After yesterday's shocking weather (35 degrees C and a howling hot wind ) today was much cooler ( about 25C) so we set off on a short road trip to Toowoomba, about an hour's drive west of Brisbane.
It's a two lane highway most of the way and a pleasant drive.
At first we passed through open fields.
There's plenty of grass cover after the good rains we have had over the past two years but with no rain now for 75 days all is dry and brown.
Next we passed through the fertile crop growing area around Gatton.
Flat ploughed fields stretch off to the distance ready for potatoes, beetroot, beans, melons,onions and pumpkins.
Nice to see a few of these. I think they are left for wild life habitat.
These huge sprinklers provide irrigation for the newly planted crops.
Further on we are back to scrub.
Lots of dry grass. You can see why there is a lot of concern about bushfires this year
and talk about controlled burning off has already begun.
How's this for a typical Australian vista ?
As usual we encountered huge trucks along the way - most with double trailers fully loaded
and travelling fast..... faster than we were ....
and passing us at speeds over 100kph even though they are not supposed to be able to go that fast !!
It happened several times - very scary !!
(pity they don't stay over in the left lane like they do in the UK !)
From the flat plain we climbed up the range to lovely Toowoomba the "Garden City" and though yesterday's hot wind has cut short the spring flowers, the trees made a lovely green tunnel.
Business done, a quick bite was in order so we visited our favourite Cafe Valetta.
where we shared a Club sandwich ( dieting !!!) and a delightful coffee .....
before heading back down the range towards home.
Beats working !!!
Cheers.
Toowoomba is a funny name. It makes me think of cartoon gynaecologists. Those big trucks look scary. You should tell Tony to get his foot down so they never overtake you - unless of course it was you driving while you snapped the pictures. Even more scary!
ReplyDeleteThat looks more as I always imagined Australia to look till I met you and your blog! However the green trees and the cafe looked good. Don't forget that in the UK our roads are usually narrower so meeting/passing a lorry even one in the inside lane can be quite scary especially as so many of the big ones are European left hand drive ones so we always wonder how used to driving on the left their drivers might be! Big lorries = scary anywhere I guess!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the road trip.Just what I imagined it to be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Toowoomba trip. I drove through Toowoomba once in the wee small hours of the morning but didn't stop because I was headed much further North. I should probably try to get back there at some point.
ReplyDeleteIm hanging out for retirement so I can do stuff like pop off to another place for lunch!
it's even worse when they are triple trailers. It looks so weird having pictures from that side of the highway. Anyway, thanks for sharing your trip to Toowoomba.
ReplyDeleteA very pleasant outing. Did you lick the powder off the handle of your coffee? I would have :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing information on TOOWOOMBA ROAD TRIP , i have visited your blog great post..............
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