West of the Woop Woop
Whilst navigating to Brisvegas airport I switched on the wireless hoping for traffic reports in this busy city, it was a little like standing in a noisy wind tunnel and although there were traffic reports I could not understand the simplest piece of advice because of the speed of delivery and what we would consider the quaint practice of doing the whole item from inside a helicopter. I did hear a lot of rapid fire adverts extolling the virtues of sanitary fittings and floor coverings, it is good to know that such things are readily available in the city when they are a little thin on the ground west of the Woop Woop.
Having fought my way to the airport and booked into Europ Car I was sent off to a lonely car park joined by other lost wanderers on a similar mission, to find our hire car. Oh dear, the car hailed from some far corner of the Pacific rim, I have never heard of the manufacturer or the bland model type, to cap it all it was painted silver with a back seat that must have been the site of some historical biological event, perhaps perpetrated by a small child on a long journey (the car did have New South Wales plates) or someone older after overindulging at a boozy barbecue. When underway I was surprised to find a "low" setting on the automatic gear selector, however its purpose was quickly discovered when approaching the first hill of our journey west, then as the slight gradient increased one also had to switch off the air conditioning to have any hope of reaching the top of the modest brae.
However let us not be too scathing about the ghastly imported motor, as I am pleased to say that it was not Australian and the poor wee thing did manage to carry us to the home of good friends that we have not seen for several years. We had a splendid few days in the glorious farm lands west of the Great Dividing Range where one watches carefully what one steps on and red wine is kept in the fridge. Fortunately the fridge door was opened on a regular basis to release a steady flow of excellent vino and purvey to die for. We were feted around the countryside like royalty and only put to shame by our Bridge skills which were not a patch on the locals. Tree-huggers are a bit scornful of large scale farming in this part of Queensland also home to vast open cast mining operations, however I was most impressed when one of our hosts let slip that he had paid three million for a new irrigation dam, he was particularly proud of the fact that it was large enough to water ski on, however he did admit that it had remained more or less empty since he had built it! Eat your heart out SEPA.
Having fought my way to the airport and booked into Europ Car I was sent off to a lonely car park joined by other lost wanderers on a similar mission, to find our hire car. Oh dear, the car hailed from some far corner of the Pacific rim, I have never heard of the manufacturer or the bland model type, to cap it all it was painted silver with a back seat that must have been the site of some historical biological event, perhaps perpetrated by a small child on a long journey (the car did have New South Wales plates) or someone older after overindulging at a boozy barbecue. When underway I was surprised to find a "low" setting on the automatic gear selector, however its purpose was quickly discovered when approaching the first hill of our journey west, then as the slight gradient increased one also had to switch off the air conditioning to have any hope of reaching the top of the modest brae.
However let us not be too scathing about the ghastly imported motor, as I am pleased to say that it was not Australian and the poor wee thing did manage to carry us to the home of good friends that we have not seen for several years. We had a splendid few days in the glorious farm lands west of the Great Dividing Range where one watches carefully what one steps on and red wine is kept in the fridge. Fortunately the fridge door was opened on a regular basis to release a steady flow of excellent vino and purvey to die for. We were feted around the countryside like royalty and only put to shame by our Bridge skills which were not a patch on the locals. Tree-huggers are a bit scornful of large scale farming in this part of Queensland also home to vast open cast mining operations, however I was most impressed when one of our hosts let slip that he had paid three million for a new irrigation dam, he was particularly proud of the fact that it was large enough to water ski on, however he did admit that it had remained more or less empty since he had built it! Eat your heart out SEPA.
Having found a way of opening the boot of the hire car, sadly the day dawned when we have to head east again, leaving our chums behind, when will we see them again? At least our next leg of the journey was mostly downhill and we could leave the air conditioning on as we headed back towards Brissie, dodging the ever vigilant traffic cops. Yours aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.
posted by The Baron Trollaigh at
12:00 PM
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