Another Easter in Oz

So, I've been here over a year now, and another Autumn approaches. Temperatures are beginning to drop, although it's all relative. I pass a public thermometer on a hotel sign on my walk to work at about 7am. I've noticed over the last couple of weeks that the temperature has been dropping; it was in the mid-20s, and it's now down to 16 Celsius.

Talking of changing temperatures, we took a trip south-west for the Easter weekend. Stanthorpe always appears on the TV weather reports as having cooler temperatures than we have in Brisbane. It's only two and a half hours drive away, but on nights when the temperature doesn't drop below 20 in Brissy it can be 10 in Stanthorpe. Ella's parents organised a pleasant weekend for us and Ella's family near to Stanthorpe. I drove Ella, Jana and Ingrid down on Good Friday in a decidingly full Triumph (we were loaded to the gunnels with provisions for the weekend).

The accomodation was spot on. "Escape on Tully" (Mt Tully was the name of the area we stayed in) was well kitted out with gas BBQ, kitchen, two bathrooms, etc. There was even an outdoor bath on the veranda!!!


We were well placed to investigate Giraween National Park (I should probably keep count of all these Parks I'm visiting), so on Saturday we did a great walk. The area's known as 'The Granite Belt', and there are incredible rocks and peaks, bolders, and so on. We did a good long walk up over Mt. Norman and back. Here's the troops enjoying a well deserved lunch:



Well-deserved because we'd just walked up a granite slope like this (photo shows Ingrid and Ella):


A short drive home after a long walk was nice and we got to enjoy a lovely sunset from the veranda:


We all took it in turns cooking over the three nights, which was a lot of fun and certainly spread the workload. On Easter Sunday we took it a bit easier, back at Giraween doing a short walk before lunch, along the river in an almost surreal granite river bed. We all had a splash around in the waterhole and then back home for lunch and a relaxing afternoon.



We headed home on Monday morning taking a less direct route, along dirt tracks (called the Mount Lindsay Highway!) between some other beautiful National Parks.
This photo shows Mount Linsay in the distance (I think):


Altogether a very nice weekend indeed. It provided a suitable send-off for Ingrid, too, as she left to join her boyfriend in Frankfurt on the Tuesday. Good luck Ingrid!
Many thanks to Helen and Jacques for the excellent food and accommodation.