Nindigully to Home

From Nindigully, we continued east along the Barwon Highway towards Goondiwindi, where we stayed for two nights camping at the showgrounds.
 
Your fee of $25 includes power, water, showers, and toilets, with a dump point located several kilometres away. The sunsets here were simply stunning...

Leaving Goondiwindi, we soon passed through Boggabilla as we headed eastward on the Bruxner Highway towards the small town of Texas.
This is an RV-friendly town with a lovely free camp located several kilometres from the city beside the Dumaresq River. A dump point and free showers are situated on the main street. We have stayed here before, but today it was just a coffee stop at one of the local cafes.
 
For the next 76 km, the highway runs alongside the Queensland/New South Wales border as it twists and turns on its way to Mole Creek. This road is quite similar to many other rural roads that have been damaged by the frequent passage of heavy B-doubles running back and forth each day.
 
Just 5 km north of Tenterfield, we joined the New England Highway for the journey into Wallangarra. The next two nights were spent camping in a large paddock several hundred metres behind the Jennings Pub.

The pub is listed in WikiCamps, and Lyn, who owns the pub, cooks the most amazing meals, and the beers are lovely and cold.

The Wallangarra Railway Station was opened in 1887 to link the different gauges used in NSW and QLD. The QLD narrow gauge used the western side of the station, with NSW standard gauge trains using the eastern side. The opening of a standard gauge link through Kyogle in 1930 changed everything.

On our second day, we explored Girraween National Park and walked along the Pyramid and Granite Arch tracks.

After our walk and a quick shower, we headed into Tenterfield for some sightseeing and lunch. We have visited here three times before to see the Saddlery shop in High Street, but our fourth visit was successful.

 

The building remains in its original condition, from its 20-inch blue granite stones to its red cedar doors and windows. The ceilings are stained brown from years of tobacco smoke rising over time.

There have been many saddlers over the years, but George Woolnough was the most famous, being Peter Allen's grandfather. He served as a saddler from 1908 until his retirement in 1960. Many people, including A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, were regular visitors.

George Woolnough's grandson, Peter Allen, has kept alive the memory of his grandfather with one of his best-known songs, "The Tenterfield Saddler".

And these size 13 shoes he wears in the video of "I go to Rio"

From Wallangarra to our next campsite was just 57 km. I had read about camping at the Aloomba Lavender Farm, just northeast of Stanthorpe, from another Bushtracker owner and from entries on WikiCamps.
 
Unfortunately, the place did not live up to the reports we had read, but at $15 per night, it was far better than staying in a caravan park. At least we had quite lovely views of the surrounding countryside.

Our time spent here involved touring the Stanthorpe district, sightseeing, visiting cheese factories, breweries, wineries and having lunches out. Some of the lovely cheeses, olives and dips purchased during our travels made for wonderful happy hours.

We set off for brunch with Deb and Hank at Tenterfield before going our separate ways. They were heading towards Alstonville and then back home the next day, while we had planned to camp by the Mann River for several days. The temperature at 1 pm, as we passed through Glen Innes, was just 14 degrees, and with heavy rain forecasted for the upcoming week, we decided to head home instead.