The day turned out bright and clear. We had to vacate the site or start paying so we headed off towards Toowoomba and the north to check out some more sites before returning to Lawnton.
We had morning tea at Helidon and found that the rest area is once again open for overnight camping with a 20 hr limit though they lock up the toilets at night.
We took the New England Highway out of Toowoomba and stopped at the Tourist Information Centre at Hampton where the lady was most helpful telling me where the free camping sites were and where the roads were bitumen. We took off along the Lakes tourist drive. After lunch we missed a turning and found ourselves on a gravel road which required a careful bit of reversing into a farm entrance so that we could return to the blacktop.
The weather forecast was for a cold night so we booked into the caravan park at Crows Nest. This place has quite a reputation among travellers. We found it relatively cheap and most unusual in that is has a licensed restaurant. We took advantage of this and has a quite pleasant meal at less than Cafe Zanetti prices and no washing up to do.