It’s a long weekend here in Queensland.
The weather is warming up, the Queen of England is having a birthday (or if she’s not having a birthday, we are having a long weekend off to celebrate it anyway …), and COVID-19 restrictions are easing.
It’s a great reason to get away in the van with MBW to the countryside. To Elbow Valley, no less.
Where is Elbow Valley? About 20km south-east of Warwick, 50km north-west of Stanthorpe, and 16km west of Killarney.
Pretty little place that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere!
We found a place on HipCamp (was YouCamp) and booked it.
Our host for the weekend – Bruce – has about 100 acres of land that used to be cattle and sheep country, but he has since retired and he spends his days pottering around in his unregistered RAV4, Nissan truck, tractor, or on his quad bike … and looking after people who are camping on his little piece of paradise.
We arrived at around 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon, and set about finding us a place to set up the van.
One of the challenges with camping on private land is that it’s not exactly designed to be flat and ready for caravans. You need to do a bit of a caravan shuffle to find a spot that has privacy, a nice view, is away from other campers, and is easy to get the van level.
Finally, after a bit of jiggery-pokery (… actually quite a bit of jiggery-pokery, moving the van, forward a bit, no back a bit …) we jagged a nice quiet spot in the “mid camp” and we were set up in no time.
Van level, car disconnected, mat out, firewood collected and a nice fire going – all ready for “cheese o’clock” … and then we looked up 🙁
We had inadvertently set up the van directly under an iron bark tree that had a number of branches that looked rather fragile.
Fragile in a large, dead, heavy and ready to drop off in a strong wind kind of way … and there was a strong wind blowing from the north east.
We spent the next 30 minutes debating whether we would be OK, or whether we should shift the van … and then it was too dark to shift the van anyway.
So we spent the night listening to little bits of bark and branches raining down on the van, and wondering if this was how we were going to die.
Well, I can’t speak for both of us, but it certainly crossed my mind!
“Elbow Valley: A middle-aged couple died overnight in a freak accident when a large branch fell from an iron bark tree, crushing their caravan … they didn’t stand a chance …”
We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to find that we were still alive, so that seemed like as good a reason as any to move the van to a safer location and doing like the Bee Gees do … Staying Alive!
Saturday morning looked like a beautiful day for a drive into Stanthorpe. Despite it being only a few hours drive from where we live, I can’t say that I can recall ever visiting Stanthorpe previously.
We made our way into town – and I have to say that it really is a pretty little township which felt a little like it was stuck in the past.
Streets that are wide enough to turn a full bullock team around …
… friendly locals …
… and lots of local artwork and greenery …
We spent a pleasant hour or so browsing the local shops in the Main Street, before deciding to head back to camp, via the Stanthorpe Cheese Factory.
We do like our cheese 🙂
Things must be pretty tough here in Stanthorpe, and COVID must be making it very hard for them …
We also stopped to take photos of the local tourist attractions – the Big Apple!
They really take the apple theme a bit far in Stanthorpe – the Big Apple, Applethorpe, Crisp Real Estate … and so on … but then I guess they need to exploit the one thing for which the region is best known.
It’s a funny thing – I’ve been driving for around 40 years and never felt that I needed someone to specifically tell me what side of the road we drive on. Even in the USA I knew that it was the other side of the road to what I’m used to, but I still managed to figure it out.
And yet here we are in Western Queensland and what do we see? Signage on the road letting us know where we should be …
… and in case there was any doubt, there was a road sign that confirmed the expectation …
Maybe they get a great deal of international visitors arriving in Stanthorpe who are uncertain how to drive here? Beats me …
Back at the camp, we set up the fire for the evening, had a bit of a walk around the property, and enjoyed the view.
The sun set with a blaze of orange and red …
… and then it was time for the campfire.
While we were in Stanthorpe on Saturday morning, we learned that there is a country market at the Showgrounds on the first Sunday of every month … and we do love a country market!
So we headed back into Stanthorpe again Sunday morning – only 50km or so – to check out the market.
And it was a fizzer 🙁
Probably the smallest country market I’ve ever been to with nothing really worth buying. Bummer.
So we went back into the Main Street of Stanthorpe, found a Woolies fuel station, gave Elsie a big drink of diesel and headed back to camp.
When we bought Elsie, we asked what sort of fuel economy we would get from the big V8 Diesel engine, and we were told to expect 9.5l/100km as per the sticker on the windscreen.
Yeah right!
After filling up Elise in Stanthorpe and heading back towards Warwick, we got the best economy that I have ever seen – 8.9l/100km after the fill!
Now I suppose I probably do need to qualify that. We had just filled up and only done 44.3km, and the vast majority of that 44.3km was done at 110km/hour and mostly coasting down hills between Stanthorpe back to Warwick … but you really do need to claim small victories when you get them!
We got back to Elbow Valley being very careful to keep to the left, and settled back into camp for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.
Not wanting to be completely sedentary all weekend, we went for a walk down to the bottom campsite and looked at the creek.
Not much more to tell I’m afraid … another campfire, another sunset, and then Monday morning we packed everything down and came home to reality.
A beautiful spot in beautiful country Queensland, only a couple of hours drive from home.
I can’t think of a better way to recharge the batteries …
Ciao!