Garry W, Garry Cos and myself headed off Monday 23rd from Yandina heading for points south.
1st day was warmish on our way via Kilcoy, Esk, Hampton to Toowoomba where lunch was done at the Blue Mountain Hotel, from there we ventured via Cambooya, Leyburn and Oman Ama in 38c heat to the Stockman Hotel at Texas for a very welcome reception and a cold shower and cold ale or two.
Tues a.m. we decided to head to Tenterfield for Breakfast and use the back road to Mingoola, oops we got to within 4 minutes of re-joining the Bruxner Hway and yep road closed at the NSW border, bugger, a large road sign we later discovered (after backtracking)had been placed to inform of said closure but it was facing traffic coming from the Stanthorpe direction DOH ! so off to Stanthorpe for brekky, ah the joys of COVID....at least the temp had cooled down and was fairly pleasant.
From then on we found lots and lots of roadworks to impede our stately progress...a run down the New England Hway to Dundee and then cut across to the Gwydir hway at Bald Knob and a stop at the Raspberry lookout filled in the morning, followed by a good clean run down the Gibraltar Range got us to the Jackadgery servo for a lunch break after which we continued through Grafton then Casino to our night stop at Kyogle at the Exchange Hotel, a heavy rain shower went through around dinner time and cleaned the roads for our next day.
An early cool start on Wed saw us head up Summerland Way to join the Mt Lindesay rd and have a stop at Woodenbong to don some warmer clothing as the temp was decidedly cold...we got through at the Legume border control with our Qld border passes and headed up via Queen Mary Falls into thick fog and misty condition at 14c temp ! a dead tree across the road with vines all tangled up together halted our progress so we had to clear the road to continue, a morning tea stop at 'Flavours' in Boonah then saw us on our way into Fernvale and the east side of Wivenhoe Dam and back round Somerset Dam road for a final break at Kilcoy as it was now getting hot again !!! n.b. The Summerland way is undergoing more roadworks particularly north of Woodenbong in the goat track twisty winding section and should make for a great ride when finished. So heat, cold, fog/mist road, works and road clearing made for an interesting and enjoyable ride.