time to go south of the border

Saturday, came and was almost halfway gone before we finally sorted ourselves enough to get going to
Glen Innes

Goodbye Lakeside, Goodbye 'Aunty' Karen Goodbye till next year QLD!!

We got to drive through Brisbane in the truck, woowoo :S  Google map said it would be 395km to glen innes - I think we added a few more then that, as we took a few wrong turns and then a few more.

BRIGHT SIDE?? - we got to drive through the  CLEM 7!! -eventually :D

Oh yes an update on our 'friendly' GPS guide 'Selena' - it seems she isn't as up to date as they said she would be on the box. and it also seems she has had good reason to be irritated and annoyed with us. - her name is actually 'Serena' and to be honest once we figured this out, and started calling her by her correct name, she has been alot more helpful - SERIOUSLY!!    'A.I' my  "AI"rse! :P

So at this point we were still calling her 'Selena' (in fact we didn't figure that out till maybe Ceduna S.A.) and honestly i was trying very hard to follow her directions,  but we missed a few turns and then trying to get back on to her original directions plus roadworks, well she kept herself quite calm and reasonable (though I'm sure some of the directions were said through gritted 'teeth')

Anyway, back on course and Samuel spotted a few unlisted 'BIG' things, and all photography from this point is all courtesy of Samuel.

and dah dah da da daaaahhhhhhhh!!


presenting the CLEM 7!! - can you tell we were excited?? M'eh? just a tunnel you say, ah yes, but we are almost country folk and it's nearly 7 km long with multiple exits. and it's BIG and new !! well we liked it anyway.

'Selena' 'Serena' was having a tea break at that moment :)

Can you read what the sign says? "Turn on your radio"
Samuel was quite impressed with the safety aspect, I thought it was
quite considerate of them to suggest some entertainment ;P

Samuel took about 150 photos, apparently he thought i wanted to document all 6.8km of it, No, Son, I don't like it that much ;)

so after Brisbane, was the open road to Tenterfield and Stanthorpe, Mum told us to wind down the windows and turn off the A/C when we drove up the range (can't remember it's name?) to hear the bell birds, well we were probably halfway up it when we (I) figured out we were 'there', and dutifully did as we'd been told. ummm, I could only just hear them, and the children had no idea of what to listen for, over the sound coming from my truck :o Sorry mum, I bet it was lovely to hear in 'Herbie' but was just barely audible from the truck :( we could have stopped, but we'd not long passed a very long slow big rig, so i wasn't trying that again :)

through Tenterfield, forgot what we were supposed to see, - a big orange i think? and Serena tried to send us through Stanthorpe, but i wasn't paying attention until she started re-calculating, which had me in a panic for half a minute, because we were headed for Texas! turns out i was right to keep following the big rigs, as it knocked 15mins off our arrival time **insert smug look at 'Serena' here**  We did try to do a U-turn as she suggested, but i think the HUGE truck rapidly growing bigger in my rear-view mirror changed that idea quick-smart!!

I was a little concerned about missing the 'Big Apple' because we'd bypassed Stanthorpe, until i saw this!

turns out it's not even IN Stanthorpe! to be honest, i was a little disappointed, but then again, I'm not sure what i WAS expecting??

Further on down the road, we were too busy getting giddy about crossing the 'border' with our GPS truck, that we almost missed the real one!! We were too slow, to grab the camera and get a shot of the border sign between QLD and NSW, but gee the car (mamma) was noisy and excited for a good 5-10 mins after!

We saw this rock face/bluff, whatever the term is and thought it was mighty impressive, Alas, the photo does not do it justice.



Eventually we were nearing our destination, and saw some beautiful sights, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) we got no photos as we were being HYPER- vigilant as it was nearing dusk and was raining just enough to make roads slippery and windscreens too dirty to see out of! Because guess who's WS wiper bottle was empty or in-operative!?! Also my crack was getting very big..... - oh behave you dirty scoundrels! I'm still talking about the windscreen!!  We only saw one Skippy perched on the side of the road ready to bound out at us, but we slowed down and 'parped' the horn at it telling it to stay still, which it did :) we also saw our first fox!!that was exciting, it ran across the road long before we got close enough to it to be a concern, unfortunately (or again, fortunately,considering they are pests) we saw a fair few whom did not cross the road with enough time to spare, not long after.

Finally we got there

"hello Aunty Cathy! aaawww hello Uncle Chris :( he was not feeling well at all, with a sinus infection and throbbing headache to boot.

Any way, our adventures in Glen Innes, will have to wait til later as the children are rampaging through the house, and as we don't have enough 'soft furnishings' at present,and it's echoing more then slightly, we also have timber floors, so i also have a herd of elephants to contend with as well :)

OX(OX) oxoxoxoxox

B(J)slkcs