SATURDAY 9 JANUARY     TOOWOOMBA

Woke to what promised to be a hot day.

While John slept in, I walked to the local shops for papers. Then I made some picnic sandwiches.

We drove to Crows Nest, north of Toowoomba, then took the road to the Crows Nest Falls National Park. Had our lunch in the picnic area there and then went walking.

Took the track to the Falls, through dry, eucalypt type forest. The falls were not running much – the creek was fairly low. Continued on to the lookout over the Valley of the Diamonds. This gave a distant vista down over the edge of the Divide. It was a very pleasant, very varied walk, with lots of birds to distract us and make us take about three times longer to do the walk than is normal.  But it was very hot. We walked about 4.5kms.

For variety, back at the New England Highway, turned right for a little way, then took the back roads through Haden and Goombungee, coming out on the Warrego Highway west of Toowoomba. Thus we turned the outing into a circuit drive. Most of it was through farmland – interesting, varied and a pleasant way to go.

Back in Toowoomba, refuelled Truck at the Woolworths discount servo – 56cpl. That is excellent.

Returned to the van and read the papers for a while before tea of soup and left over pizza.

There was a storm in the evening, with much thunder, lightning and heavy rain.