WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER    ATHERTON

Set out after breakfast to go for a drive.

Refuelled in Atherton. Diesel is down to 68 cpl now that we are closer to the coast.

Went to Tolga, which is only about 8kms north of here. In the tourist information, we’d seen that there was a woodwork gallery there that looked worth visiting. It contained some superb items, ranging from furniture down to smaller bowls and carvings. They featured Australian timbers – mostly local – of course. We browsed for ages and John got lots of ideas for future woodwork.

From Tolga took the road up to Bones Knob Lookout, just to the west. Bones Knob is a shield volcanic cones, which means it is not all that high above the surrounding country, but enough to show us the farming country to the north and east, that demonstrates how fertile this area is.

From there, went back through Atherton and south west to Herberton, with a view to continuing from there in a big loop. But Truck started making a strange noise and the temperature gauge was a little higher than usual, so we just did a quick drive through the township then retraced our way.

There was a big storm building through the past couple of hours, and some lightning must have hit fairly close to us, as we drove back. There was a huge bang. We both jumped in fright.

By the time we got back to the van there was a great storm happening, with good rain for a few hours. It really cooled things down again.

We drove 62kms today.

Tea was beef and black bean stir fry, and rice.