Day 1 - 5

Day 01 - 01/08/11- Enfield to Armidale  520 km

Left home at 7:45 with a bright sunny day. Sydney traffic!!!!! 45 minutes to do 14 kms!!!.  Arrived at Raymond Terrace at about 10:30 and had morning tea on the banks of the Hunter River. Topped up with fuel at Gloucester and headed along Thunderbolt’s Way where we stopped at Carson’s Memorial Lookout for lunch. The clouds had come over and we had some light rain.

At Uralla we follow Tourist Drive 19 to Dangarsleigh (Dangars) Gorge & Falls. Arrived at about 4:00 pm. Did a short walk (600 m return) to view the falls from above the falls and from the other side of the valley. Saw Brush Tailed Rock Wallabies and also several Grey Kangaroos / Wallabies.

     

 

Left the Falls at 4:40 and arrived at Armidale at 5:10 pm. At 6:00 headed into town and had tea at White Bull Hotel.

Day 02 - 02/08/11- Armidale to Kingaroy  565 km

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning – apparently only 4 degrees at 8:00 am when we left, but it didn’t feel that cold. Today was basically a driving day. From Armidale we headed straight up the highway to Glen Innes, morning tea at Bluff Rock and on to Tenterfield. Through Warwick, and on to lunch 9km south of Toowoomba, at a lovely park at Hodgsonvale. From Toowoomba we headed north through Crows Nest, Cooyar, Maidenwell and Kingaroy. We stopped at the Peanut Van (Les bought Butterscotch and Caramel flavour, Joy bought Chicken flavour) before getting Joy a “proper coffee” at Gloria Jean’s, then doing the grocery shopping. I’m not sure what the lady at the butchers thought when we wanted 2 sausages, 2 lamb culets and 250 g of mince.

We made it to Mulanah Gardens around 5pm, where we unpacked everything (how come we take so much on holidays?), played with the 2-year-old Labrador, and settled in.

Something we both noticed during the day was how much wattle there is in bloom. It makes sense, since 1^st August is Wattle Day. But it just looks lovely to see it all around as we were driving along, and the smell…beautiful!

Day 03 - 03/08/11- Bunya Mountains 96 km

We had breakfast on the front deck with a great view over the surrounding country side.

We made lunch and then set off toward Bunya Mountains at 9:20 and arrived at about 10:00 and settled down to have morning tea before our walk. We started the Scenic Circuit (4.3 km) at 10:30 stopping along the way for many waterfall photos.

  

After lunch we walked up to the Café/Gallery and had a coffee(Joy) / macadamia ice cream sundae (Les) and also a Cinnamon Myrtle Cookie. Back to the car passing many small kangaroos.

Left the picnic area at 3:00 pm and passed Paradise (Yes, we have been to Paradise and have the photo to prove it!! When we were in NZ in 2007 we got within a few kilometres of Paradise!))

before arriving at Burton’s Well to start the walk to Mt Kiangarow (2.3 km return). There are lots of Grass Trees along this walk but most spikes appear to be last year’s.

  

 We also can across several kangaroos/wallabies.

One was very clearly a male!!!!

Arrived back at the cottage just before 5:00 and had a cuppa before heading to ‘Sunset Boulevarde’ to watch the sunset. Very nice, lots of little birds making lots of noise.

Day 4 - 04/08/11- Mulanah Gardens B&B     0 km

We had breakfast inside today as the chairs and table outside were wet from the fog that had been around earlier but the weather was now fine and sunny with a light breeze which was quite cool.

Today is a rest day and massages this afternoon but as the lady is not well we missed out on the massages.

After breakfast we went to visit the miniature cows that they have and was joined by the Labrador from the house. Yes the cows are fully grown!! 

Lunch today was homemade hamburgers cooked on the BBQ at the side of the cottage. The afternoon was been spent reading and Joy doing the crossword and puzzles in the Woman’s Day.

Day 05 - 05/08/11-Mulanah Gardens B&B, Kingaroy to Rockhampton  513 km

Set of at 8:15 with the weather fine but cloudy.

Today was another driving day as stopping at Ban Ban Springs for morning tea. Lunch as at a rest area between Gin Gin and Miriam Vale. A very popular spot to stop with probably a dozen other travellers stopping for lunch. The weather had so far been fine & cloudy, cloudy and light rain, fine and sunny, cloudy and so on.

After lunch continued along ‘Highway 1’ and we passed several coal trains, They are so long (approx. 100 carriages) that they have 2 engines at the front and 2 in the middle. We also delayed as we got behind a large load truck carrying the bin from one of the massive dump trucks used in the mines. They had a police escort and all the oncoming traffic had to pull off the road but even allowing for it’s size the semi was still doing about 90 km per hour.

Arrived in Rockhampton after some heavy rain, at about  3:20 pm and after unpacking we went for a 50 minute walk (guestimate 54 to 5 km).

Tea at Sizzlers (ate too much).