We really wanted to avoid this day. The last day of our holiday.

I woke really early, at dawn and read for an hour or so. Did I tell you that my first thought when I wake in the morning is normally "When do I get to read my book?" By the time we got up it was nearly 7.30. We opened the van up to find something quite unexpected.

Can you guess?

It was warm.

It was so long since we had felt warm, we went for our post breakfast walk in our jackets, and were quite overheated by the time we got back! There were many birds in the free camp site. Brett got talking to a couple who were in a Chesney caravan which they had owned for 37 years. The Chesney was a quite a revolutionary design when it was new - it had fibreglass on the roof, front and back of the van, and the traditional aluminium siding on the sides. The couple told us about all the maintenance they had done on the van and about the places they had been. Basically beyond anywhere the van might be expected to go. They were towing with a LandCruiser and the Chesney was the single axle version.

After breakfast we packed up and drove around the sprint track at Leyburn.

We then headed off to Clifton, where we stopped for coffee and a look around another country town. After Clifton we briefly joined the New England Highway before turning off onto the Gatton-Clifton road. I think I have mentioned before, this habit of naming roads after the towns at either end. I believe this shows a distinct lack of imagination!

Brett and I love this road, it is another narrow and twisting road through mountains but we find it easier to drive than the two main roads over the range - Warrego Highway over the Toowoomba range, and Cunninghams Gap on the Cunningham Highway. Both these roads can be quite busy whereas the one we drive is usually very quiet. It is also picturesque. The other two roads are also picturesque - but they are too much like the major highways which we have been trying to avoid throughout this holiday.

Once we reached Gatton we turned onto that major highway - the Warrego Highway, and drove to Haigslea to visit the Australian Motorcycle Museum. They seem very short on space there - the bikes are packed in very tightly and it makes it hard to get a decent photo! Still it was well worth it to visit this museum.

We didn't want to get back on the highway, so we crossed it and headed for Glamorgan Vale, then to Fernvale where we stopped for lunch. Still trying to avoid that final leg of the journey.
Keeping with our theme of going the long way, we drove up the Brisbane Valley Highway. Yeah, I know, it says highway. But actually as you head north this road gets pretty quiet. There are even cows on it. They don't graze cows on major highways, right? There is also more great scenery, as the highway crosses the Wivenhoe Dam wall and then runs alongside the dam. The road also passes through Esk and Toogoolawah, before ending at the D'Aguilar Highway. The road runs alongside yet another disused railway line. There are just too many of these out west - it is sad that our predecessors spent so much money, effort and time to develop infrastructure which we have then just tossed aside.

The D'Aguilar highway is also not a major highway. It runs through Kilcoy and around the top of Somerset dam, then down through Woodford. D'Aguilar and Wamuran before reaching Caboolture and onto the Bruce Highway (now this one IS a major highway - 3 lanes each way). But we only had to drive the Bruce Highway for a few minutes before we reached our exit.

Home.

Unpacking.

Cleaning up.

Getting back to normal life.

*sigh.