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We have lived at Woopie (Woolgoolga) NSW for a year now. Although we loved our stay here, Hubby has just applied for the retirement pension and unfortunately it will be a stretch on our budget to continue to live close to the beach anywhere in Australia. So now it's time to move on, but where to?
Hubby loves the mountains and I love the beach so we needed to find a place that meets both of our needs. After intense consideration, we both agreed on a place called Mareeba which is around 1 hour inland from Cairns. It has all of the amenities that we need, plus the added advantage of being within 30 minutes from some fantastic places to visit. More about that on my Mareeba page as I develop it.
Cairns has some nice beaches just north, the Great Barrier Reef and an international airport with direct flights to Singapore should we decide to take an overseas trip.
So below is Part 1 of our trip up north to Mareeba. The story will be in 3 Parts.
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TENTERFIELD
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First stop, Tenterfield Showground.
At $35 a night, we felt that it was a little over-priced. There was only 1 shower and toilet in both ladies and mens. We had a shady site that backed on to the creek. The Showground is only a block from the main street where they have Coles, Cafes and Pubs. The town was very quiet with some shops not opened. I guess this is another town suffering from exodus of young people who need to be closer to Cities for work. It's a sad state in Australia at the moment.
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Funny story. Looking on the Map at the end of this page, you will see 2 white dots below Tenterfield. This is the shortcut that Google found us that bypasses Glen Innes. Bald Nob Road soon turned from tar into gravel and we found ourselves on a newly graded dirt road in the middle of nowhere.
That's not the funny bit.
We could only tune into 1 station on the radio, the Classical station. 😦
So here we are in a surreal environment, bumping along to Classical Music. Don't believe me? Check out the Video below.
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LEYBURN
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I look for a half-way spot to stop and take a break when hubby has to drive over 3 hours. Leyburn had a couple of things going for it. It was just off the highway, had a Pub with good reviews which is located in a quiet street that is wide and has plenty of suitable parking for a RV or Caravan.
We had a nice stop here, but unfortunately the food that had such great reviews wasn't up to the usual pub standard. We ordered some chicken wings and chips and gravy. The chicken wings were very dry and almost uneatable. Having said that, the staff were nice and friendly so I just put the cooking skills down to a bad day on the job and gave them a 3 star review on Google.
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QUEENSLAND
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Well in all of the borders that we have crossed, this one takes the award for having the most signs.
Welcome to Queensland!
😎
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BOWENVILLE
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Our second night was spent at the Bowenville Hotel. We enjoyed our stay here and highly recommend this place. Not only is it free (as long as you have a meal here), but the power is free also, plus there is a toilet and shower out back as well. We played some pool which was free too. And Toukie was a hit at the bar.
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ON THE ROAD
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Outback Queensland roads are not real good due to the amount of trucks using them. We struck a lot of road works along the way, fixing up the pot holes and roadside slips. It is also big cotton country with fields of white as far as the eye can see.
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CHINCHILLA
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On the way to our next stop at Taroom, we went through Roma, Chinchilla and Miles. These places are well known for major flooding. I had a primary school friend who moved to Roma. Poor thing. It wasn't a surprise to me that she quickly moved back to Brissy when she left home. We actually caught up in Brisbane in 2006. I have the story on my Brisbane page.
So I don't have any photos of Roma as it's just a small outback town. I did find out however that Roma is known for the biggest cattle saleyards in the Southern Hemisphere and the birthplace of petroleum and natural gas. Goodonya QLD!.... said facetiously. 😟
Anyway, Roma didn't have anything to photograph.
Chinchilla, on the other hand is the home of a Big Thing. The Big Watermelon. I snapped off a couple of photos as we drove past as hubby doesn't have my sense of excitement of adding a new Big Thing to my Australia list. 😏
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MILES
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So having driven past Roma and Chinchilla, we decided to stop at Miles as we needed to kill some time and I discovered that it has a cool Historical Village that we could investigate.
Great idea! I am not someone that loves visiting Museums, but occasionally we have found a few unique museums in our travels around Australia. This historical village in Miles is one of those great experiences. Don't you dare drive through Miles and not make a stop here!
The interactive display including manequins is done really well as you can see from my ton of photos.
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The Staff are lovely and helpful too. We really enjoyed our walk around memory lane. Hubby liked the old machinery, I enjoyed a trip down Banking and Switchboard lane, and we both loved the huge display of gems and shells. However the old hospital operating table looked a bit scary. Thank goodness times have changed. 😁
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TAROOM
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The Leichhardt Hotel Taroom, our third overnight stop along the way. They also had free overnight parking, but charged $15 for the power. I would have happily spent the night with no power, but it seems to be a comfort thing for hubby these days to have power, so $15 it was.
We shared a meal here. I didn't want to do the chicken wings as our last experience in Leyburn wasn't real good. I find chicken wings a hit and miss affair. Most being, miss. However the fish was nice which gave me a taste for what we were looking forward to driving further up the Queensland coast. I couldn't wait!
We enjoyed a nice spot out the front of the pub on comfortable chairs complete with colourful cushions as we happily sipped on our drinks and people watched.
Now this is what I like about retirement life.
😊🍻
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BANANA
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The small township of Banana has an intersection where you can continue on the Leichhardt Highway or hang a right onto the Dawson Highway and across to the coast near Gladstone. We continued on the Leichhardt Highway towards Mount Morgan as we have not been this way before and wanted to come out further up at Rockhampton.
Story in Banana. We stopped at the Servo to fill up and grab a bite to eat. About 10 k's out of town, I realised that hubby's phone was not in the console where he usually leaves it. Oh no!!!!
Hubby successfully did a Uey and we hit the road back to the Servo. In the meantime I acted quickly and phoned them. Yes, his phone was there where he left it in the loo! Phew!!!
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All was not lost as I was able to snap a photo of the Banana QLD Big Thing! A Bullock at the intersection. Sorry, but you will need to look at the photo carefully to see it lol.
This town's Big Thing honours a legendary, yellow-tinged working bullock who lived in the 1860s and famously helped local stockmen herd wild cattle into pens.
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DULULU
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Dululu. Nice name hey. 😃
I had originally found a free overnight rest stop here, however that meant that we would have had too many free overnighters and hubby likes his comforts. So I traded Dululu for a Caravan Park at Mount Morgan.
There's not much at Dululu, except for this flash Hotel.
Aparently it is newly renovated due to a fire that ripped the place apart. It was established in 1928 so it meant alot to the locals that it was restored.
Obviously, I didn't know this when I quickly snapped of this photo of the Dululu Hotel which seemed to me to stand out in a place with a cute name in the middle of nowhere and not much else going for it.
(blink and you'll miss it lol).
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MOUNT MORGAN
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I chose to stay at Silver Wattle Caravan Park just outside of Mount Morgan as I had read good Google reviews.
I was looking forward to happy hour beside a camp fire along with good company as mentioned on their website. Unfortunately this was not the case so I was disappointed at having to pay $40 for the night. With what the caravan park offered, it only warranted $35 in my opinion. The camp kitchen had some quirky signage and interesting decor and the amenities were a little tired but clean.
The owners seemed like they had a lot on their mind and didn't seem to be too interested in welcoming us. So I wouldn't recommend a stay here. My Google review was selective in my critique. They still got a 4 star review. Maybe I should have been a bit meaner and given 3 stars.
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MAP
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