12 Jun 2026

 12 Jun 2026

Today is another reasonably slow start day. I probably should have got moving, but I don't like starting the car early when I am staying in motels, as it takes a while to start and runs rough when it is cold. It is only a 535-kilometre drive today, about 7 hours in a modern car, so about 9 hours in this Morris Minor. I used the slow start to grease the trunions and the drive shaft universal joints, then loaded that car back up and set off. Took another pic with the guitar. Nice sunny day and a highway today, hopefully not too many unhappy trucks and travellers. 

I have to say that as a general rule I am not too bothered by caravaners, I have been stuck behind many of them before, so I figure if they "get stuck" behind the Morris then that is fair. To be honest there wasn't really much traffic at all and anyone who needed to pass did. Then, the Moonbi Hills. The 1st Moonbi Hills weren't too bad, we did lose speed, but there was roadwork as well so everyone had to slow down, I just had no choice in it, masked the lack of power really well! I decided to stop at the Moonbi Lookout as a bit of a break for the car before the 2nd Moonbi Hills climb. There is not a lot there, it really is just a rest stop, but the view is ok looking back towards Tamworth in the distance. 

The lookout is from the top of the rock in the background.

Looking south and back the way we came.

Looking north and the 2nd Moonbi Hills in the background.

After a bit of a break, quite short, but makes the car happy, it's back to the highway and the 2nd Moonbi Hills to climb. It is easy to get back out onto the main road as there are roadworks just by the lookout roads turn off, so the cars are all going slow. The not so easy part is that the roadworks finishes at the turnoff to the lookout, so all the cars want to speed up again to get past trucks and the climb starts fairly quickly. Given that the car had no "run up" the incline of the climb quickly sorts out that there is no acceleration at all. We manage to climb up the Hills, behind a truck, mostly in 2nd gear, but we also had to drop back to 1st to make the top. Really, this engine should be much better than that!

Anyway from the top of the Moonbi Hills it was straight on. Past Armidale and heading for the Queensland border at Wallingarra (on the Queensland side, Jennings on the New South Wales side). Quick stop for a picture or two.

At this point, the big post beside the car, is on the border.
The back half in NSW and the front in QLD

From Wallangarra it is about 220 kilometres to Ipswich and no great hills of problems, well one "Pass" through the ranges at Cunningham's Gap, but we were going down, not up! The traffic heading into Ipswich was absolutely manic, but made it to the motel and called it a night.