The Country Way ... My Adventure

Thanks to Lee Tat and Mikes' Civic and GPS whom made this road trip happened.

I have always hope to be fluent in my language so that I could accurately express a place, a happening or an experience. The reason that I have blog this 'often' its partly due to my language disability and my lack of motivation. Most of the time, University life is just university life... lacks of events or motivation to update. Perhaps an adventure is worthy of an update as true adventure is rare and only to the believers. As for the skeptics, risk-aversed and the lazy folks... adventure comes knocking on your door but only rejected by you.

On an evening of shopping at Harbour town, I picked up a travel magazine at the tourist information centre. The title: "Country" as it suggests laid back style, non-conformist and rural adventures. Immediately, the notion of farm stay comes to my mind. In this magazine, 6 to 8 road trips where recommended. And these adventures covers from 345Km to 680km... giving yourself 2-5days. You could either travel light (just extra set of clothing) or bring along your hiking gears. As for the family man, pick the exclusive farm stay and guided tour. For the budget adventurer, research on places and plan some hiking routes. Oh... remember to bring your own food. Some Lodge provides kitchenette you could cook your noodles. Small towns provide food but national parks are usually quite far from establishments. Restaurants mostly served at pricy range. My pick was the 380km adventure (no. 8- granite, gorges and galleries). It was a 2 day one night trip which covered Southern Downs and Greater Brisbane Country. I did some modification and added Gold Coast to the itineraries.

Highlights-Boonah Shire (Scenic Rim and Mt French), Kooroomba Vineyard, Queen Mary Falls and The Fall Drive, Mt Barney National Park, Rathdowney, Beaudesert, Tamborine Mt and Gold Coast.

Boonah Shire 80Km South east of Brisbane. Its a small town after all...
Boonah Shire Look Out. Very near tourist information centre (Boonah Info).
Mount French lies within Boonah shire...

Koorooba Vineyard. We miss the lavendar season. From Nov to Feb... you would witness a purple field. Great wine though... Kooroomba wines are only sold exclusively here...

On the go... There is no time to waste as the sky gets dark at 5pm...
The Fall Drive...
The stock... Road signs suggests these is a stock tick infested area. If you don't wanna get mad cow diesease, stay in the car... (kidding!)
Queen Mary Fall... At the border of NSW-Queensland...
Calvin Kong's work... 'Powdery' falls
I am 1.8 meters... How tall are you ? Reached early by 3pm, you could have lunch at the fall's cafe.
A typical establishment within vincinity...

Spring Creek Cottage... a really scenic place to stay.
Mount Barney Lodge. Owned by Innes Larkin who 'check' us in personally. Didn't know he was someone until i flipped opened the travel magazine the next day. Actually he didn't really check us in (we didn't get keys)... we check ourselves in as the doors were opened and the lights switched on. When we reached Mt Barney National Park and the Lodge, at 6.30pm it was totally dark. We were quite worried as there was no network coverage... all we had was the 10 years plus Honda Civic and its headlights. Mike's GPS went clueless too...
The fireplace and our difficult 'fire' could be the cold weather. Another experience...Try to start the fire before sun down.
Mount Barney Lodge in isolation adds to it's charm list.

Mount Barney... An extinct Volcano which erupted 24mil years ago. Another charm point... The guys woke up early while the girls are still sleeping...


The Lodge is also a caravan park...
Mt Tambourine... The is the hang gliding site. However, gliding occurs earlier in the day.
Final Destination... The coast, its Calvin's and April's first time at Gold Coast. Oh, it April's last night in Queensland after visiting her sister for two weeks.
From Left: April(Kay Younger Sis), KayN, Jason (Dao You) and Calvin(Photographer).