Easter 2014 Lawn Hill trip Day 1

I got up with the alarm at 5am and tied the tent to the car, packed the fridge stuff and had a shower to complete the wake up process, then it was off to the local servo to fill up. I finally hit the highway at about 5:45 am and headed north to the Logan motorway. The first hour of driving was excellent, a nice multilane highway, hardly any traffic, the car purring along, the sun rising in the east and it was stil cool, a large Ice Break iced coffee, singing along loudly (and badly) to my collection of 70's and 80's music. I looked down to see I had gone about 100 kms and then reality kicked in and I realised I needed to do at least another 900 kms for the day.

Then it was on to Toowoomba and I had to change my singing style to a raspy, gravelly voice as it was the Darren Lockyer Way. The speed zones seemed to change randomly as did the appearance of road works. Hopefully they will build a Toowoomba bypass soon as I think the traffic lights are timed so that you have to stop at each set. :(

On the other side of Toowoomba they had fixed the road up quite abit since my last trip. After Dalby the traffic started to thin out and this continued until Roma where I stopped for fuel and lunch. As always happens the fuel pumps at the Roma Caltex don't like pumping into my main tank, luckily I had filled it from the auxiliary tank while driving. Then it was more driving and the traffic became almost nonexistent. I turned north at Morven and continued to have an easy drive, although I had a bit of a surprise when I came up behind a large Orica truck and saw the "Explosives" sign. I got past him quickly and continued on. I only saw a couple of live Roos along the road, most were dead and being eaten by swarms of birds. I finally got into Barcaldin at about 6:15 pm and checked into the first caravan park I came to, it turns out Phil is in the next one along. 

I set up the quick tent and swag and had some Moroccan Lamb for dinner. Then a nice hot shower before I sat down to write up the days adventures. All up a total of 1170 kms in 12:30 hours of pretty easy driving. 

Nightcap 4x4 Nature Park

A few weeks ago Sue heard about a new 4WD and camping place just over the border in NSW, at Kunghur on the Kyogle Rd. We planned ahead to visit and got directions from the hosts but like all good plans things went awry when Sue arranged for the wrong weekend and Pete had to go to Perth for a caravan show. Then Ron came down with a nasty chest infection so it ended up being Sue, Shane, Jo, John and Jo (friends of Jo and Ron's) and myself and a motley collection of doggies, BenBen, Arthur and Abby. 

I arrived around 5'ish Qld time and found Sue, John and Jo Squared already set up in the camping ground. So after a quick chat I set up the Oztent and the rest of my gear, I think I took way to much for just a weekend but I was going for comfort rather than a speedy setup. Then I grabbed a drink and headed up to chat to everyone. The host Mike dropped by for a chat and not long after that we got the fire going and then the Triton man came by with even more firewood, so we were well and truly set for the weekend. He stayed for a chat and Shane finally rolled in. Didn't really eat dinner just munched on some nibbles and Sue made a nice little pizza. We sat around chatting for quite awhile and after Jo and John and Jo went to bed it was almost like Shane and Sue and I were back on the Canning trip as we sat around the fire chatting. Finally headed off to bed and I found the new stretcher I bought (Oztent Gecko) was very comfortable with the swag layed out on top of it. 

Next day we were up reasonably early and Mike dropped around to see what we wanted to do for the day, however we needed a bit more time to wake up so he headed back to his place and we would meet him there. After a bit of Brekky and some coffee (or International Roast for Shane) we headed off to do a bit of driving. Jo was worried about Ron so she went for a drive into Kyogle to ring him. Because Mike's Sierra was a bit sick he rode with a friend, Ross in his modified Patrol, then there was John and Jo in their Navara Ute, Shane and Sue and Arthur and Abby in Shane's Patrol ute and me in the Paj. The early part was in very good condition and quite easy, there was some pretty spectacular views including the panorama near the hippy farm. 

Then it was on to see the log cabin which is a great little place to camp, right on the shore of a dam. 

Then it was off to view some new rainforest that Mike had found just recently and it was here we had the first problem when a large stick flicked up under the Navara and it required the use of the trolley jack so that John could get under the car and remove the stick. Then Ross misjudged a little bridge and got stuck. After a few tries Shane managed to snatch him out backwards and he made sure he was lined up properly for the next crossing. 

While we were waiting a quick stroll into the forest turned up some wonderful fungi and moss. 

Then we drove through some wonderful rainforest that probably hadn't been visited for the last 50 to 60 years. At one of the creek crossings the Navara became a bit stuck, due to it having fairly worn highway terrain tyres and it's long wheel base didn't help either. I gave John and the Navara gentle snatch out and we continued on. 

Then it was down into the play area where there were some interesting challenges, John had already ruled himself out but I was willing to give it a go until Shane, with mud tyres struggled to get through a section and I realised that the poor Paj with All Terrains was not going to make it. So I retired and watched the fun. Shane finally made it up the other side of the gully with some good application of the right boot. In the meantime Ross had got stuck in a muddy bit and he had to winch himself out before doing a masterful three point turn to get pointed in the righ direction. Then he couldn't quite make it up out of the gully and Shane had to give him a gentle snatch to get up and over the top of the hill. After all the excitement we then had a leisurely drive back to camp for lunch. 

Mike came around a bit later to see if we were up for another drive but the consensus was that a restful afternoon around camp was what we needed. After chatting for awhile the breeze died down enough for me to get the quad copter out for a quick fly. I hadn't flown it for awhile and was quite rusty but there was only one major crash and luckily it survived intact. The dogs seemed intrigued with it and followed it around for awhile. After exhausting a couple of batteries I then got to try out charging the batteries  via an inverter running off the cars's battery and everything worked fine with them charging only marginally slower than they did at home.

Then a quiet hour or so of reading before the camp fire came back to life and we sat around it for a few drinks and a chat. The view of the stars was even better this evening as there was no clouds around and the moon didn't rise until late. After the really tough day :) we all headed off to bed relatively early. Once again we took our time getting up and having Brekky and the consensus was that we would have a lazy morning and pack up and head home. Shane and I headed up the hill behind our camp site for a walk to take a few photos. The climb wasn't too hard and the views were spectacular. The next valley over was still clouded over and a time lapse of that disappearing would have been pretty good but neither of us took a tripod. Mt Warning was also visible with a bit of wispy cloud around the top. 

Then it was a nice easy walk back down the hill and around the dam before heading back to the camp ground.

While Shane and I recovered from the walk by sitting around the camp fire, the others all began to pack up and get ready to head home. As my tent was in a shady spot it wasn't going to dry out for quite awhile, so I decided to test out a set of 120 W portable solar panels that I had bought for my upcoming Easter trip to Lawn Hill national park. I was initially confused as they seemed to be putting out 20 volts but once this was connected to the car and it was under some load this dropped down to approximately 12.7 volts which what it should have been 

Then after everyone but Shane and I had left and we got bored of sitting around the remnants of the camp fire, so we started to pack up. Shane was finished and off quickly but I had to wait for the tent to dry off a bit so I repacked the car while this was happening. I headed off about mid morning back towards Murwillumbah but turned off to have a look at Mt Warning. After winding my way uphill to the parking area and seeing millions of cars, I realised that a lot of people must have headed up to the mountain very early in the morning. Some of the fit ones were already back and leaving. I saw Shane's Patrol in the car park and as I went to have a quick look at a short walk that is there I ran into him on his way back from the short walk. He had stopped in to look at the Clarrie Hall dam on the way. He headed off again and I walked approximately 300 metres to a little platform in the middle of the forest. 

Then it was back to the car to head home. I decided to go the back way through Tomewin to Currumbin Creek road and who should I see but Shane who was going to climb up a bank beside the road to see if he could get a photo of Mt Warning from this side. Then I headed home, unpacked the car and caught up with all my normal weekend chores. 

All up it was a very pleasant and relaxing weekend and it was great to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. 

Sunday Drive 16/3/14

This mornings weather ended up being very nice for a change so I thought I would head down towards Byron Bay and go exploring. The beach ended up being not so good as the tide was very high, the waves very rough and the wind very strong so I headed inland for a drive. My original plan was to drive over and have a look at Nightcap National Park and then end up around Kunghur on the Kyogle Road and have a look for the Nightcap 4x4 Adventure Park where I will camping this coming weekend with a few people. However a closed road meant I had to take a bit of a detour through Myocum and Goonengerry, so I dropped in to look at the Gooengerry National Park but there wasn't much to see as the roads in the park were all service roads and closed off to traffic, although you could ride horses or puch bikes through.

Then it was back to Minyon and then onto the Minyon Falls day use area for lunch. The falls were completely dry and not much to look at but the view out away from the falls was pretty good.

 

All the maps I had suggested that there were roads going through the towards Kunghur but in realty they were all locked up. 

Then it was a couple of kms until Rummery camp ground which seemed to be a pretty nice spot with lots of grass, toilets and camp fire rings ($10 per night per adult to stay here). 

I started to head towards Nimbin as that seemed the best way around the nat park and back onto the Kyogle Road. I stopped off to have a look at Rocky Lake but couldn't actually see the lake but there was a very nice picnic area here. 

About this time I realised that the pump which pumps diesel from my auxiliary tank into the main tank was not working and that I really needed some fuel. A couple of little towns I went through didn't even have petrol stations so I was getting a bit worried as I couldn't remember seeing a fuel stop in Nimbin before. Turns out there is one and it was open on a Sunday arvo so I happily filled up and continued on towards the Kyogle Road. I headed towards Kunghur and did a little exploring but didn't find the 4x4 park - I'll need to email them to find out where they are. 

Out the other side of Kunghur I turned off to Clarie Hall Dam and stopped in at Crams Farm Reserve. This is a great day use area with nice grassy spots for picnics and boat ramp to put small boats onto the water. The water is pretty low at the moment but it is a very nice spot, unfortunately gates close at 5:30 pm and no camping allowed. 

Then I continued onto the Mt Jerusalem National Park. The first five or so kms into the park was a nice dirt road drive, you could see occasional glimpses of the surrounding mountains through the trees but there wasn't a nice lookout. 

Then a sign announced a drive to the dam wall (of the Clarrie Hall Dam) and the road started to get a bit narrower and much much steeper (downhill). It ended up being pretty narrow and looked like only trail bikes had been through recently. I followed it for another few kms and as it was getting late and the climb up the hill would be fairly challenging, I was just thinking on turning around when I found a largish tree across the road so I wasn't going to be able to continue anyway. I could see the water through the trees and it was only about 30-40 metres below so I wasn't too far away from the end. 

I had to reverse up the narrow track for a few hundred metres until it was wide enough to turn around and then I got to the steep bit. It didn't look nearly that steep coming down, so I selected low range and proceeded to climb up to the top again. The road was narrow and there were quite a few washouts and step-ups but the traction control on the Paj just kept it powering along and I didn't ever get to hear the beeps of death as the ABS heated up. 

After this I retraced my steps back to the main road and continued onto Murwillumbah and then onto the Pacific Highway for an easy cruise home. All up a mixed day of exploring as I found some roads on the map that no longer are accessible but I also found a rather nice 4wd track in the Mt Jerusalem National  Park. 

Cooloola National Park, February 2014.

My brother (Greg) has recently become a caravan owner (Jayco Outback Expanda - from memory) and he was wanting to see how his petrol Prado would handle towing it on the sand. So we checked out when the tides would be high early in the morning, and arranged to head up on a Friday afternoon when the tides were at their lowest. He and Jan knocked off work at lunch time on Friday while I took the whole day off and packed the car in the morning before dropping into Southport to pick Juliane up at around 11'ish. 

I ended up catching up to him around Wild Horse mountain so we stopped for fuel and a quick lunch at the new Hungry Jacks there. Just after this we hit some very slow crawling traffic due to the road works a couple of km down the road. After a few km we were back up to cruising speed and had a comfy run up to Cooroy where we turned off to Noosa. We got to the car ferry at the Noosa River and Greg was just in front of us and of course the extra length of the caravan meant that the Paj wouldn't fit on, so we cursed him. Fortunately it was way more expensive for him with the van on, so we were slightly mollified. 

We stopped just before the third cutting and aired the tyres down before heading onto a nice wide flat beach. Greg had no trouble with the van getting across the short section of soft sand so we headed north to find a nice camp site. The beach was pretty free of traffic and we found a nice spot a few kms into the camping area. I tested the short run across the soft sand to a nice grassy area and it looked like it would fine for the Prado and van. He made it up no worries and was able to back the van onto a nice flat grassy spot while Juliane and I had a shady tree to set up out tents under. 

We set up camp with only minor problems due to a very strong north easterly wind, I made sure the tents were well and truly pegged down and even tied the Oztent off to the car for awhile.

When everything was set up we had a chat and a drink or two before going for a pleasant walk on the beach. Afte the walk we cooked and ate dinner with another drink or two and then Juliane provided us with some delicious chocolate topped carrot cake for dessert. The wind had dropped off nicely so the tents were no longer at risk of flying away, so after chatting for a bit no longer we all turned in for the evening and went to sleep to the sound of waves gently crashing onto the beach. 

The tent dwellers were up relatively early as the rising sun was making it quite warm in the tents. Coffee and tea were made and we had a leisurely time reading before a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs, although I failed entirely on making soft fried eggs for Juliane, as I normally have my eggs as hard as possible. The caravan folks were finally awake and we ended up having a nice swim to cool down. The Rangers dropped by to check the permits and as the tide started going out a bit we decided to head up to the Freshwater camping area for a shower. A goanna was wandering around the day use area and looking hungry. 

We then decided to head into Rainbow Beach via the Freshwater track as the tide was still a bit high on the beach. We arrived in time to have lunch at one of the cafés and the meals were pretty big. After a quick look around the town we headed down onto the beach and found if we timed the waves well we could just get around the rocks without too much salt water splashing the cars. The drive round the beach to the Leisha track was nice and easy and we ended up driving around a bit further to explore the rocks. There were quite a few cars here and the kite surfers seemed to be enjoying the wind. 

We headed back across the Leisha track to the surf beach and turned north to the lighthouse. Once again there were tons of cars here but they seemed to be parked all over the place rather then the old fashioned way of reversing up to the back of the beach. I'm getting grumpy in my old age. :)

The walk up to the lighthouse seems to get steeper every time I do it but the views were pretty spectacular. 

The walk back down the hill was much easier and cooler. When we got back to the beach we saw an odd sight of what looked like a Barina with a swag on the roof coming up the beach. As they were turning it around it got bogged and they had some very strange methods of getting it out including a high-lift jack directly onto front panels, which left them pretty bent. 

We headed off and stopped into the Freshwater day use area for a quick toilet stop and as we came back out to the beach the Barina was heading south with its accompanying Subaru Outback. We followed them down the beach towards our camping site but they kept slowing down the further we went. They finally stopped and we thought they were heading into what looked like a fairly lively party camp site but as we went past, the bonnet went up and there was a cloud of steam coming out, so they were having more than just traction problems. 

Then it was back to the camp site for the afternoon. A walk on the beach and a read in a shady spot left us feeling very relaxed and because of the large lunch we didn't have a proper dinner, just picked at a few things. We did however have room for more of Julianne's cake over drinks. After chatting for quite awhile we headed off to bed for another good nights sleep.

Once again the tent folk were up early as the sun was making it even warmer than the day before. In fact an early morning swim was required to keep cool. More bacon and eggs for Brekky, I still failed at making soft eggs properly. Even though there was a breeze it still got quite warm on the beach so we alternated between swimming, walking and sitting under a shady tree reading. The caravan folk seemed to be having a good sleep in. About mid-morning we saw the Barina going past under its own power, so they must have fixed the overheating problem. 

As it got closer to lunchtime the tide was getting further out leaving a wider beach for Greg to get the caravan onto, so after a quick lunch it was time to pack up and leave. The trip down the beach was a nice easy drive and we didn't see the Barina anywhere so it must have made it off the beach. Getting off the beach was then the next concern. I headed off first and Greg followed with the caravan, I couldn't see him come off the beach as I'd tried to leave him space in case he got a bit of speed up. Just when I thought he didn't make it he called through on the UHF to say he had just made it off the beach but he could have used a little more momentum just to be safe. 

We got to the main car park and put some air back into the tyres before heading off to the car ferry and wouldn't you know it the bloody caravans meant that I missed out again and had to wait for the next crossing. It was then a pretty good run down the main highway until just south of the Caloundra entrance/exit where the highway became a car park for awhile. The temperature gauge was showing around 37 deg outside, so we were quite glad to be in the air-conditioned car. There were 5 or 6 cars stopped beside the road looking like they were suffering from the heat.

A quick stop at the BP at Morayfield was required for an iced coffee and a caramel magnum so that I would have the energy for the drive home. The temperature got a little cooler the further south we headed and when I dropped Juliane off at Southport it was down to 31 deg. Home at Palm Beach the temperature dropped to a nice 28 deg and as it was getting dark I decided to hose the car down first before unpacking it. After cleaning the car and unpacking a Kookaburra came to inspect my handy work. 

All up it was a great relaxing weekend, looking forward to doing it all again. 

Testing with no network connection on the iPad.

Testing to see what happens when the iPad doesn't have any network connectivity, just like normal on most of my travels. 

Looks like it saves it on the iPad and then waits for connectivity before first uploading it as a draft and then being able to publish it. 

Should work fine for upcoming trips. 

Gratuitous photo of a very pleasant spot. Milla Milla falls if my memory serves me correctly. 

The image doesn't appear in the saved draft but is still there when edited. Hopefully, it all uploads ok when I connect it back to the wifi. 

Testing Blogger app on my iPad

This a test to see how the Blogger app works on my iPad, especially adding photos to blog posts. Previously on long trips I would email in HTML emails including photos but they would only come out very small on the blog. So I'll add in some random images from previous trips to see how it all goes.

At the tip of Cape York.

A nice little camp fire. 

One of my favorite camping spots on the run up the Finke River. 

Brett and I at Haddon Corner. 

Saturday arvo drive

I had been considering a driving/camping weekend out west of the Gold Coast, around the Beaudesert/Boonah area and even though the weather was perfect (maybe a tad warm) I decided that a day trip would allow me to come home to my nice comfy bed and hot shower. Early on I went for a walk to the Farmer's markets at the nearby school and picked up some goodies for lunch - hot smoked chili salmon and avocados. Then it was off to Robina for a cuppa and a read of the days paper before heading off to the Hinze Dam. The new look dam has been opened for more than a year now, so I went to have another look and a walk around.

View from the info centre/cafe.

According to the sign - I was surrounded by Geology.

Some cute little birds were flitting around the rock wall.

The Spillway was looking impressive but not all that wet.

I had a very tasty lunch in the picnic area and briefly contemplated having a fly of the quadcopter but with all the water and fences around I decided it wasn't worth the risk if something went wrong. Then I decided to head up to Binna Burra for a look and headed off to Beechmount road. Along the way there was a stunning view back over to the Gold Coast.

At a little park - Rosins Lookout Conservation Park there were mad launching themselves off perfectly good ground and sailing gracefully around the sky.

I kept on driving to Binna Burra and drove up to the little Teahouse but it was pretty busy and there were no parking spots so I headed back to a carpark near the entrance to the Lodge and thought I would go on one of the shorter walks. There was a 2 km walk to Kweebani Cave with a 5 km circuit. The forest looked like it was nice and cool so I headed off for a hopefully nice rainforest walk. I put the macro lens on the camera, as I hadn't really ever played around with it too much. After several hundred metres the track started to zig zag backwards and forwards in a downward direction and my thoughts of a pleasant forest stroll were evaporating. During this time I was coming to realise that macro photography was not easy. The things you are trying to photograph are small, hard to focus on and generally moving (plants in a breeze and insects inconsiderately wandering/flying around). I'm not sure if it is just my camera but with the macro lens on the autofocus really struggled and quite often I needed go back to old fashioned manual focus. Below are a couple of macro photos but they didn't turn out all that weel.

I seemed to be forever going downhill (and wasn't looking forward to climbing back up) and I hadn't seen a cave yet. Eventually there was a family coming the other way and they said that the cave wasn't far away and that walk back to the car park was pretty good. It thought it should have been 3 km or so to the car park but thought I might have misread the original signs. I eventually got to the cave and found the other problem with having the macro lens on is that at 90 mm equivalent (60 mm x 1.5) it is not wide enough to see very much, so I then had to rely on the iPhone 4S for general photos.

After a couple of short steep sets of steeps the walk levelled off and the walk continued on through more open bush. Then after a pleasant stroll I was at the carpark, unfortunately it was the wrong carpark and where I had parked my car was another 2 kms up the narrow winding steep road. On the way you see some of the new ecovillas built at the Lodge, they would have had a spectacular view.

I made it back to the car and somewhere on the way back my fitbit clocked up 20,000 steps for the day. My knees are disputing this, claiming it is maliciously underestimating the steps by at least a factor of 1.5. I then got rehydrated and ready for the drive home. Along the way I went via "The Panorama" at the back of Tallai and the views there were also pretty spectacular. 

Then it was off home and a nice shower and relaxing drink with the odd Ibuprofin to keep the old creaky Knees happy.