Brisbane to Adelaide - Part 2

The night in Gunnedah was a bit cool, not quite freezing but bloody close. Gunnedah is a very nice regional centre with excellent facilities. Poet Dorathea McKellar spent quite a bit of her early life around the area and there is a statue of her in the park opposite the Tourist Information Centre. Gunnedah is the "Koala Capital of the World" because of the number of healthy koalas in the area. We left earlyish and headed on our way via Coonabarabran, Gilgandra and Warren to Nyngan. Then out onto the Western Plains to the mining town of Cobar where we visited the local Mining Museum. We camped out the road from Cobar before the turnoff to Mount Grenfell Historic Sight.

Brisbane To Peterborough - Part 1

Well we're back on the road again. Left Brisbane Friday morning and took the Cunningham Highway to Warwick, then on to Inglewood. This time we decided to go the back way south. Instead of continuing on to Goondiwindi and dow to Moree, we decided to follow the southern part of the Rural Getaway. This is a route that joins the Fossickers Way at Warialda in New South Wales to the Country Way at Mundubbera in Queensland, and takes in a raft of wonderful small country towns along the way. We'll be doing an article about it in the next Come Travel Australia E-zine.
First stop from Inglewood was the friendly Queensland border town of Texas. It's a great little spot that I haven't been to in 12 years. Last time I was there I bought steak at the butcher that was excellent. Decided to try it again, after all I've been raving about this steak for 12 years. What can I say, if You want to buy awesome steak, stop in at the butcher in Texas!
Other than the bloody good meat, there is plenty of reason to stop in Texas. On the south side of town is the Dumaresq River, and the fishing is excellent.
From Texas we headed west to Yetman on the Macintyre River. Yetman is known as the "Cod Capital" as it is a great place to catch these elusive fish. The Rural Getaway turns south again towards Warialda via Coolatai. The road is a quite good through rolling farming land and brigalow scrub. Warialda is the southern end of the Rural Getaway and the junction with the Fossickers Way. It is a friendly small town well worth a stop. The Tourist Information centre is just off the main street, and has a very good museum and mineral collection.
We joined the Fossickers Way from Warialda through the lovely small towns on Bingara and Barraba. Both show evidence of a vibrant history and we'll be writing more about them soon.
On we went to Manilla at the junction of the Namoi and Manilla Rivers. This is yet another interesting town that we hope to spend more time in.
We finished out the day by stopping at the excellent Gunnedah Tourist Caravan Park in Gunnedah.

Hand Made Expo 27 June 2009

Saturday Morning, a bit damp with some rain around, what do You do? Well, when The Handmade Expo is on in Ipswich. What better option is there. So we dropped in to see Liesa, Micky and Miriam at the Ipswich showgrounds. The Hall was packed with hand made objects of all sorts and types. Jewelry, soaps, linen, crafts, jams, sweets, and cupcakes! Local Author, Pamela Lamb, launched her new book Blood On The Snow as well.

As usual we enjoyed a good look around at all of the great items people have made and purchased a few. The next Handmade Expo will be at Ipswich Turf Club, Brisbane Road Bundamba on the 15th of August. Get along if You can!

For those of You who can't get to The Handmade Expo, visit Liesa in her new shop, Handmade Heaven, at Shop #11, The Old Flour Mill, 231 Brisbane Street, Ipswich. She's bound to greet You with a big smile!

Worlds Greatest Pub Crawl 2009 - Maryborough, Queensland

We came, we saw, we drank some more...! Yet again the friendly atmosphere, fun and frivolity, lubricated by responsibly consumed alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, was an enormous success. With the aim of increasing the numbers for the pub crawl world record, along with raising funds for the McGrath Foundation for breast cancer research, attendees got well and truly into the spirit with wonderful costumes and even more wonderful attitudes. The new record now sits at 4657, and that's only those who managed to complete a card of 10 or more drinks. If you missed it in 2009, here are some pics.

If you miss it in 2010 - well that's not our fault. Start planning early and get the first weekend in June marked off on the calendar now!

As for the Dabblers, what can we say! The spirit of our dear departed mate Seamus O'Rielly may have been given a right royal sendoff, but his body and the box are now on display with last years Woody bin Drinkin costume. Just to remind us what VB will do to you!

See You in Maryborough next year.

Alas Poor Seamus, but not to worry. We'll Just have to hold a wake!

Father Woody and Cuz Drink again to Seamus' Health!

Yes They did drink all those bottles for their bottletops.

Homer met this nice young lady, that must have been why he left Marge at home.

Fashions on the Field have nothing on Our Pub Crawlers

Never has one our drinking mates had so many members of the cloth to see him off.

And Yes there are many more Photos, They will be on the Gallery soon!

Sorry about the Photo Gallery

We're experiencing some Photo Gallery issues so we've diverted You to the Blog. This way You can see the Photos from the Maryborough Worlds Greatest Pub Crawl. See Below.

Maryborough here we come!

The new www.cometravelaustralia.com.au June 2009 E-zine is up and running. Take a look.
We're ready to hit the road to Maryborough for the Worlds Greatest Pub Crawl. It's a great weekend witgh lots of fun. Come and join us.

It Had To Happen!

Welcome to the Come Travel Australia Blog!
We all knew it would happen eventually. This way I can drop in snippets of Our travels that don't fit into the www.cometravelaustralia.com.au website or the Come Travel Australia E-zine.
For those of You who are waiting for Your May E-zine, it will be with You tommorrow, just it will be the June E-zine, all new, all html and all online!
Next weekend we're off to Maryborough for the world record pub crawl. If You are able to get there then come and join us for a drink. We'll be the Irish funeral wake! Sounds dodgy I know, but poor Seamus O'Reillydrowned in a vat of beer at the brewery recently, his mates tried to save him but Seamus bravely fought them off! Sadly Seamus's passing would have been quicker if he hadn't climbed out of the vat 3 times to go to the loo.

Anyway, keep an eye out for us on the road, either in the van or in the ute. And remember to check out the website, the photo gallery and the E-zine!