We are finally off for a nice holiday somewhere in QLD…

The original plan was to go South to Armidale to do a surprise visit to Bob and Christine, but the borders are still closed, and after having rang few places along the coast, and realised that, well, that’s where everybody seems to be, with most parks and caravan parks fully booked for the next 2 years (figure of speech), I thought it was time to introduce the gang to the Outback…

What kind of trip would be if we didn’t get into a mechanical trouble straight away? We had just left Brisbane, and somewhere just past Gatton, we all herded a kind of explosion coming from the back.. A tyre? An airbag? Nope… Much simpler and yet much worse.. One of the hoses connected to the turbo had blown off..

Not a big deal… Got a full workshop with us, so in 10 minutes the hose was back on.. I still remember while going up the Toowoomba range, the complete silence I received, after I mentioned that if it had to come off again, that would be the possible worse place for it to happen… Luckily it didn’t happen, and we all thought that would be the end of it…

It wasn’t meant to be… While coming out of Oakey, same loud bang, same hose again… Bugger! This time I decide to see what the problem was and to apply a more permanent fix… Upon removing completely the hose, it became evident why it was keeping coming off. It was old and broken on the inside..

I did however remember seeing one in the spare parts box given to me by the previous owner, and after a bit of looking around in the box, I managed to find the spare one, that for some reason was broken exactly like the currently installed one..

Who, in the right state of mind, do carry around a broken spare parts??? Time to get onto the Vespa and to find some spare in town… Oh wait, the battery in the Vespa is flat… At this point, we decided to have lunch as the vibe was getting  really bad…

Dan.. “Should we go back home and try again another time?” “Hell no” I replied… Once the battery in the Vespa got a bit of juice in it, I was able to find a local shop and purchase a new hose clamp, much larger than the original..

Back to Gigi, I reinstalled the somehow half broken hose and put three hose clamp on it instead of only two… We were back on the road in no time…

First stop for the night was Lake Broadwater. We managed a nice spot right on the edge of the water (if the water had been there, that is). Apparently the water level was very low and thanks to that the campsite was not as busy as normally is. That gave us a chance to really enjoy the first night, with a BBQ for dinner and a very peaceful night..

At sunrise the kids were already up, and luckily we had taken their pushbike, so they had a ball riding on the edge of the lake.. We spent the day relaxing and went to bed early as we were going to be on the move again the day after..

By 9 am we were on our way to Chinchilla on the Warrego Hwy, that unfortunately has been let to a state of disrepair, that makes you wonder what is going on with all the money raised by the speed cameras and people registrations…

To sum it up, there were two signs: One mentioning roads upgrades and the other one not much after stating: “Danger, cracks on the road”. One would be excused for thinking that the second sign was the actual upgrade.. And what road? That’s not a road anymore.. That was the best joke about the second sign..

Upon arriving in Chinchilla and having a bit of look around, we decided to camp at the showground (safer and easier for the kids on the bikes). We did however managed to park near Woollies before going to the showground and doing a bit of shopping for the rest of the week. Sorry to say, no ALDI here yet…

In the evening we got a courtesy cab to the local Club Hotel pub for a nice steak, let the kids in the playground, and more importantly, let Dan see the football final.. Unfortunately for Dan they only had Foxtel available, so we managed very quickly to get back to Gigi where we were able to stream the game on one TV while the kids were watching Aquaman on the other…

The day after we found ourselves doing different things… Kim found her spot for reading a book, Dan enjoyed spending some time in the sun and I managed to play with my very old kite and the kids… It was nice to have all that room available and to be able to do what we wanted..

Left Chinchilla, we were on our way to Mitchell heading for the Great Artesian SPA.. Upon arriving in Mitchell, we made a decision once again, to take advantage of the caravan park right next to the river and just 100 metres away from the SPA. There are other places to stay in Mitchell, but both are out of town and not practical if you need to walk to get to places.. I’ll however list them in the Campground Mapped section..

We ended up spending two days at the spa and most of the time in the 40° hot water, while off course taking advantage of the local cousine.. The campground was clean and it also offered a huge fireplace where most people got together at night, to share their travelling stories. It always amazes me how many people and how many stories you will find when you are willing to stop and smell the roses…

In all honesty we also did spend a great deal of time eating.. Not sure if because of the fresh air or just because you are walking in front of the fridge more often that you should, being in the middle of the vehicle..

Like all short holidays, it was time to head back to Brisbane, but not before try the local cousine in Roma (Macca) 😁. By the evening we were back in Brisbane, after a short stop to see some good old friends in Nanango.. It was very enjoyable to drive back at night. Mind you it took me one hour to clean the front of Gigi the day after from all the insects.

I was impress by the performance of Gigi even when fully loaded with water, fuel and 5 people with luggage. It probably hovers around the 20 tons and you definitely feel it while you drive, but is not that bad..

I was also impress by the fuel consumption considering the full load; I was able to get a constant 3.4 KM per litre even going back through the hills between Dalby and Moore on the D’aguilar Hwy..

Finally, it made a huge different having a good retarder while driving downhill.. I like the option where you pick the speed, press the downhill button, and it just sits there, no matter what.. Just love it…

To sum it up, we all had a good time, the hose in the Turbo is still there, Gigi was comfortable enough for the 5 of us and I managed to put another item in my bucket list..

There are few things that need to be modified, including plenty of item that I will discard because of no use whatsoever, so that Gigi can be even more comfortable while travelling around this magnificent land, but nothing major I’m happy to report.. Let’s see where the next adventure will take us..

Back in Toowoomba now for some more work, and to apply some modifications to Gigi, before the borders will hopefully open and allow us to move around a bit more.. It would be nice to spend the summer somewhere in the middle of NSW or in the Victorian Alpine region.. If not, it is going to be another hot summer…