So slack.

You would think with all this time on my hands I could at least TRY to post more regularly on my blog.  The truth is I am a slacker.....

So to fill you in on our travels, after we left Marco and Suzie at Gundiah we made our way inland to Pittsworth.  This took us around five hours with a few stops along the way.  We travelled the back roads with only one wrong turn that once more saw us turning around and putting another hole in the caravan hatch.  When we get back to Cairns we are taking the car to a place that will chop 6 or so inches off the tray because this is the second time that this has happened!

Anyway, where was I. So we took the backroads and came on to the main highway at Jondaryn.  We only stayed on the highway for a couple of kilometres before turning off and heading towards Mt. Tyson and Springsure.  Springsure is where my mum grew up on a farm that incorporated a dairy and piggery.  As a child I used to love going to "the farm" where Nana would cook us delicious home cooked meals and Pa would take us for journeys around the farm.  I can remember very vividly sitting on a chair watching Nana cook while at the same time being intrigued by the yellow strip of sticky paper hanging from the ceiling that caught flies.

We arrived into Pittsworth mid afternoon and made our way to "Hawthorn" where my Aunty Ann and Uncle Ken have a few thousand acres of very productive farming land.  Two more aunts and uncles and my mum were here to greet us as they were all here to celebrate a couple of the Aunts birthdays.  It was a truly memorable time as we sat around the table filling each other in on family news.  I treasure these moments as my aunts and uncles are now elderly and their memories are fading. It is very important to talk to them now and not wait for a better time.....

After an overnight stay at Hawthorn we bade the relatives farewell as we drove the short distance to Toowoomba where we had booked into a caravan park not far from mum's place. After unhooking the van and setting up our camp we drove into town where Philips new "fold up" bike was waiting.  He has been missing his cycling so when I saw this bike online I ordered it straight away.  It is a "cheap and nasty" but it has everything that Philip needs and he seems to be loving it.

There are some terrific walkways/cycleways just behind our caravan park and each morning (or afternoon if it was too cold) I walked and Philip cycled the almost 10km pathway. It was very cold in Toowoomba  but the days were quite lovely if the wind didn't come up. We wanted to devote as much time as possible to mum and we asked that she make up a list of jobs that she wanted done while we were there.  Each morning we visited mum and worked our way through the list and stayed until lunch.  We either had lunch with mum or went back to the caravan.

On our second last day in Toowoomba mum wanted to take us out for lunch so we made reservations at George Banks Restaurant.  The food here was delicious and we walked away with very full bellies.  Our starter was a platter that was enormous and really too big for just three of us.  It had calamari, arancini, spring rolls and chilli chicken nibbles and every morsel was delicious.  I chose the seafood and corn risotto as my next course and we all shared a chocolate lava cake for dessert. 

We dropped mum home after lunch and said our farewells as we had to pack up that afternoon for an early start the next day.  It is always hard to say goodbye.  We are now at beautiful Burnett Heads (Bundaberg) and enjoying this lovely little place very much.  The caravan park is everything we love.  Small, large drive through sites, and close to the ocean.  This was our view from our site this evening.

Take care folks and I will fill you in on Burnett Heads in my next post.