{"id":1615,"date":"2019-03-14T07:29:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T07:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2019-03-19T11:35:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T11:35:50","slug":"myanmar-oz-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=1615","title":{"rendered":"MYANMAR & OZ. 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stanthorpe is in what is known as the granite belt.\u00a0 It’s about 250 kms inland and more than 800 metres above sea level.\u00a0 So it’s hotter because it’s away from the coastal influences but cooler because of the altitude.\u00a0 Overall, altitude wins – Stanthorpe is officially recognised as the coolest place in Queensland – but as we’ve noted before – everything is relative.<\/p>\n

And there’s a lot of granite about!\u00a0 And back-packers!<\/p>\n

We spent several days with Glenda’s (distant in more ways than one!) cousin Beryl and John.\u00a0 Relaxing, doing rather little, the occasional outing to a dried up stream bed to search for gemstones, a visit a very drought\u00a0 beleaguered winery to restock on wine…<\/p>\n

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A trip to Tenterfield a few miles and an hour back into NSW<\/p>\n

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The old School of Arts building – now a cafe (closed on Sunday!)<\/p>\n

… and just generally hanging out waiting for rain.\u00a0 We did actually get 0.00005 mm one afternoon and the locals were out celebrating!<\/p>\n

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The area is as arid as we’ve seen it.\u00a0 Really not a good place to lounge under the eucalypts!\u00a0 (Remember the incident on the Warby Ranges near Wangaratta all those weeks ago!)<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the gemstone hunt resulted in thousands of stone-grade gems being found and discarded.\u00a0 For every thousand stones John and I picked over, we found exactly zero actual gems.\u00a0 No topaz, no garnets, no emeralds and defiitely no diamonds or gold.\u00a0 Neither did we find any evidence of tin residues which would have been abundant in earlier times.\u00a0 Just a lot of low grade quartz rocks!\u00a0 So, hot, dusty and bothered, we retreated home for a beer.\u00a0 (Of course, if we had found a treasure trove in the stream bed, we wouldn’t be telling you about it anyway!\u00a0 So you will have to decide for yourself if we hit pay dirt – or not.)<\/p>\n

Water was quite severely rationed in Stanthorpe while we were there.\u00a0 All spare water was collected and lovingly shared out in the garden.\u00a0 When we left we drove through some heavy showers but these apparently didn’t reach town!\u00a0 Twenty-four hours later rationing was tightened to 120 litres per person per day.\u00a0 Of course, the very next day the whole SE corner of Queensland was subject to a massive, widespread and very wet bit of weather.\u00a0 We got 80+ mm in an hour on the coast.\u00a0 \u00a0Beryl and John got more than 10 mm which was very welcome although not enough to fill their rainwater tanks.\u00a0 I say they should have increased water restrictions sooner!<\/p>\n

On the way home we drove via Ma Ma for a coffee at the general store.\u00a0 “It’ll be closed” said Glenda “It’s March!”…\u00a0 And it was.\u00a0 Both March and closed!<\/p>\n

As an aside, we have noticed that Australians take road works very seriously.\u00a0 \u00a0And they do seem to have a lot of them.\u00a0 For example – imagine the scene – we are approaching a bit of sidewalk repair at a legal 80 kph\u00a0 Some 5 kms out we get a warning.\u00a0 “Prepare to slow down.\u00a0 Roadworks ahead 60 kph”.\u00a0 2 kms out we are slowed to 40 kph.\u00a0 “Prepare to stop”.\u00a0 1 km out there’s a man (or woman) with an enormous sunhat, armed with an insulated drinks bottle and a picnic boag round their neck and a “Stop\/Slow” board – obviously showing the stop side – Oh, and a radio.\u00a0 Ten minutes later, after one car and a push bike come the other way, matey-boy (or girl) has a brief discussion on the radio about the weather, the up-coming lunch-break and a traffic update.\u00a0 The stop sign is lugubriously changed to “slow” and we are off.\u00a0 One kilometre down the road we get to a narrowed section of highway which lasts about 50 metres.\u00a0 Another km on we pass a similarly yellow-clad, hat-wearing person with a matching picnic bag and stop\/ slow board (which is of course telling us to continue driving slowly!).\u00a0 5 kms later we are eased progressively back up to 80 kph.\u00a0 Now let’s get this in perspective.\u00a0 The narrow section of road is about twice as wide as the widest road in Devon (with the possible exception of the M5 motorway).\u00a0 And there is almost no traffic about.\u00a0 The workmen (if there are any not at lunch, are usually 50 metres away from any moving vehicle).\u00a0 Why the hell they don’t use traffic-lights with sensors on.\u00a0 \u00a0Or, in most cases just have two signs posted 250 metres apart saying “Slow.\u00a0 Roadworks 100 metres ahead”\u00a0 They could optionally add “No overtaking” if that eased their conscionce.<\/p>\n

Sadly, experience has shown us that traffic controllers are at greater risk than the folk they are “protecting”.\u00a0 Bring in traffic lights and sensible restrictions.\u00a0 Much safer.<\/p>\n

On the subject of road signs that say ” No Overtaking”, these are often seen in one of three variations.\u00a0 Firstly and simply just the two words.\u00a0 These are posted when there’s a solid white line down the middle of the road.\u00a0 I guess that’s sensible belt and braces stuff.\u00a0 Secondly, with the extension of “- Unless Safe”.\u00a0 This is clearly sound advice, if a little unnecessary!\u00a0 Finally, with the extension “- Or Passing”.\u00a0 My favourite.\u00a0 Commonly seen on 10 foot wide, single lane bridges – especially the old wooden ones which have no side rails!\u00a0 Really!<\/p>\n

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While whinging about road “safety” signs, I just don’t want to know about speed bumps.\u00a0 We thought continental Europe was bad.\u00a0 But Australia has installed thousands of the things all over the place.\u00a0 To be fair, often protecting things that need protecting.\u00a0 But with teeth-shattering effects – they are wildly overdone.\u00a0 Probably sponsored by “Suspensions-R-Us”!\u00a0 The worst are to be taken at 0.2 kph, the best can be negotiated at maybe 2 kph!\u00a0 Yuk!\u00a0 So distracting you just don’t notice the pram you just ran over.\u00a0 Sound just about the same as the speed bump!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I think we were on the way home from Stanthorpe when i got side-tracked.\u00a0 As we passed Gatton we stopped for a cup of tea.\u00a0 \u00a0It felt rather warm that afternoon.\u00a0 It transpires that at 40 degrees, the town was experiencing it’s hottest EVER March day.<\/p>\n

We were on a mission to meet Jack and Ben (AKA Phroggy – best not to ask!) – so we weren’t taking the scenic route round Somerset Dam.\u00a0 We didn’t even stop in the pleasant town of Esk.\u00a0 But we did need a break so we stopped in Kilcoy.\u00a0 The little coffee kiosk we “normally” visit was shut.\u00a0 In fact it wasn’t there at all.\u00a0 Well, come on it is March!<\/p>\n

Just behind where the kiosk wasn’t there is a rather nice art gallery.\u00a0 \u00a0Run by a group of artist\/volunteers.\u00a0 On that day Julie was on duty.\u00a0 She took pity on us and brewed us a cuppa while we chatted on the Lakeside Deck.<\/p>\n

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With a great view of, you guessed, a lake!<\/p>\n

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You just don’t get that sort of thing happening in the UK – ever.<\/p>\n

Next stop, the Sunshine Coast but that’s for another day.<\/p>\n

Two older couples were having breakfast.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

old man 1: We went to the best restaurant last night<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 2: What’s it’s name?<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 1: Oh, I have such a terrible memory. What’s that red flower?<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 2: Carnation?<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 1: No, the one with the thorns.<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 2: Rose?<\/em><\/p>\n

old man 1: That’s it. (turns to his wife) Hey Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stanthorpe is in what is known as the granite belt.\u00a0 It’s about 250 kms inland and more than 800 metres above sea level.\u00a0 So it’s hotter because it’s away from the coastal influences but cooler because of the altitude.\u00a0 Overall,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myanmar-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1644,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions\/1644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}