22rd February 2012
Today we had a trial run to Caboolture hospital to check the route and timing so that Merry can arrive there on time on Friday evening for her overnight stay for further sleep apnea studies. In the evening it rain quite hard for a long period which eventually waterlogged the annex area in a few places but not completely, and it seems to drain away fairly quickly from this site. Since coming back to the Brisbane area we have had more rain, some of it torrential, than we have ever experienced including during the cyclone season in the North West. We are told it is not as bad as last year as they have not had a lot less flooding than last year, but are still getting more than they like.
23rd February 2012
It rained in the night and has rained steadily and almost continuously all day. The one slight break this morning was just long enough to do a few of our necessary outdoor chores and hasn’t stopped since, and looks like continuing through the night. More rain is predicted for most of the next week so very little tourist activity will be happening here.
25th February 2012
It has rained continuously for the last couple of days and especially hard last night along with a bit of wind which finally wrecked one corner of the tarp that we use to extend the annex. We have now rotated the tarp 180 degrees so that the damaged corner is held by the annex anti flap clamp and some additional poles and guy ropes are now in use. We now wait and see what happens in the next torrential downpour which might not be today as it is still very heavily overcast and threatening but not actually raining.
We took the opportunity of this ‘no rain’ break to drive out to Glasshouse Mountain Lookout which provides great views of the other surrounding mountains which are the remaining solid core of ancient volcanoes. Naturally there is an aboriginal tale to explain their existence but we’ll settle for the volcanic action. It thought about raining whilst we were there but decided not to bother so we took the 800 metre circuit walk which only provided exercise as it descended below the tree line and obscured the view. The visibility wasn’t good enough to photograph the surrounding scenery from the lookout so we are hoping for a clear dry day in the not too distant future. Some of the so called ‘Sunshine Coast’ slightly north of us copped up to 300mm in the last 24 hour period so we must have been on the edge of it as we only got about 100mm.26th February 2012
The ‘no rain’ spell ended around midnight with more torrential rain for a couple of hours but the remodelled tarp arrangement stood up well this time. We instigated the tarp extension in place of a shade cloth one that we had made in Tasmania so that we retain a dry area outside of the annex for Foxy to do her night time business without having to go back to bed in a wet state, and also provides shade, or rain protection, for us if we choose to sit outside to catch the breeze. It also allows us to put the clothes line out there to dry in the breeze without being rinsed again by the rain.
27th February 2012
The rain in the night was short and sweet and all we got and the morning produced a day that was good enough to venture out, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed off to tour the Brackall Ranges and the townships on the way. We took Foxy with us even though we knew this would probably stop us seeing some things due to being in National Parks but decided that we would see what there was to excite us today and come back on a genuinely good day. Hopefully that will not be too far away. We passed through Lansborough without stopping as we had been there before and continued on to Maleny via an alternate route to a lookout that has views of the Glass Mountains, but it was very hazy and not at all good for photography. Maleny is pleasant little township that has an interesting dog free park for next time.
We parked in the shopping centre and walked along the riverside walk for a short distance and found a lizard that wanted to pose for us. We then moved on through Witta and Conondale, both of which had nothing of interest other than the views on the way, to Kenilworth. We also stopped alongside Little Yabba Creek for our lunch which showed the force of the water that had passed through during the recent heavy rain that had obviously risen several metres and damaged trees, etc. This creek joins the Mary River which would have helped it swell and flood part of Gympie a few days ago. Whilst here, we took a walk through the Fig Tree Walk which offered several huge fig trees with their amazing root formations, and also huge stinging trees with leaves the size of tea plates. In these areas of the walk Barry carried Foxy to avoid her feet being stung by the fallen leaves. The signage states that leaves collected in 1910 are still capable of stinging today, as are the dead fallen leaves. 
One fig tree had a boardwalk extension into its root structure for photo shots which we took advantage off, and then spotted the long tail end off a colourful snake (possibly a Diamond Python) passing under us to hide beneath the boardwalk.
From here we moved through Kenilworth and on to Mapleton and into the national park to the car park and looked out over the Mapleton Falls, which unfortunately has a side on lookout so you only see the water come over the top but can’t see much of the actual drop. However, if it were not for someone risking their all to build the lookout whilst suspended on a rope over a considerable drop, we wouldn’t get to anything. There is a walk here but we couldn’t take Foxy and it was too hot to leave her in the car for 45 minutes so moved on to Montville. This attractive township is similar to North Tamborine with its boutiques, art galleys, wineries and fine dining, etc and also has great views from the town and a lookout further down the road. 
There are views on both sides of the road during this trip as much of it is on narrow mountain ridges between the towns. The circuit returned us to Maleny and then homeward with a slight detour near the end to check out Mount Tibrogargan, which overlooks the caravan park. There is a dog free walk around it for a later date without Foxy. We will be doing some of this trip again without Foxy to visit Kondalilla Falls, Gardner’s Falls and Lake Baroon which are in National Parks.
29th February 2012
This proved to be another dry and warm day, so we packed another lunch and visited Bribie Island which is very much a retirement island for the wealthy. There is some very serious real estate along the coastal strips with views of the mainland with the Glasshouse Mountains in the background.
We stopped at the side of a pond alongside a new residential estate and watch some old timers controlling the rudders of their small racing yachts on the water. We drove on to place called White Patch where Matthew Flinders landed and also beached his ship for repairs. We had our lunch in the attached park, and then drove out some of the beaches on the side of the island facing the mainland. These were nothing to rave about but if you happen to be the type that can laze around on a beach with a book for hours on end then here would be as good as anywhere. We crossed to the seaward side of the island to the entrance to the beach track for 4WD vehicles to explore the top end of the island, but didn’t take the car onto the beach track as it is currently closed due to the recent excessive rains. One also has to have a permit which is $39 dollars for a week which is not bad if you are on a camping trip for a week and can travel the length of the island at will, but for a one day visit is not on. There is an old WW2 bunker at this point which was part of the Brisbane protection, but there is no entry into it for a look around and the associated beach looks just like all of the others, sand, and despite being seaward didn’t have any bigger waves. We weren’t particularly impressed with the island from a tourist viewpoint but we can see the benefits of retiring there if you happen to have the bank balance to go with it. Real estate will always hold a high price as only a very small area of the island is available for building on. There is a bus station at the shopping centre that goes through to Caboolture where you can catch a train into Brisbane which is quite a cheap trip for pensioners.1st March 2012
Yesterday the weather was pretty good and today is better with really clear skies and good for photography so once again we packed a picnic lunch and drove to Beerwah and round to Mount Ngungun.
The signage stated to allow 2 hours if you choose to climb to the summit. Here we had the option of walking to the end of the relatively easy section of the track although it included about 60 steps within the uphill zigzag walk and stopped at a point with no view other than the surrounding trees. 
The other option was to look big and clamber up the next two much steeper sections over rocks and tree roots, which we chose to do. After the first of the steep section was a flat area where there was a view in one direction which we took advantage of but didn’t rest as we had a rest just before the top of this section where a young guy was encouraging his girlfriend to do her first short abseil down the cliff face. She didn’t manage it while we rested and left her to it without an audience.
The next even steeper section was tough but we did it and sat on the top and enjoyed the magnificent 320 degree views. Whilst we rested here a much younger holidaying English couple arrived and had a chat and then pointed out that the actual summit was off to the left up a narrow ridge top track which then offered the complete 360 degree views, but meant standing fairly close to the sudden drop.
The trip back down was less strenuous but more difficult as much of the steep stuff had to be done backwards but we did eventually arrive gratefully at the easy part of the track despite the steps. The abseilers had left so we will never know if the girl did manage to overcome the fear.
After subtracting the approximate time spent watching abseilers, taking photos and chatting with other people near the summit, our climb took around 2 hours 10 minutes, so we nearly kept up with the rest of the world. On arrival back at the car we drove to the Glasshouse Mountain Lookout where we visited a few days ago to use the table and seats for our lunch and take more photos on a clear day, or so we thought. Someone had decided today was a good day to do a controlled burn off in the ground litter within the pine forest in the mountain area so visibility in one direction was still not so good.
We returned to the caravan earlier than usual on our days out but we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and attack some more of the walks, and climbs, in the future subject to weather conditions.
3rd February 2012
This is supposed to be the last fine day so we drove north eastwards to the small township of Buderim perched on a small mountain inland from Mooloolaba and Caloundra. The reason for this visit was the attraction of Buderim Forest Park and waterfall that we spotted in some of the literature that we collected from the Visitor Centre at Maleny. The town itself is larger than we expected with a tree lined main street and 2 roundabouts which seems to be mandatory these days. We found the Visitor Centre in the old renovated post office and gained the required directions to the Park and falls plus a heap more that the old chook insisted we have. She must have been feeling lonely. There are 2 ways to the falls with parking at each end with one near the top and walk down whilst the other is near the bottom and walk up with the addition of a meals facility. We chose to walk down as that was the closest end and obviously had to walk back up as the car hasn’t worked out how to meet us at the other end. On the way we were offered to paths which both end at the falls so we chose the longer one which crosses over the stream a short distance upstream from the falls and then zigzags down to join the other path and final steps to the pool at the base of the falls.
Walking around the right hand side of the pool takes you into a cave that allows you to get almost behind the falling water and looks out across the pool at the bridge that brings the alternate path across to the steps. Moving past the steps and away from the pool there is another rough track alongside the stream past several smaller pools, waterfalls and cascades until you have to cross the stream either by wading, or dubious rock hopping.
We chose to wade across and continued along the stream on the other side past more small falls until eventually joining a boardwalk that covered the last 300 metres to a grassy park and to what we thought would be a cafe for a cuppa. It turned out to be a very expensive restaurant which we ignored as our picnic lunch was waiting in the car. o get back across the stream which Merry found slightly difficult with her shorter legs but managed with a helping hand. From the main waterfall we took the bridge over the stream and up the other path to a totally pointless lookout platform that looks at nothing and continued up to the carpark. It was a 2.6km trip with some clambering and climbing but well worth the effort.
After lunch we visited the Pioneer cottage that was once the only building on the mountain but has now buildings all round it blocking out its view to the coast.
We drove down to the coast at Mooloolaba and along the coast line to Caloundra which offered the choice of some sandy beach in amongst rock slabs. Both towns had the usual Cappuccino Strips along the beachfront and high rise apartments but not to the extent of the Gold Coast. 
On the way through, we called into the fishermans harbour more by chance than design, and picked up some some fresh fish and prawns.
We drove into Caboolture to the Visitors Centre and grabbed some literature regarding dog exercise areas to check if Centenary park allowed s dogs which turned out to be a ‘Yes’ so Foxy was happy. Whilst parked at the visitor centre we took a stroll around part of the town centre for a few photo opportunities, and then proceeded to the park. 
The park has a series of manmade lakes in it at varying height so that they cascade down to the lowest one which is closest to the Caboolture River. This lowest lake still had water about five centimetres above it wall due to the recent rains, and is presumably pumped back to the top lake and topped up from the river when required. 
On the other side of the park is a concrete path along the side of the river which was ultimately led to the sporting complex and a suspension bridge across the river. The bridge allowed views along the river in both directions and also had ‘Start and Finish’ marking so obviously is used in some sort of event for walkers or runners. The views along the river were nothing spectacular, with a pipeline crossing it that was not much above the water level, so the river can’t cater for cruises or any form of boating within reach of the town. The road bridge is also very low across the river even allowing for the river being high at the moment. We circumnavigated the sporting complex and made our way back to the car via more lakes, ducks, wedding areas and bridges.
