way out of town which was lots of fun to drive through all the cattle! The scenery today was really pretty – especially this afternoon when the rain cleared – we wished we had of stopped the car and taken some more photos but plenty more chances hopefully!!
We need to do some grocery shopping tomorrow and get some meals organised for the next few days but we need to do a bit of ruthless dumping of items in the morning to make room for groceries as we still feel to heavy and crowded in the camper!
Our Favourite Parts of Today (we try to go round the table at dinner time every night and each say a favourite part of the day – I thought I would record them here if I can remember them!);
Lexi – seeing two windmills
Toby – just driving in the car, seeing the Mustang car
Jack – going over the great dividing range, seeing all the cattle on the road
Jess – finally seeing the sun come out and seeing the beautiful late afternoon scenery, driving through the cattle muster as we felt we had come a long way from Brisbane.
Matt – just enjoying the driving and seeing all the different things there is to see from dwarf motorbikes on the road to huge grain silos
Today’s Photos
Rest stop in Goondiwindi
Botanical Gardens Goondiwindi – only small but very pretty!
Beautiful Coolibah Tree – Jack was very excited to read the name of the tree – his first Coolibah Tree sighting – just like the ‘Waltzing Matilda’ song mum, he said!
Goondiwindi is grain, sheep and cotton country – huge grain silos everywhere! And yes we did outrun those dark clouds!
We drove through a muster in progress just outside Goondiwindi
Was a little funny driving through a herd of cattle with our big rig!
Kids writing in their journals while waiting for dinner on day 1 – great idea – thanks Keria!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
oh so jealous sad excited happy for you all in one!! what an exciting change what a journey!! enjoy enjoy enjoy!! and for the sake of eliminating what if’s in my mind… commenting on a comment – “plenty more chances I hope”… i’m sure there will be of course but enjoy and capture every moment as if there won’t be another just like it – savour each and every little thing you see and do!! We all are here – I know i’m certainly living vicariously through you from Namvegas so capture everything please!! hehe I want each sunset etc etc etc!
Ok me again i’m sorry! I actually went to bed but couldn’t get the words out of my head… they won’t let me sleep until I got up and posted em…
“IF NOT NOW…. WHEN?”
in relation to the comment I commented on… This is your trip of your lifetime… no more… ‘tomorrow’s’, no more ‘we don’t have time’s’…
“IF NOT NOW … WHEN?”
anyway.. i’ll leave you alone now! can you tell I had my coffee too late in the day! 😉
And it begins…first sights on the road!
Loved the family singing and the photos!!
You should be heading north to avoid winter – 27C in the gulf country today! Not a fleece in sight.
Hey guys, congrats on hitting the road, you all must be very excited. Let the journey begin.
Thanks Lyndon – we are excited and really starting to wind down and enjoy ourselves now!
Great Photograhy! and always a great read, living the dream. I am so jealous, wish we could all come.
We are getting closer everyday and I hope we can hook up somewhere on your trip, we will be doing plenty of prcatice runs to Orange now with no accommodation other than the camper and the occassional stay with relatives…middle of winter..LoL.
Safe journey and thank you for sharing..256 followers..wow.
What a great start to the trip! Can’t wait to see where the road takes your family 🙂
x