Day 22 Tuesday 31/5/2016, Nindigully to Surat, rain threatening

Tearily we farewell VeeWee and little Tilly, BP & H who are heading for the east coast. We’re going north.

There are a few roos about, but the bush soon gives way to immense cotton fields. The fences are a long way from the road here as we are on a stock route where cattle are driven south to the markets in times of economic hardship. Droving slowly to market keeps condition on the cattle as they graze their way along. A tried and true practice.

St George is a charming town on the wide brown Balonne River. The houses are well maintained old wooden Queenslanders and jacarandas are everywhere. You know, it smells and feels like Queensland.

We camp a little further north at the Fisherman’s Park at Surat where a donation for your stay buys the local fishing club fingerlings (baby fish) for future release into the waterway. There are a lot of vans here and quite a few look settled in for a long stay.

It is only a short walk into town and we immerse ourselves in the history of Cobb & Co, surprisingly Woody thinks the local supermarket is more interesting! After 70 years of operation throughout Victoria, NSW and Qld, Cobb & Co coaches made their final run from Surat to Yuleba in 1924. And I’ll bet you hadn’t heard of either of those towns before this blog. I really wanted to learn more about the coaching era because Woody’s great great grandfather ran a coaching business in SA in the 1840’s.

Rain threatens all day and you can smell it in the air.

Towing Kms: 157kms

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