Driving on Hills

In the US, we often climb and descend hills when on the highway. But in Australia, when you climb a hill, it is really a serious hill!

In southeastern Queensland, the land is largely flat farm land punctuated periodically with a mountain or hill. This means that there are little to know foot hills as Americans and Europeans would recognize them. You just drive along and suddenly, you find yourself climbing a 500 - 1000 m high mountain. This produces some very steep climbs like the one above. This one is on the way to Spring Bluff near Toowoomba, but we've seen similar hills in the Tamborine Mountains and in the Bunya Mountains. And yet, we routinely find large trucks, very often with two large trailers behind the tractor climbing these hill (very slowly). This particular section follows the old stagecoach/wagon route between Toowoomba and Brisbane. We've read that when descending these hills, the wagons would drag logs behind them to keep from running over the horses. I just use low gear.

There are certainly some interesting things to be found simply by driving about the countryside.