Day Four of a Camper Holiday! - Tamworth to Coochin Creek

After the wax museum, we settled in for another long drive. We aimed for Coochin Creek campground, not far from Australia Zoo. This was to be our first night without the convenience of mains power and running water.

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A cross-border tussle

Our route took us up the New England Highway through Armidale, Tenterfield, Warwick and Emerald. When we reached the twin towns of Wallangarra and Jennings, we stopped and had some fun on the New South Wales / Queensland border. X and E found the whole concept quite novel, which was surprising given the (literally) thousands of times they have crossed the New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory border.
I think the whole concept of "Queensland" was the more exciting part - actually being in a place a long way away was what made a potentially mundane activity something extraordinary.

The train billboard at the border

A very large billboard thanking us for visiting the Queensland downs was just on the New South Wales side of the border. The billboard is cut in the shape of a train, and it has stairs and a platform behind it for punters to have their photo taken.


Once we reached the Bruce Highway in Beerwah, we found that the intersections had been modified so it was no longer possible to turn right without the aid of an overpass. This resulted in a 30 minute detour, which was very frustrating. Despite my frustration, I do appreciate that at-grade freeway intersections are very dangerous, and are responsible for a high number of crashes.


We arrived at Coochin Creek after dark, and established camp. What we found in the morning was a gorgeous, sensitively developed bush camp ground beside the Coochin creek.

X with soccer ball in the morning at Coochin Creek campground.

In the morning: Australia Zoo.