Tuesday, February 21, 2012

9th February to 20th February 2012

9th February 2012
The weather has cleared and allowed us to pack up Richard’s tent in the dry and stored the airbeds and sleeping bags for future reference.  In the afternoon we drove through to the airport to drop Richard off to fly back to WA to check out a few job prospects on some mine sites.  Fortunately Merry had queried the flight time and as it turned out Richard had misinterpreted the 24 hour clock timing which would have meant missing his flight by 2 hours had we gone to the airport based on his original flight time.  We are getting many walk-by visits from at least 3 Bungarra that Foxy would love to have a go at, even though their claws would rip her to shreds.
10th February 2012
We repacked the roof rack on the car as we now have a larger tent to carry and also an unused boogie board but fortunately the total height is still under 2.3 metres which lets us use 2.4 undercover parking at shops, etc but still have to approach cautiously as many are only 2.1 metres.  The annoying part is that the 2.4 metre sections are usually full of cars not much bigger than a shopping trolley because of the shade, so the height might be okay but no room left for the larger vehicles.
14th February 2012
We had a day out in Ipswich which stared with a drive around the centre of town and noted that the place is saturated in parking meters and then drove out to Queens Park where the Visitors Centre is located.  We collected some literature and information and proceeded deeper into the park to the cafe for lunch via the Lion’s Lookout for an overview of the town.


After lunch we strolled round the Japanese Gardens and then the Nature Park which we had to do in turns so that one of us could look after Foxy who wasn’t allowed in.  We then did some necessary shopping before heading home

16th February 2012
Foxy stayed at home alone for a few hours whilst we headed up to North Tamborine at the top of the mountain to take a look at Witches Falls that is within a National Park, hence on Foxy.  There is a circuit walk with the Falls Lookout almost half way round and we chose to go the slightly shorter way to the Falls in the first instance.  The downhill walk was through both open forest and then rainforest with several sets of stone steps with the final section of track to the lookout being a 200 metre offshoot from the circuit track. 
The side view of the falls is unfortunately partially obscured by a palm tree which also partially obscures the view of the bottom of the falls which is quite a drop.  Photos of the falls do not do it justice but neither does the side view lookout and there is no way down to the bottom for a good look other than using gravity only, which makes it hard to get back up.  We set off on the return leg of the circuit to find a completely flooded area that also covered the track with a sign indicating an alternative wet track.   We took the alternative track which also became flooded but we spotted a sign post across the water which we assumed to be the other end of the alternative track, so we walked around the water to meet up with the sign and the original track.  When we reached the top there was a sign stating that the track is closed to the public.  Pity they didn’t put one at the other end although it didn’t actually affect us and still let us get to see some of the distant views on the way out. 

 We are led to believe that the falls only happens after a decent amount of rain, which we have had, and assume it forms the small lake that feeds the falls until it empties, which may take a while as there was a small water course running across the downward track that we took initially.
18th February 2012
We took Foxy with us this time up to Botanic Gardens but it is a No Dog garden so we parked and strolled with heaps of other tourists along Gallery Walk which is a single road dedicated to art, craft, wines, fine food, etc. 
Some of the buildings were impressive but the place that most impressed us was the Cuckoo Clock house which was built to look like a cuckoo clock and was filled with hundreds of both cuckoo and grandfather clocks, all of which were extremely expensive.  We left Foxy at home again in the afternoon and returned to the botanic gardens which were surprisingly large and well kept for such a small township. 
It was obviously the wrong time of year for this visit as there were no trees or flowers in bloom, with the odd exception, but was still a pleasant stroll through the various palm avenue, rainforest, magnolias, rose garden and Japanese sections all surrounding a lily pond.


19th February 2012

In the morning we clambered along the edge of Cedar Creek where it flows through the campground so that we could get some photos of the rapids and rock pools.  On our return to camp we started the process of packing up ready to move on in the morning.

20th February 2012
We fished the packing up and left northward for Beerburrum near Caboolture, and also not far from the Australia Zoo that we have visited twice and also close to the Glass House Mountain area which we will explore in the next week or so.  Unfortunately most of that area is National Park so Foxy will spend some time alone again.  The current caravan park is obviously an old park with mainly permanent residence with very little space reserved for short term visitors.  It doesn’t have concrete pads for the annex but does have a good cover of grass rather than bare earth but will have to wait and see what it is like if we have some heavy rain.


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