Day 230 – Glass House Mountains, Qld (30 Apr)

Maleny and Montville

Happy birthday Dad!  Another glorious day today. We drove to Maleny 26kms NW. The route to Maleny and Montville is via the Blackall Ranges tourist drive and incorporates small touristy arty crafty towns and some amazing scenery including the Glass House Mountains.   Maleny is known as an arty crafty town with a population of about 5000.  We visited the Mary Cairncross reserve and sanctuary just before you get to Maleny.  This is 55 hectares of subtropical rainforest that was bequeathed by one of the local families for the community to enjoy.  There is a 1.2km walk through the rainforest and it was very lovely.  Amazing how cool it was in the forest and some of the trees are amazing, the way their roots have grown is quite spectacular.  Lots of vines and it is really interesting to see how they take over these huge trees.  After a picnic lunch in the grounds we then drove into the town of Maleny.  We were surprised how busy it was wouldn’t like to be there on the weekend.  Lots of speciality shops, cafes etc.  The drive from the park to town is via Mountain View Road and the views over the mountains are spectacular.  From Maleny we drove 15km NE to a town called Montville.  This is a particularly lovely town with some really interesting shops, including a cuckoo clock shop which I would like to go back to, chocolate shop, italian shop, doll and teddy bear shop, cheese factory and a really nice African shop.  This shop had some really lovely good quality artifacts from Africa and very reasonably priced.  Interestingly there was a wooden giraffe similar to ours priced at $800!  While we were in town  there was a wedding that was just about to start and the bridal party were outside the African shop preparing to walk to the nearby church hall.  The bridal procession was led to the hall by a bagpipe player it was a really nice touch.  Something about bagpipes that gets to you especially when they are played well.  Montville could be compared to Hahndorf in SA with its restaurants and speciality shops and is definitely a tourist mecca with many people going there for weekend getaways.  I really want to visit this town again in more detail. There are lots of great forest walks and heritage walks in the towns.  All in all a very lovely area.  Looking forward to the weekend going to spend it with Wendy and Rob who live in Pomona about 75kms north.  They have recently moved from WA we haven’t seen their new house yet. 

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Day 229 – Glass House Mountains, Qld (29 Apr)

Mt Tibogargan walk

Another beautiful sunny day and with impending rain on the way over the weekend decided to do the Mt Tibrogargan circuit walk today – 3.4km.  Mt Tibrogargan is 364m above sea level.  This walk goes through eucalypt and melaleuca forests.  And yet another view of some of the mountains.  At one stage I heard a heavy rustle and wasn’t sure what it was and then discovered it was a lace monitor that I must have scared and it darted up a tree.  There is a climb to the summit but this is recommended for experienced climbers/walkers only.

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Days 224-228 – Glass House Mountains, Qld (24-28 Apr)

Marooychdore, Caloundra, Mountain walks

Finally getting some sunshine!  Have had four days in a row with no rain!  Yippee!  So nice to be able to get and about without getting waterlogged and wet feet!  The weather is beautiful, lovely warm days mid to high 20s so still in shorts and tshirts and the lowest it has got at night is 11.6.  Can certainly see the drawcard for so many people wanting to live here.  We were without the car for most the Anzac weekend as John was fixing a really bad rust spot in the door and roof and of course when he started to fix it it was a dry day and the following day it poured all day so put paid to the work he had started and because the filler has to dry between coatings it all took longer than it should have had.  Anyway he did a good job and all fixed now and best of all we saved $900 had we taken it to the local panel beater!  John mowed the lawn on Monday – a ride on mower so an easy job! We caught up with an old air force buddy of Johns named Rocky for coffee at Marooychdore during the week.  Marooychdore is about 40kms north of us.  Rocky and John hadn’t seen each other for 21 years!  How bad is that.  Rocky is a captain with a Taiwanese commercial airline and whilst he lives in Qld is based in Taipei. So he is away for 5 weeks and home for 12 days – been doing this for 13 years!  Must have a very understanding wife.  Really nice guy and hopefully we can catch up with him and his wife (whom we haven’t met) before we leave.  We met him at a cafe at the Sunshine Plaza which is a humongous shopping centre – have never seen so many shops and the carpark is enormous.  It is a nice centre and what you can’t buy there isn’t worth having!  It was very overwhelming as there is so much in and around the centre.  After a while I switched off to what was around too much to take in!  On the way home we did a coastal drive checking out some of the coastline and towns.  The whole coast caters for holiday makers and there is so much holiday accommodation majority seems to be self contained apartments in blocks of anywhere up to about five storeys high.  Maroochydore has a nice coastline and made us realise how much we miss not being close to the ocean, such a pickmeup to smell the ocean air and spray.  Stopped at Mooloolaba Wharf.  Very low key.  Reminded us of a very downmarket Hillarys Boat Harbour (in WA) in that it had an underwater world, speciality shops and on the water – in this case canals not the ocean like Hillarys.  Quite seedy looking.  From there we stopped at Caloundra which is much nicer and had a lovely feel about it.  John had one of the guys he used to work with in Brisbane visit and of course the discussion centred around trading – boring so I left them to it and took advantage of the sunshine to do some sightseeing.  Went to two scenic lookouts, one called the Wildhorse Lookout which is via a 700m walk from the carpark up a fairly steep climb to the fire tower.  Great view, although unfortunately EPA (I guess) were burning off and the mountains were blocked by a smoke haze.  Will have to go back on a clear day.  Could see Brisbane city and the ocean on the skyline.  This lookout is named after the brumbies that used to run free in the area.   The other lookout is the Glass House Mountains lookout.  There is a lovely 800m loop walk here that has some great scribbly gum trees.

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Day 222 – Glass House Mountains, Qld (22 Apr)

Have just seen the python that lives in the roof of the house.  Have been looking for it since we have been here and luckily we saw it tonight.  We think it is a Carpet Python (we called it Claude or maybe Claudette!).  They are harmless and are carnivores so it is probably waiting for a mouse or something like that to waltz on by.  John couldn’t resist trying to touch it and it was not happy, it actually had a little strike at him. 

 

Days 216-221 – Glass House Mountains, Qld (16-21 Apr) Week 32

Can’t believe it going into our 8 month on the road!  Time is just flying by.  It had been raining very day since we got here and some of the showers are very heavy.  It really does rain here!  It is actually lovely to see sure beats the drizzles.  Hopefully by the end of the month the rain will start to disappear and we’ll get some nice days from then on.  The days aren’t really cold, mid 20s only had one day when we had to put on our tracky daks.  There is also no or very little wind.  It is just very wet underfoot and a lot of the walks we want to do with the dogs are waterlogged. So our shoes are constantly wet or damp.  It is nice to have rain when it isn’t cold and windy though.  Even out walking we are still wearing our shorts and tshirts just have an umbrella with us.  Unlike Busso which is so miserable in the winter, cold, wet and windy.  We really want to get out and take some photos so hopefully it will stop soon!  Saw a snake the other day slithering across the driveway, don’t know what it was didn’t get too close, it was dark brown.  Cane toads are around at night time, horrible things.  The idea is to kill them – haven’t the courage to do that even though they are a huge pest.  We had a great day on the weekend, we caught up with Wendy and Rob friends of ours from WA who moved to Pomona about 75kms north of here inland of Noosa.  It was great to see them again and we’ll see them a lot more while we are in Qld.  While it has been raining, we have pretty much spent time getting organised and catching up on paperwork and fixing bits and pieces on the van and car that needed attention.  Went to Caboolture which is a bigger suburb on the way to Brisbane to organise to get the caravan serviced.  Had lunch at the RSL.  The RSL clubs here have lots of pokies, restaurants and entertainment.  The entertainment is usually free and the meals are very very reasonable.  John went to the local Rotary club – a small membership.  Also went to Caloundra which is on the coast about 30 minutes drive away.  Unfortunately it was pouring with rain while we were there so not good for sightseeing.  We will revisit on a better day.  What we saw reminded me of a mini gold coast.   A week has gone already of our housesit, 7 weeks to go, can see the time is going to go quick and there is so much to do!  

Days 211-215 – Glass House Mountains (11-15 Apr)

Onto Glass House Mountains to start our 2 month housesit.  The closer we got the darker the sky was.  Definitely heading towards a big storm.  Along the way stopped at the town of Kilcoy the home of the Yowie.  Last reported sighting was December 1979.  By the time we got to Glass House Mountains it was pouring, luckily it was only a short downpour and stopped shortly after we arrived at our house sit.  The house is a fairly typical Queenslander (ie off the ground) with lovely big verandahs and a green lush garden although we are told this is a result of the recent rains.  The block is 1 1/4 acres. It was quite a challenge to get the van down the driveway.  The block is subdivided with our housesit being on the back block and John had to manoeuvre the van along a narrow driveway about 100m long and then over a bridge over a little creek.  The van wheels only just fitting onto the bridge, all this whilst it was raining.  The next day he turned the van around in a really tight spot.  First time he has had to unhitch the car halfway through to turn it around. John is certainly very competent with the van nowadays.  Lydia and Bert (house owners) are a lovely couple and we spent a couple of days with them while they showed us ‘the ropes’ and some walking and sightseeing spots around the area.  Lydia works as a volunteer at the local visitor centre and is a mine of information.  Nearby are macadamia plantations and macadamias they can be bought fairly cheaply as can pineapples and other tropical fruit.  The Glasshouse Mountains comprises a total of 15 mountains over an area of 600,000 hectares.  Within walking distance is Mt Ngungun.  The tallest is Mt Beerwah at 556m high.  The other mountains are a short distance away.  Most have walks to their summits.  Lydia and Bert took us to the Glass House Mountains lookout which gives a great view of the mountains and surrounding towns, unfortunately it was a rainy day and not good for photos so we will go back and take some when the sun is shining.  The area is very lovely and we constantly have views of the mountains when wandering around.  One in particular is quite unusual looking and is described as looking like a hare tooth.  Glass House Mountains is 70kms north from Brisbane and takes a good hour to drive and the train also takes an hour. It is also the start of the Sunshine Coast.  The town itself has a population of about 4000 with many original residents being pineapple, sugarcane or tobacco farmers.  Over time these farms have been sold and subdivided into housing developments.  About 6kms away is Beerwah the business hub of the area and home to Australia Zoo.  One of the main drags on the Sunshine Coast is called Steve Irwin Drive (formerly called Glasshouse Mountains Tourist Drive).  One of our duties during our house sit is to take care of Bon a big sooky yellow labrador who just had his fourth birthday.  He is another very spoilt pooch and he and Coco are getting along just fine.  Bert, Lydia and Bon showed us his favourite walks.  There is a real nice one along a firebreak that edges onto the national park and literally across the road.  Very handy.  There is so much to do around here that the 2 months will just fly by.  We are going to make a list of what we want to see and do so that we don’t miss anything out.  Wendy and Rob, friends of ours from WA who moved to Pomona (75kms north of GHM near Noosa) are coming for a visit on Sunday so really looking forward to seeing them again.  Since we have been here it has rained everyday and consequently everything is soggy or damp.  My shoes have only just dried out!  Qld is known as the sunshine state (hmm not sure about that).  Although the recent rains are not the norm and April usually has a few showers but by the end of the month the rain should stop (so we are told).  Hope so.  It is very humid here particularly the first couple of days which makes the rain more bearable.  The daytime temperature is around the mid 20s and night time the lowest has been 14 so very pleasant.  The average humidity seems to be around 60%.  John found a green tree snake on the side of the road – it looked like it had been run over and was just about dead when he picked it up.  He bought it home so we could take it to a wildlife carer but unfortunately it died before we could get it there.

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Days 208-210 – Crows Nest, Qld (8-10 Apr)

Lots of insects, big frogs, humidity and no daylight saving. Welcome to Qld.  The first day we arrived at Crows Nest we had 10mm of rain in about 20 minutes.  Sure was heavy.  Discovered a leak in one of the the caravan windows – another job for John to reseal it.  Crows Nest is a town of + 13,000 people although the town seems quite small to support it.  Toowoomba (town of 100,000+) is 43kms away.   There is a lot of birdlife here and a wide variety of butterflies which is lovely.  Went for a walk around a creek yesterday and visited the local dams – very low.  This area hasn’t had much rain for the last three years, they got 70mm a few weeks ago and that has been pretty much it.  Amazing how green it is and this is attributed to the recent rain, prior to this is was very very dry and brown apparently.  Getting lots of insect bites since crossing the border hope this doesn’t continue!  the weather here has been beautiful, mid to high 20s getting down to about 16 at night.  The dew point is high at about 18-20 degrees which means the ground is very wet at night and morning – must be why it so green around here.  The relative humidity at 7.30am this morning was 88%!  Leaving today to head 150kms NE to Glass House Mountains where we start our 2 month housesit.  We are looking forward to our housesit – nice to have a base for a while.

 

Day 209 – Goondiwindi, Qld (7 Apr)

Crossed the border into Qld at Goondiwindi which is the border town.  How can you not stay in a town with this name!  Has a population of about 10,720 and it is growing with predictions to 12,340 by 2026.  It is one of Qld’s fastest growing rural communities.  Had a bit of an adventure driving to Gooni (local talk) – we ran out of petrol!  Can you believe it and we have a jerry can.  We were about 10kms outside of Moree when John realised we were a bit low of fuel however despite my prompting to turn around and fill up he guessed we should have enough to just make it!  Wrong guess.  About 30kms outside of Gooni the fuel light was on and had been for a while, there was lot of traffic behind us and there weren’t any rest areas that we could easily pull over into so as soon as we spotted somewhere we could pull over safely he did so and then worked out what to do.  It was obvious we weren’t going to make it so off with the jerry can and thumb out John hitched a lift to the closest servo (30kms away).  Coco and I stayed with the van.  Luckily as soon as John had put his thumb out a 4wd with some workers stopped and picked him up and the same at the other end, so in all took less than a hour.  Topped up with the jerry can and continued on.  Can you believe it!  On a sad note we lost our little gecko friend today.  We have had it with us since WA living in the van with us.  He/she unfortunately got squashed by the outdoor table that we have by the side of the bed when we travel.  RIP our little friend.  We got quite attached to him/her.

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Map of Queensland

Day 208 – Moree, NSW (6 Apr)

Drove 350 kms north from Dubbo to Moree.  One thing we have noticed in NSW is how in some towns, cars have to park on an angle rear in first.  Very odd, but drivers here do indicate to exit roundabouts - hallelujah.  Don’t get why this isn’t the case in Victoria and SA.  Quite disconcerting not knowing what a car is doing specially.  Moree and surrounds are known for their hot artesian pools.  The park we are staying at has four pools, one at 35, 36, 37 and 39 degrees and a cold water pool.  It is very well done just like spa baths.  I spent sometime in them tonight it was very relaxing.  The water is drawn 720m underground.  Chlorine is added to comply with Shire regulations then delivered to the pools.  To obtain the choice of water temperatures, water is cooled, filtered, chlorinated and piped into pools accordingly. After use the water is piped approx. 2.2kms to parks industrial yard for use in crushing and washing concrete aggregate.  After this the water is delivered to a dam for further use for irrigation or to be evaporated.

See how they park!

Days 202-207 – Dubbo, NSW (31 Mar to 5 Apr)

Left Junee and travelled 372 kms NE to Dubbo to stay with Scott, Joanne, Briette and Alec.  We haven’t seen them since last June so looking forward to catching up.  They have finished their travels and back home into the grind.  We stopped along the way at the Temora Aviation Museum in Temora.  They were having a meet over the Easter weekend for all flying enthusiasts including light aircraft and microlights, etc. There was guy on our tour from Busselton Aero Club, small world.  It was an interesting museum with old military planes on display including a vampire, tiger moth, Sabre, dragon fly, Canberra bomber, a lynx and spitfire to name a few.  They fly the collection aircraft on various weekends during the year.  They attract huge crowds from far afield.  They have 9 aircraft engineers, 6 local volunteers and over 30 volunteers who help out on the flying weekends, some of these vollies travel quite a distance to help out. 

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From there we continued onto Dubbo and the weather started to cloud over and we did get caught in some very heavy rain.  By the time we got to Dubbo it had already been and gone.  Along the way we hit a couple of locust swarms. They seem to lie on the warm road and then get sucked up by the car.  Quite a few bit splats on the windscreen.  Scott and Joanne have a 30 acre property about 7kms east of Dubbo.  It is a really nice area and so very quiet.  They are still getting organised and unpacking after having the tenants from hell!  We don’t want to hear these kind of stories!  They recently acquired the cutest border collie pup named Ozzie.  Dubbo is a rural town with a population of about 40,000.  Properties are very well priced and the town has all the facilities that you need with two shopping centres, hospital and community health centres. Joanne and I went to the Saturday morning markets.  All local produce, olive oils, the best sourdough bread with so many variations.  It was delicious.  Eggs, cakes, biscuits, free range coffee? (cant’ say I noticed a difference); chickens, meat, veges, fruit.  You name if it could be made or grown it was there.  Just a shame I am so limited on space to buy anything.  Easter was fun with the kids having so many easter eggs and a couple of egg hunts.  They joy on faces is great to see.  We pretty much chilled out for the few days we were there.  The boys set some yabby nets in the properties dam and caught enough for us all to have a good taste.  They were very nice – bit like crabs bit of work to get a small amount of yabby meat but very tasty.  The kids had a great time sloshing around in the mud on the edge of the dam.  Billy and Cobber the horses often cool off in the dam.  Scott kindly organised a complimentary pass for us to go to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo where he works as a zookeeper caring for the elephants.  The park is very open and the animals generally have a wide range in which to roam.  In some cases you can get quite close to the animals as they are only fenced by a moat. We were up at 5.30am (yes John as well) to go on an early morning Zoorise walk with a volunteer tour guide.  It lasted two hours and we got an insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ of a few of the animals.  It was very good.  Scott organised for us to go in the elephant enclosure (yes right in there with him) to watch the morning rituals of the elephants.  In total there are five elephants, YumYum and Cuddles who are African elephants, Burma, Arna and Gigi who are Asian elephants.  Arna and Gigi used to belong to the Stardust Circus and Arna was the elephant who killed a circus trainer.  Although she is the kindest and gentlest ellie.  The story is that she and Gigi were very close and Gigi’s trainer was being rough with her and Arna stepped in to help her friend and the trainer died as a consequence.  Very sad and a one off.  Cuddles gave us an ellie kiss (she grabs your arm with the end of her trunk and sucks your arm) it was a great sensation.  YumYum shakes herself like a dog, funny to see.  We watched while Scott gave Burma her morning bath (a hose down – they have cold and warm water washes) and we watched Arna have a pedicure.  When Arna and Gigi arrived they had exceptionally long toenails that needed some major attention.  It would have been very painful for them and two years later Gigi still needs a lot of foot work.  Each morning she has a Epsom salt foot bath and a clean out  of her toes.  Treats for the girls is bread and veges.   We were so fortunate to be able to see this and it was great that Scott could arrange it for us. The rest of the time we chilled out with the Smiths and met Joanne’s parents and two of Scott’s brothers on Good Friday.  We would loved to have stayed longer in Dubbo but we are on a time limit to get to Queensland to start our housesit in Glass House Mountains.  We will definitely be back Scott and Joanne.

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