Day 1 17th April

Home to Peach Trees   126 km

Packed and gone by 10 am.  A short call at the ATM then Bunnings and we were on our way.  A good run, except for impatient truckies to Kilcoy, where we refueled and had lunch in the park before turning north onto the Kilcoy Murgon Road.

 

Civic activity is centered on preservation of the famous Jimna fire lookout tower that stands beside the main road just north of the town.

Jimna village, the fire tower and Peach Trees Camping Area are all within Jimna State Forrest.  The camping area is located on Yabba Yabba Creek, which is a tributary of the Mary River, so from time to time provides some of the water that floods Gympie and Marlborough. The evidence of such excess lines the banks of the stream in the firm of flood debris.

The camping area was well occupied with Easter campers. A sign at the gate announced that the park was fully booked.

We found a spot by the creek, a good distance from other campers, although we were engaged in

conversation by two strolling couples, the second of which joined us for happy hour.  As if to emphasise our proximity to nature a large monitor lizard wandered by. We had been welcomed by some screeching parrots and as we chatted grey kangaroos came out of the bush to feed on the fresh grass. As our new friends were leaving, a possum casually walked between the van and the car. Back to nature!

It was a cold night and with no power we were early to bed to be lulled to sleep by the rippling stream.

 

Day 2 18th April

Jimna to Mount Perry    230 km

The sun came over the hill and shone into our front window, a clear signal that it was time to get up. It soon warmed up the van. Breakfast was taken outside in the sunshine. Packing complete, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed for the gravel road leading us north. One of the objectives of this trip is to put up some distance on unsealed roads. Our off road van has not done much work off road. I want to get more experience on dirt and gravel before we tackle more ambitious treks like Cape York and the Birdsville Track.

We had about 70 km of quite good gravel Road, the first 50 of which was through hilly forest and the final 20, plus some sealed road and highway, through undulating farm country.  There had been good rain through the area, so the grass was green and grazing cattle were scattered over the pastures.

The Kilcoy Murgon Road joins the Burnett Highway just south of Goomeri, so we motored on through that town, stopping 70 km further on at Ban Ban Springs for fuel and lunch. A further 12 km on we turned right towards Mingo Crossing and Mount Perry. This road alternated between tar and excellent recently graded gravel. In readiness for Easter tourists, no doubt.

There is a small caravan park by the Burnett River at Mingo Crossing that was badly damaged by flood water about a year ago. It has not been restored yet so we continued on to Mount Perry, getting the last powered site in the small caravan park. Our visit has coincided with the Mount Perry “Royal” Easter Show, so things are jumping in the old town.

 

Our site is in the back corner of a well equipped and quiet park. No rippling stream to put us to sleep but quiet will be a good start.

 

 

 

 

Day 3 19^th April

Around Mount Perry   57 km

Mount Perry owes its genesis to copper, gold and timber. Copper was discovered in the second half of the 1800s. As the timber was cleared to access the copper its value was recognised and a timber industry commenced. Later gold was found. The problem of

getting products to market ultimately lead to a railway being built from Bundaberg. A tunnel was needed to access the Mount Perry valley so the longest unsupported rock tunnel in the Queensland rail system was built, opened in 1883 and was used until 1960. It was dug by mainly Chinese labor through the Boolboonda Range so it is known as the Boolboonda Tunnel. It is about 190 meters long and a

single rail width. The rails are long gone but the tunnel is now used as access to some farms and as a residence for a bent wing bat colony. We drove through and back again as have many others. There were four other vehicles there at the same time despite it being over 20 km from town.

Not far away, on the way back to town, we had noticed a winery, about 3 km along the to read to Monto. We decided to call. Wonbah

Estate has been there for about 13 years. They produce a range of wines including ports and liqueurs. They host a number of events during the year, including the chance to get your feet among the grapes in February and a Jazz & Shiraz event in August. There is space for caravans to overnight. Sounds good!

We made a modest purchase of a white, a red and a white port. We will take them home to share with family and friends.

On the way back to town a short detour took us to a lookout above the town, with great views of the valley and town area. The valley is rather narrow so the town is strung out along its main street with a few short streets on either side.. From this vantage point it was off to the show grounds to see how the locals entertain themselves.

There were hundreds of motor

vehicles parked inside and outside of the grounds. The area surrounding the arena was packed with horse and cattle transport vehicles. A lively program of ring events was under way, to the accompaniment of that kind of commentator that won’t stop taking while he has a microphone in his hand. People were flocking around side shows and food stalls almost uniformly dressed in long sleeve shirts, jeans and boots. But the

ladies dressed for the Easter bonnet competition provided contrast.

Equestrian competition is well supported throughout the area and the agricultural shows that are held on successive weekends through the area clearly provide opportunities to participate. I was interested to see the age range of female participants. Clearly it is not a sport just for the young.

We had lunched on hot dogs and chips so after a fair bit of tramping around we went back to the van for a rest, which became a nap. There was more to come. A country show is not complete without a fireworks display. At 8pm sharp the first rocket went up. It was the precursor to 10 minutes of exciting entertainment. Most of the day’s crowds were gone but a good group of 200 or so locals were ready to party on. But we left them to it.

The copper mine was in the hill behind the town with the smelter just below it. The last owners didn’t leave much equipment behind when they left, but as a sort of memorial, paving blocks cut from the slag residue have been laid over the original slag dump, with a picnic shelter in the center. Photographs depicting the history of both mine and town are on display. A gold mine is still in operation with workers bused to the site each shift. Some miners appear to be residents of the caravan park.

Day 4 20^th April

Mount Perry to Eidesvold   92 km

The days have been sunny and warm with cool clear nights, not much cloud and only light winds. It is perfect travelling and sleeping weather. I wonder if it is always like this. Is there a real estate agent in town?

The road to Eidesvold crosses and at times follows mountain ranges, for the 80 km of the journey. It is steep in places with low gear warning signs for heavy vehicles. We travelled a few slow kilometers behind a sideshow truck moving on to the next show.

At the Burnett Highway we turned right for a few hundred meters to the Ceratodus rest area, both for morning tea and to see the memorial to the railway pioneers who brought rail transport to North Burnett. The memorial take the form of the original Ceratodus railway station which has been moved to the site and supplemented with written history in the station waiting room and in an adjacent barbecue area.

The rest area is located on the banks of the Burnett River. We looked down at what was a very modest flow and wondered how such a puny stream could wreck such devastation on Bundaberg. The river would have been 10 meters below the bridge but flood waters had lodged limbs in the branches of trees another 10 meters above the road.

We arrived in Eidesvold at a about midday to find that no fuel was available in town and that the first fueling point in our direction of travel was at the limit of our range. The R. M. Williams Bush Learning Center allows over night stops in their grounds, so here we stayed.

The Learning Center is a combined memorial to the great R.M., an information centre and an art gallery associated with the local Mari People. It is quite new and well set up. Williams moved from South Australia to a property West of Eidesvold about mid life. The citizens of the area regard him as their own.

Williams lived well into the video era. One of the displays is a recorded interview with him. At the conclusion he is asked how he would wish to be remembered. His reply was, “That I tried”.

There was not much else open in town. Fuel is available from 7 am tomorrow. The service station owner is not trying very hard at all!

We have friends who regularly spend time in their caravan at Kingscliff on the Tweed Coast. We often spend a few days with them, during their stay, normally straight down and back for a few days, but in November last year (2012) we decided to go the long way.

A few weeks earlier we did a day trip to Lamington National Park and on the way stopped for morning tea at a lookout with great views to the Numinbah Valley.

Numinbah Valley from Rosins Lookout

We were reminded that it had been many years since we had driven the Numinbah Valley and decided that we should do so. So, why not go first to the Mount Warning area and then on to Kingscliff. An additional reason for going this way was that we had not done much hilly country since we changed to a Mitsubishi Challenger as a tow vehicle. On the Numinbah Road we could give it a bit of a work out.

Challenger & Van

We left the Gold Coast Highway at Nerang and headed for Advancetown and then turned south towards the border with NSW. Just past Advancetown a left hand diversion leads to the recently extended Hinze Dam. We did not take the diversion on this occasion as we had visited on the return trip from Lamington. Suffice to say that it is worth a visit if you are spending time in the Gold Coast region.

Our first objective was Natural Bridge which is just north of the border and a short drive from the main road. The drive through the Numinbah Valley follows the Nerang River for a substantial part of the journey. While bush land is always in sight the road is bordered by farm land for much of the drive.

Falls at Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge has changed since we were there with developed timber decked walk ways, and a good amenities area, near the spacious car park. To see Natural Bridge at its best it is necessary to descend fairly long flights of stairs. But the day was warm and we seemed to be feeling our age a bit so we were content to explore the creek above the bridge and to look down into the area where water gushes when there is sufficient to actually gush. No gushing that day, sad to say. Just a steady stream of water over the falls.

After lunching at the car park we continued south, covering the last bit of road that lies within Queensland. The border is at the top of a hill. On the NSW side the terrain falls away sharply and is probably the most spectacular entry that you can make from Queensland into NSW. The view of the Tweed Coast and hinterland is excellent and worth stopping for, but if you are towing a van, as we were, you need to plan ahead. It is probably best to stop in Queensland and walk up through the border crossing to take photos.

While Queensland owns the Numinbah Valley, NSW owns Numinbah township and you pass through it as you ease down the steep gradient towards the Tweed Valley. Second gear with a regular touch of the breaks to maintain a suitable speed saw us safely down. As we had encountered some decent up grades earlier we felt we had a good feel for performance by the Challenger in the hills. Not brilliant, but adequate.

We had booked for two nights at the Mount Warning Caravan Park which is on Mount Warning Road into which we turned shortly before we would have reached Uki. The park was a pleasant surprise. The original park area is fairly heavily populated with permanents. There are also cabins in the older area. But an extension to the park, which seems to be on reserve land,  was exclusively for tourists. Pets are not permitted so the wild life is friendly.

Friendly Wild Life

Wood ready to go!

You cross a small stream to access this part of the park. On the left is the unpowered camping area and to the right are located the powered sites. The area is grassed. At intervals there are power stands, each containing four power points and four TV cable points. Vans group in fours with a bit of space between groups. Each group has at least one fire ring. The bonus was several piles of fire wood obviously cut from fallen trees but sufficiently dry to burn.

Next time we will bring a camp oven!

During my teenage years my father was a timber getter. During school holidays I would accompany him to his work site where one of my jobs was to boil the billy, at least three times a day. Not expecting fire facilities we had no matches or newspaper, but three sheets of paper hand towel, dry leaves and twigs and with one more sheet of twisted paper towel to convey a flame from the gas stove to the fire place and in no time at all we had a successful fire, before which we sat to have our dinner.

But you can’t keep a good camp fire to yourselves, so we invited a couple from a Maui motor home to join us. They were Austrians who had come on holiday to Australia because the recent eclipse of the sun was to occur on the man’s birthday. They were on their way to Cairns for the event. Discussions about the current situation in Europe were also part of the night’s entertainment. Very interesting and informative!

Jacaranda in Tyalgum main street.

When we are in the Murwillumbah area we try to visit the small town of Tyalgum. As some of you will know, Ruth’s mother died when she and her siblings were relatively young. To avoid splitting up the family an elderly single lady who owned and operated the bakery at Tyalgum sold up and moved to Sydney to house keep, thus becoming something of a surrogate mother to the family. So imagine Ruth’s delight when we discovered that the coffee shop where we had stopped for afternoon tea is operated in part in the old Tyalgum bakery. It was almost like coming home.

The old bakery is the building on the right.

Afternoon tea.

To round the day out we drove up to the Mount Warning car park, greatly enjoying glimpses of the magnificent mountain peak and the rain forest greenery that decorates the sides of the road side stream.

Mount Warning viewed from near Tyalgum

We didn’t visit Uki this time, although it is a good spot for a cup of coffee and a look around, if you have some spare time while staying in the Tweed or southern Gold Coast area. Instead we packed and moved on to catch up with our friends at Kingscliff.