The 120 kilometre dinner date (and that's just to the pub)

Queensland Country Life - By Wendy Cox

In the city, "going out for dinner" meant walking 500 metres to the local Italian joint, arguing over whether to get garlic bread (we always did) and being home in time for Netflix by 8 o'clock.

If the restaurant was more than 20 minutes away, you needed snacks, a bathroom break and a full tank of petrol.

But out here on Tipperary Station, going out for dinner is less "pop down the road" and more "pack a swag, we may not make it back."

The nearest spot for a feed is the Adelaide River Inn. It's our version of fine dining, only with more buffalo and fewer napkins.

It's a two-hour round trip, including the 30km Tipperary driveway, which is basically an obstacle course designed by a madman.

You'll dodge wild buffalo, wallabies with a death wish, pigs, horses, fiery patches of roadside grass, wild dogs with an attitude and the occasional tourist, fisherman, truck or community local parked in the middle of the road having a yarn.

And don't even get me started on Dorat Road, narrow, bumpy and once host to a crocodile crossing like it was a casual Tuesday.

And yet, we go. We glam up. Out come the mascara, the hairspray and the "good" earrings.

We jump in the car, pray we don't hit anything, and head off into the dust and chaos, all for the sweet reward of someone else cooking us dinner.

It's completely ridiculous. And absolutely wonderful.

The food, it's great. But honestly, it's the laughs in the car, the shared eye rolls at the road conditions, the selfies taken in the glow of the pub's fairy lights and the ice-cold cider at the bar that make it magic.

Living remotely rewires your brain. What once felt "too hard" becomes a standard Saturday night.

And the effort you make to see people, share a meal and soak in something a little different, that's what makes it all so special.

So while my city mates are booking reservations two suburbs over and calling it an adventure, I'll be out here dodging buffalo and touching up my lip gloss in a Toyota side mirror.

Worth it....every single time

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