2016 Queensland Trip - Hurdle Gully Lookout

Day 17 Tuesday

We left our lovely caravan site at 1770 and headed for Gladstone where we wanted to find a Chemist to get some scripts filled.  This exercise proved more difficult but we again got our Navman onto the job and arrived at the Stockland Shopping Centre, but then of course had to find a park suitable for the van.  We did eventually find a park down the road from the shopping centre so left the van there and got some exercise by walking the few hundred metres to the centre, lucky it was a nice day and the walk was good for us.  I had a quick look around the shops while Ron got the scripts filled and then, guess what,  we had a nice cold milkshake at a cafe before heading back to the caravan.

On the road to Gladstone, Queensland

We headed off  to Calliope, fuel $129.9/ltr.  We then set off again and started to look for an overnight spot to camp for the night.  We found a good rest area called Hurdle Gully, it wasn't the one we had been looking for in our Camps Book, but we didn't want to keep going so decided to stay at Hurdle Gully.  When we first pulled in I was happy to find a couple of other vans there so that made me feel much better as I don't like camping in isolated areas if nobody else is there, I guess it's safety in numbers, but it doesn't worry Ron, just me!! He is happy to keep going if I don't want to stay.

Hurdle Gully Lookout

Day 18 - Wednesday


Overnight stop at Hurdle Gully

We left our overnight stop and headed into Monto but we were a bit early and no shops were open so we continued on to Eidsvold and fuelled up again at $1.259 cpl.  We then drove on to Mundubbera, another nice little town so we stopped for another milkshake, I'm trying to keep up my calcium levels!  Its quite hot now, around 30C, so hot coffee isn't so appealing.
We drove around this little town as a friend used to live here as a child so we tried to find the church his father preached at, and at last we found it but it was being used as a community craft centre.  We continued on and just out of Gayndah a stone flew up and chipped our windscreen but we were able to keep going as its only a small chip at this stage.  The next town was Wondai and we noticed a huge Second Hand store right in the middle of town so decided to stop as Ron is always interested in finding blacksmith's tools, but his luck was out, although we had a good chat to the owner who said that blacksmith tools were getting hard to find. 
Our next stop was Kingaroy so we stopped to do some grocery shopping and then found the camping ground at the Showgrounds for $25 per night which was good and very quiet with quite a few other caravans.

Kingaroy Showgrounds camping area

The Big Bucket at Nanengo

Day 19 - Thursday
We had a good night's sleep in the Kingaroy Showground camping area & we  headed off after driving around the town to find some of the famous Kingaroy peanuts, but unfortunately peanuts are now not grown much in the area, but we did find a Peanut Van so purchased a few packets.  Just out of Kingaroy was the little town of Nanango where we stopped to look at the Big Bucket, there was another Peanut Van there so we bought a few more packets for snacks on the way.
 Ron sent a message to his youngest brother who was apparently heading to Beaudesert for a motorbike rally. Our friends who live on the Gold Coast had recommended that we stay in the caravan park at Beaudesert so we were hoping we might catch up with Rod & Alison.
Our next stop was at the little town of Toogoolawah where we bought some meat at the Butcher, its always good to get country meat, then of course we found a coffee shop, then headed off to Beaudesert.  We arrived at the caravan park just as Rod was booking in at the office so once we were all booked in we caught up with them and had a few drinks.

Mundubbera