Toowoomba 19 - 21 December 2008

Up with the galahs and set off early – we are still on NSW time – hard to adjust to the short evenings. We had forgotten that QLD does not have daylight saving, with the result that it is dark at 7pm and pitch black at 7:30pm. The evening is over so soon so we are just running NSW time. No changing clocks in our motor home! Next stop was Warwick, which impressed us as a delightful town that cared about the aesthetics of the place. We arrived at Woollies to do the Xmas shopping and realised it was 7:30 their time and hardly a soul in sight (though they soon caught up). Bought up on Xmas goodies such as pork, stuffing ingredients, a bit of ham, custard and a lovely icecream.
Drove on in the heat to Toowoomba, a city of over 90,000 people. Decided to stay in a caravan park with a pool. Free camping in big towns is harder and it is less hassle if you stay at a park and the pool sold it - straight in when we parked! This turned out to be the only hot day - back to clouds, wind and threatening rain. We had been looking forward to seeing Toowoomba, as it meant to be one of the most liveable cities in Australia. However, we were disappointed in ways hard to define. It was once a lovely town but now a straggly city. The best part was the parks scattered around the town. They were very impressive and numerous with lovely plants. We also really enjoyed an old section where beautiful decorated old style homes sat under huge leafy green trees on big graceful blocks. One comment we read said that Toowoomba was a retreat from Brisbane’s heat and humidity. That could also be a plus. We will soon find out about that! We could not help comparing it to other (much smaller) towns and felt that Toowoomba seemed to lack a heart that the smaller ones often have in abundance.
On Sunday, we got up early and went to a number of markets. We enjoyed buying up fruit! We enjoyed a visit to a great museum, The Cobb and Co. The varieties of coaches were wonderful to see and highlighted the dependence of people on the horse during that time. That night we drove around and looked at the Xmas lights – there was one whole street where virtually every house was light up.