20 December 2013 - Lowood Showgrounds, Lowood, Queensland

Here we are back at Lowood and now having patronised showgrounds here, Ipswich and Marburg in very recent times, I must say that this is my preference. We have our camp set up in such a way that views of the heavily wooded ranges can be enjoyed from our dining room and “terrace” and views of the closer farmed hills from the kitchen window. Standards of cleanliness are superior and it is certainly quieter, away from main highways and the clamour of city life. There are only three other parties here at the moment however the numbers will change from day to day; there is a seven day limit to any one stay, however Christmas may blur the lines somewhat. Time will tell.

We left Marburg this morning, later than we had initially intended because we were caught up chatting with Wayne and Sharon again, learning much of their take on life on the road; there is no one definition or experience hence the fascination of chatting with all comers, something we should do more of. We bade the friendly Asian storekeeper farewell, until the next time, telling him that we did not need the newspaper reserved for us tomorrow, and headed off west for five kilometres and then north here to Lowood, a distance of no more than seventeen kilometres in total.

Our camp at Lowood

One short message on Skype after lunch caught us up in the last minute Christmas hype of “real life” out there in the cities; a matter that needed urgent attention with a chain of follow up emails and Skype calls, all of which should have been pursued a week or three ago. In the end, after all the fuss, it all proved too hard and we were all back to the position we were before initial contact was made. Christmas deadlines do not make for happy Christmas’s, only unwarranted stress. We thought we had escaped all that but how can you when you allow modern communication to be part of one’s life!

It was a relief to unwind after all the kerfuffle, read the paper, and check out the whereabouts of the local laundry and the starting point for the rail trail which we will make a start on tomorrow, buy a couple of bottles of wine to cover the days before Christmas and a few other surplus nick-knacks. There is no end to consumerism after all.

The high temperatures of Adelaide and Melbourne, all in the low forties have yet to arrive here in South East Queensland. In the meantime we are enjoying delightful breezes which relieve any discomfort caused by temperatures barely reaching thirty degrees. And the first of the Big-Bash, twenty-twenty cricket matches, start tonight televised for the masses. There is little else to entertain on the box over summer so I can look forward to learning all about this less dignified version of cricket.