TOD Tour 2.0 Day 72 - Surat to Warialda

Of course, the Best Bush Pub in Qld for 2018
needs pigs heads or it would be a boar.

Another 400km day. Had it not been for the change of daily schedules made for this quick return home, I'm not sure either of us would have survived. We have become so used to dawdling through two or three kilometres across a whole day, that four hundred or beyond has become a nightmare. Pretty much like driving to Sydney every day for nine of the eleven days it has taken us.

Early start again, which included filling the tank from the only fuel source, a self-serve credit card unmanned outlet.

The first hundred kilometres was over the Surat Development Road, which looked enticing on the map as it was all tar. Unfortunately, the foundation of the road has not lasted as well as the surface and it was one, long set of waves, requiring us to drop pace or risk pulling the van apart as it leaped and bounced all over the road. We stopped before we got to the turn south on the Leichhardt Highway, because two of the windows had started to bounce open. The winders/locks had shaken off and inside the van was a shambles.

Things improved once we headed south.

When I get bored I start doing
horrible things to myself.

Moonie was an interesting place. Their few buildings were all multipurpose, including the roadhouse, which was also a caravan park, a motel, a cafe, a restaurant and a pub. In fact, proudly displayed on the wall - under six mounted pigs heads (the heads were mounted, not the pigs) - was their trophy for being named Queensland's Best Bush Pub for 2018. I don't think the panel traveled very far in making their assessment, as damaged speakers blaring out an MTV mix with as much clarity as a station announcer at Fairfield announcing an all stations to Leppington, isn't exactly state of the art.

We used the cafe section to get a soft drink, orange juice and two ice creams, our alternate order when the cafe of the Best Bush Pub in Qld for 2018 doesn't have decaf coffee, or lactose-free milk or soy.

The toilets, as advertised on the sandwich boards outside, were clean.

Across the road was a library, information centre and crafts facility. It also had toilets. They were also clean. Had there been a vote, this may well have been the best library, information centre, crafts facility in Moonie. There was no space for additional overreach in Moonie, population 26 according to the lady in the library (et al) "that's when everyone's home, although today, it's 600, on account of the funeral".

Goondiwindi was the next stop. Sue walked. I bought her beef jerky and that is already more description than Goondiwindi deserves. You don't see the town, as the directed course for traffic is a well developed bypass. I figure if they want you to bypass them ...

... of course, we crossed the border back into NSW, which was where we left it on the 28th July.

The slopes and plains to the north of Warialda were very pretty and the contrast with the predominance of the open, flat country we have had flash past the window for a lot of the way home. The stubble from what must have been a rich winter crop remained in the paddocks and there was something pleasant and familiar about the sight.

Click to see today's photos

Warialda is a pretty little town and the caravan park, run by the council, is simple but really well maintained. We've stayed here before and tonight it saved us another two and a half hours driving. Home can wait for another night.