Bimbling in the hinterland

Our two Kiwi pals left today, heading off to Brisbane via a few hours at the Australian Zoo. The promised showers did not eventuate, and we had the warmest day yet. Blue skies and air con in the car on!

We set off north, sort of bimbling. We headed for Gympie. I like the name. I hope I don't offend any Gympie-ites, but it's a bit of a one horse town. When we did find the town centre, most of the shops were shut (Saturday afternoon), and we couldn't find a cafe that looked like it made proper coffee. It does have a big flash shopping centre on the outskirts, so that's obviously where everyone does their shopping and the town centre is losing out. As in lots of places. It did have a very nice memorial to all the Australian War Dead, though.

From there we headed south to Kenilworth. The countryside is amazing. Rolling hills, lots of trees, and huge great straight up and down mountains rising out of nowhere.

There were lots of waterholes, and I really wanted to get a blip of a billabong, but there was never anywhere to stop safely. And if we could stop, I couldn't get a good view, as there was always a ditch, and I didn't know what was in it (water! snakes!! redback spiders!!!). I saw so many good blips as we whizzed by. Every cow and horse had a big white crane bird with it, presumably eating all the bugs stirred up by their big chum.

There were signs claiming koalas might cross the road (just to excite tourists, I suspect) and we did actually stop and look carefully up into the gum trees, but no luck.

Kenilworth was a nice wee place. Actually, I loved it, as the wee cheese factory made yoghurt and ice cream as well, and I had the biggest ice cream ever! Back up the Bruce Highway to Noosa, and a wee pop down to the river before going home. A lovely evening, with everyone and his dog out walking, using the barbecues, fishing, stand up paddling (that looked fun), swimming, and generally pottering around while the parakeets made a racket in the trees above. I almost got an in-focus shot of one swinging on a branch upside down. Will try harder.

Back home and a coffee and some biscuits for tea. Can't do that when visitors are with us! Shouldn't do it any time, but hey! we're on holiday.

My blip today is of some letter boxes at the end of a road. There were 10 houses up this wee road in the middle of nowhere. I could only take the photo because we could pull in and stop. I wonder who those people are...