Thursday, 8 October 2006
We were up early again this morning for another big day on the road. Tonight we have accommodation booked at Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, which is about 640 kilometres or around seven hours of driving … before factoring in rest stops and a lunch break. Although the temperature was much milder this morning – in the mid-teens – it was overcast with the sun struggling to break through. It may have been cold yesterday when we started out but the sky was blue and the sunshine was glorious.
We were packed and ready to go again by 7.45am, turning the truck’s nose back onto the Newell Highway, heading north. We drove through Moree and continued towards Goondiwindi. About 20 Ks south of Goondiwindi the time discrepancies started, you know, because Queensland chooses not to adopt Daylight Savings Time. Eye roll. Bernie’s watch and phone switched back to Eastern Standard Time while mine remained on EDST. So, approaching the border it was either nearly 9.00am or nearly 10.00am. Our body clocks are so confused. We only adopted EDST on Sunday morning, when we put our clocks forward and lost an hour, and now we have recovered the hour just five days later, crossing the border and returning to EST while we are in Queensland.
By the time we reached Boggabilla, the last town on the Newell Highway in NSW, our watches and phones were in agreement that it was nearly 9.00am. We crossed the McIntyre River and we were in Queensland. We didn’t drive into Goondiwindi Town Centre but continued straight onto the Cunningham Highway. Needing a break to stretch our legs and change drivers we pulled into the BP Servo to make use of their facilities. Since we weren’t purchasing fuel, Bernie bought a couple of Coke Zeros to legitimize using their loos, ha, ha. Weirdly, now that we were actually IN Queensland my watch grabbed DST from somewhere again and insisted it was now 10.00am. It wasn’t, it was only 9.00am, groan!
I’d only been behind the wheel for a couple of kilometres, when we spotted some large roadside sculptures. Getting all touristy again, I pulled the truck in so that we could take some photographs. The sculptures are collectively known as the Nugwai artworks by celebrated artist Angus Wilson. They are large scale pieces created from old materials like car bodies and scrap metal. We made do with photos of the ones that we could see easily from the roadside lay-by as we thought it would be too cheeky to wander down the Private Driveway. No time today to ring the number listed for a guided tour, but filed it in the memory banks for if we pass this way again.
Back in the truck, we had barely set off when Syri instructed me to turn left onto Polo Road. What? Turning left seemed … odd. Not daring to second guess Syri, I took the left turn which took us across to the Leichhardt Highway where we turned right to continue north. As it turned out, Syri’s circuitous route around Goondiwindi enabled us to see the sculptures since we certainly didn’t know about them beforehand, we just happened upon them thanks to Syri.
As we drove across Polo Road we had been hearing chatter on Channel 40 about a Wide Load. The driver of the pilot vehicle kept telling oncoming trucks that a 4.8 metre wide load was coming towards them. Then more chatter about nearing their destination and ringing ahead to let someone know they were about half an hour away. Sure enough, the Wide Load was heading the same way as us and soon we were stuck right behind it. Groan. I just wasn’t game to overtake it, especially when it seemed that it was likely to turn off in another 20 minutes … or so? Fortunately the pilot vehicle and Wide Load turned off sooner than later and I was able to wind the truck up to 110kph.
At some point we had turned off the Leichhardt Highway onto the Gore Highway. I remained at the wheel until just before Millmerran. We pulled in for a quick stretch at a random roadhouse and Bernie took the wheel again. Arriving in Millmerran we discovered that it is the home of the Camp Oven Festival. Dang, we just missed it. This year’s festival was held last weekend on the 3rd and 4th of October.
Although it was only just after 11.00am (EST) we ate breakfast at around 7.00am (EDST) so we were hungry. We spotted the Millmerran Bakery & Cafe and pulled into a car park out the front. After an egg and lettuce sandwich (me) and a curry pie and sausage roll (Bernie) I headed back in for cakes! I had spotted some scrumptious looking chocolate brownies and could not resist. Not to be left out, Bernie decided on an apple slice. Not a vanilla slice in sight!
We continued towards Toowoomba but skirted around it on the bypass road, before turning off onto the New England Highway towards Crows Nest. As we negotiated our way through the back blocks of Toowoomba to pick up the New England Highway we found ourselves held up at a level crossing waiting for a goods train to go through. Before reaching Crows Nest we turned off towards Esk where we picked up the Brisbane Valley Highway. Looking at the atlas I expected that we would start heading east when we reached the D’Aguilar Highway. Syri however, decided to cut across towards Kilcoy on the Gregors Creek Road. As we drove up into the Great Dividing Range we could see that the cloud was coming down to meet the hills. All too soon we were driving in drizzle. So much for Queensland being beautiful one day and perfect the next??!
From Kilcoy we did take the D’Aguilar Highway to continue eastward before turning left onto the Kilcoy Beerwah Road and then making our final approach to Maleny along the Maleny Stanley River Road. Arriving in town we were confronted with roadworks in front of The Old Church Maleny where we have an apartment booked for tonight. That was awkward.
We eventually found a park just down the street and walked back to the church via the orange bollards marking out a temporary pedestrian walkway. We picked up our key and found out where we could park the truck overnight. Since we were parked with the truck’s nose pointing down the hill we decided when we returned to the truck to drive out to the platypus viewing platform before negotiating our way into the church’s car park. It was a bit early in the afternoon for platypus sightings but we decided that it would be good to suss out where we needed to be closer to sunset.
At 3.30pm in the afternoon platypus viewing was, as anticipated, a bust but it was good to have scouted out where we needed to be later on. We drove back into town where we checked out the Obi Obi Boardwalk near the bridge in town. A local told us this is where the ‘Platypus Whisperer’ takes his tours in the mornings. Unfortunately, mid-afternoon, there were no platypuses to be seen in town either. Later? Fingers crossed.
We picked up a couple of things from Woolies and drove back up the hill to our digs for the night. Our gear was transferred from the truck into the apartment and we settled in for a short while before heading back out just after 5.00pm to try again for some elusive platypus viewing. As we walked down the path, a young couple returning to their car told us that they had been watching a couple of platypuses from the viewing platform.
The signs at the platform say to watch for the bow wave that swimming platypuses make and bubbles on the surface where they are foraging/feeding below. Hmmn, there were two pesky dusky moorhens on the water disturbing the water making it almost impossible to pick out bow waves made by swimming mammals. Eventually though, our patience was rewarded and we think that we were watching two platypuses in the creek below the platform. With 100s, yes 100s, of platypus photos taken we returned to the truck to drive back to town to see about dinner.
With the weather clearer and, more importantly drier, than this afternoon we walked down the hill to find somewhere to eat. The more highly recommended Italian restaurant was full so we wandered by the Japanese restaurant which had a menu that seemed … confusing. We decided to head down to the pub. However, as we looked for a free table, we noticed the ridiculous length of the queue to order food. What?! If we get on the end of that queue it’s going to be a-g-e-s before we get our meals.
Back to Umami Sisters then, the Japanese restaurant. Hmmn, all a bit disorganised there. They had a banquet option on their menu board outside so we ordered that. Oh sorry, we’re changing the menu over next week and we’re running down stock so we don’t have the ingredients for the banquet. Really? So we ordered one of their set meal options. Bernie went with karaage chicken and I had the teriyaki salmon. Both delicious despite them being our second choices.
