26th December 2010

We arrived at the Casey residence about 11am on Boxing Day to the rain and mud and a hug from Pat and Shel. While Stuart did the necessary things like hooking up the power and making sure the fridge worked etc, I did more necessary things like getting a glass of champagne.

As Pat, Greg and Matty had stayed over on Christmas night, the boys settled in to watch the English Cricket Team embarrass the Aussies on TV and us girls looked at old photos of us as kids.



Yes you would laugh if you were looking at ourself aged under 12!!

  As we were getting food organised for tea Shel tripped over my leg and we both ended up ricocheting off the lounge chair and in under the Christmas tree. Yes it sounds funny but an ambulance was called and Shel spent 2 nights in hospital with a suspected cracked rib.

We left there on the 27th and went on to Ipswich to say a quick hello again to Brett, Katrina and the kids and then on to Warwick. We went through a lot of rain and miles and miles of water in the paddocks both sides of the road til we got to 30 kms out of Ipswich

Large vehicles were getting through so we did to and went about another 20 kms down the road til a little creek with a lot of water turned us around. We thought the best thing to do was to go back to Ipswich and try again on Tuesday 28th (Our Wedding Anniversary). We got to the same crossing 30 kms out at Warrill View and the police turned all around as the road to Warwick was closed for at least 2 days.


We eventually went through Ipswich (again) and on to Toowoomba and then into Warwick. There was only the one holdup and that was about 14kms before Warwick where pads of bitumen about 1.25 mtrs across were broken up and lifted off the road and thrown into the table drains. There were 7 kms of traffic lined up on the other side waiting to get through.

 Warwick was another disaster story. We were detoured around the entry into town as it was totally inundated with water. The centre of town was above water and the south western road was good but a lot of people were homeless during last night.

From there we came through to Stanthorpe and called in to the Castle Glen Winery to stock up. Our intention was to free camp at a rest spot just 2 kms out of Stanthorpe but it has been declared a no camp zone and so we went on another 7 kms out to a Caravan Park and for $20 got a good site and a bag of stone fruit from the owner.

The COUNTRY STYLE TOURIST ACCOMODATION PARK on the banks of the Dumaresq River  was rather basic as parks go and the site had power but no water but a lovely creek and dam right beside it.