19-21/07/21 Mapleton to Ipswich via Toowoomba

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 Due to the magic powers of the interwebs I can work one day per week whilst gallivanting about SE Qld by car and bicycle. This is on the whole a Good Thing as it allows us to spend two nights/week in a cabin rather than a tent, and to luxuriate in things like a real bed, not having to walk to the ablutions block to use the loo, and the extraordinary pleasure of sitting on a couch.

We have an equitable division of labour on work days: I work and Roger runs around doing errands, shopping, planning, laundry, and everything else. These aren't the most exciting of days, so you will have to forgive me if I don't always tell you what happened on a work day, because usually it's not much at all of interest. 

I was very happy to be inside working on Tuesday, which just so happened to be the coldest day this winter, with a brutal wind and an apparent temperature of -5.2C. Roger, out running errands (and on foot/bike because the car was being serviced) was decidedly frazzled and wind beaten by the end of the day.

The last view of Toowoomba as we head down the range: the Australian flag flying at Picnic Point.


Once the work was over the serious business of packing for biking began. We found a spot in the sun and out of the wind at Helidon train station where we had the added entertainment of the odd coal train rolling past, and started making the hard decisions about what just wouldn't fit and had to be left behind.  I give us a week before we have a radical jettison session and ditch half of it for good. It's amazing how necessary some things can be at the bottom of a hill, and how unnecessary they are by the time you've panted and puffed halfway to the top.

Packing completed, we thought we'd have a wee jaunt along the first section of the BVRT but had to jaunt off to 99 Bikes instead for a quick replacement tyre for Roger. 

About to start haunting, just not for long.


Wednesday ended very pleasantly with dinner cooked over a campfire by another excellent cook (thanks J&M)!, a nice bottle of wine, family catch-ups, and making friends with an excitable dog. 

Tomorrow we roll.


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