After leaving Longreach we travelled east along the ‘Capricorn Way’ stopping at the very small town of Jericho for lunch. Cattle along the highway were a constant worry.

Our first overnight stop was at Emerald which is a large town with a university and Agricultural College and a big orange.

From Emerald we headed south east and stayed overnight at the little town of Monto. The disused railway yard has been set up for overnight camping which meant we could leave the van hitched to the car, and have dinner at the Monto Hotel across the road. It is an easy walk to the supermarket and other shops, vans need to be self contained as there are no amenities apart from a public toilet and dump point, no water or power but only $5 per night.

Our next stop was the beautiful town of Maleny in the sunshine coast hinterlands. We stayed at the show grounds which has amenities as well as water and power and is a short walk to town. It was wonderful to catch up with friends including past neighbours from Brisbane we haven’t seen since 1987. We went to ‘The Upfront Club‘, which has fantastic food, and on that particular night the Maleny Ukulele club was playing as well as the very talented singer song writer Kelly Cork, so fantastic!

From Maleny we headed to Brisbane, stopping to visit Australia Zoo as we hadn’t been before. It is a wonderful zoo but we recommend factoring in at least 4 hours to see everything and go to the various exhibitions as there is a lot to see and it is quite expensive, but well worth visiting.

We returned to Brisbane for more eye appointments and to catch up with family and friends. Queens Park in Ipswich is worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Tomorrow we head south. Cheers for now, Helen and Tim.