23rd to 29th March 2012

23^rd March 2012

Since the 16^th March the weather has been so wet and miserable we haven’t been out and about other than for shopping and a visit to a canvas works with a diagram of an addition to our awning that we want made up.  This will replace the tarpaulin that we currently use and will improve the look and be much stronger.  Size wise it is a compromise between the really big tarp that we used when Richard and his kids were with us on the Gold Coast, which is hard to put up and not too good in wind.  However, it is wider than a regular 3 metre long tarp by nearly half a metre, and improves the sun shade, or rain protection, area outside the front door of the annex. 

The last week has been rainy every day with yesterday being the worst of it as the Sunshine Coast was hit with torrential downpours in some areas with 150mm of rain in one hour.  Fortunately that was north of here where they had severe flash flooding.  We have had a lot of rain but were probably only on the outer edge of the depression with being in the Glass House Mountain area, which is further south and slightly inland. 

26^th March 2012

We drove into the township of Glass House Mountains, parked the car and took Foxy for a walk over the railway bridge and through the residential area on the other side of the track.  This eventually took us to a new estate and the end of the walk in that direction so we backtracked into the older area and took a chance on turning down an alleyway in 6the believe that it would cut off a corner and return us to the original road back to the railway.  It didn’t, instead it to a deadend but with access to a park and some woodland with signs of recent flooding,  and then joined a short street alongside the bowls club.   This came out onto a road that we didn’t recognise but could see the railway station at the end of the road to our left which guided us back to the car.  It was only a 35 minute walk but Foxy hadn’t been out for a walk for several days and we all needed the exercise.

27^th March 2012

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. 

The park also has 6 separate wedding areas scattered around these lakes for people that want an outdoor wedding, but the way the weather has been for the last couple of months that wouldn’t have been many.  We walked through several of the wedding areas and their respective gardens, and over some bridges in the general direction of the river, using some of the exercise equipment on the way.  Interesting to note that the lakes had the required mandatory shopping trolleys dumped in them. 

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.

29^th March 2012

We drove through Caboolture and parked by the Arboretum which is on the other side of the river and near the suspension bridge that we had walked onto a few days earlier.  We walked down the zigzag path and out onto board walk bridge that took us across a river inlet and then took the lower of the two paths offered on the other side. This meandered alongside the inlet until it eventually rejoined the alternate higher path and then continued around the end of the inlet and up to rejoin the main road that we were parked on.  We walked back past the car for about half a kilometre and crossed the river on the suspension.  We then started out again from the ‘Start/finish’ line and followed the path again as it was marked with the distance walked, every 0.1 of a kilometre.  It took us back over the inlet and this time over the higher path and turned off to the right before it joined the lower path that now took us out through open land for some distance to rejoin the main road.  On the way we used the public exercise equipment that was available at various stages of the journey.  At the end of the path was the instruction to ‘turn round’ and retraced our steps back to the suspension bridge gaving us the opportunity to use the exercise equipment again.  With the original walk plus the official 2.5 kilometre walk we estimate the overall walk to be about 3.5 kilometres giving us and Foxy a pleasant workout.  Foxy has reached an age were doesn't seem to handle the walks with the ease that she used to.  She walked the return trip to Montezuma Falls in Tasmania which was a 5 hour walk but she seems happy to settle for an hour now that she is several years older.  Our location and rain hasn't allowed her to have as many regular walk as she was accustomed to which has probably decreased her fittness.