Long, long road to Lightning Ridge

As you can tell from the title, S and I have started our latest holiday travels. Been wanting to see this part of Australia for a long time. In my naivety, I decided to do the whole trip in one day. Nine hours of travelling which did include three stops so about seven and a half hours of driving. Six hundred and seventy-four kilometres of mostly straight roads with little traffic from Toowoomba to St George to Thallon and then Lightning Ridge.

The country is green after a lot of rain and we only confirmed that due to road flooding, we could get through to Lightning Ridge last Friday . Most of the creeks and rivers are still receding, so water is only just under some of the bridges. The bush looks very green which is not what I expected after months of drought so was a pleasant surprise. Water filling all the dams and still on the side of the road. The land appears to be very flat so flooding would be an issue after heavy rain.

We stopped the crossroads at Moonie and had morning tea and found the Potato scallops were just perfect. S and I love our deep fried slice of battered potatoes. We stayed long enough to refuel us and the car, then continued on to St George.

We had lunch beside the river at St George. The town is quite large and has a thriving central business district where we found a café to purchase our lunch. Quite nice chicken raps and salads. The river is very full and obviously higher that normal. A lot of caravan traffic passing through as well.

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Thallon is a interesting stop on this rapid tour because of the painted grain silos. These are beautiful and there is a free camping stop at the official viewing area. Just a quick stop to take the photos and then continue to Lighting ridge two hours away.

Five PM and ten kilometres of fuel left (don’t tell S), we arrive at Lightning Ridge. Quick trip to the petrol station and we then arrived at the caravan park we are to stay at for the next four nights. So more travel stories to follow.