Stanthorpe to Brisbane via Toowoomba

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Last weekend we drove to Stanthorpe and back for the wedding. A 3 hour drive that takes you away from the eastern coastal strip and over the great dividing range into a completely different landscape and climate. Inland and a little south, almost to the NSW border, Stanthorpe is a small rural centre based on grape, apple and stone-fruit growing and tourism. There's a fledgeling wine industry out there, but the climate isn't really up to producing high quality intoxicants. Stathorpe is located in a distict geological region called the granite belt, quite distict for it's shallow, rocky soil and striking granite outcrops. We'll be heading back in autumn, we hope, to spend some more time in the region.

The landscapes really grab me out here, with their broad, treeless fields and mountains on every horizon. Makes me long for a panoramic camera to capture the vastness of it all. Due to recent rain it was even a little bit green out west, though the vivid green of the irrigated fields was still in stark contrasts with the surrounding landscape. Also striking were the orchards with their stone-fruit trees bursting into flower, delicate blossoms clustered on pruned brown limbs.

The journey continues beyond the

We pulled in to Warwick for fuel and I discovered this wonderful house across the road. The servo guy told me it had been abandoned for as long as he could remember. A total shame for such a striking structure.

We stopped in Toowoomba for lunch, on top of the range, where all was a-bloom for the Carnival of Flowers. While we skipped on the carnival itself we stopped to admire the beautiful street plantings. Torn gardener Toni would love to grow cooler-climate flowers, but my first gardening love is herbs, and those tasty plants that suit my spicy cooking like it warm and wet. Brisbane is about as intermediate as it gets :-)

Currently procrastinating about polishing off this paper I need to be working on. Roy and HG are blaring from my radio, calling the AFL grand final. This is the first time in 3 years I haven't gone down to watch the finals with my dad (more to watch dad getting drunk and watching the footy). The Brisbane Lions are in their 4th grand final, having won the last three. Alex is trying to find someone with a telly to catch the action with a few beers - pretty keen for a guy who hasn't seen a game all season and only knows about 3 teams ;-)