While Dean and Alison decided to go via the main highway, we wanted to find the road alongside Storm King Dam we had missed. We also wanted to check out the 4WD track that went through to the Mt Norman Day use area..
To begin with it was a rough dirt track, nothing that couldn't be done if you took your time. After 3Km that changed. The entire track was studded by granite boulders. A unimog, maybe if necessary, a Feroza, not if you wanted to drive home afterwards. About tail for Neilsens Rd and a drive past Storm King Dam. We stopped for a look at an echidna which was scurrying across the the dirt road to Legume. He went off the road and he tucked his head into a culvert leaving his beautiful quilled behind on show. Snakes are clearly on the move with the warmer weather although the ones on the road had no further to
go.
We had lunch was at Browns Falls, went for a walk under the culvert but did not continue up the grassy track after the first hill given that it was unclear how far you had to go. It was probably here I picked up my friend. Daggs Falls has a shaded
solitary picnic bench which is away from the main road. The tumbling falls were only half what they had been two days earlier. This time we stopped at Queen Mary Falls to walk to the lookout. Seeing a footbridge at the base you couldn't leave that
unexplored so it was onto the circuit - something you could
easily do in half an hour or so. The abundance of weeds, litter and tattoos on trunks really showed how pristine Girraween is. Back at the car the thought of a coffee drew us across the road to Queen Mary Falls Cafe. We enjoyed the unexpected delight of a really good coffee, excellent service (especially so late on a Sunday afternoon) and a chat about the roads in the area, in
particular the Condamine River Rd. This could be a base for a weekend of walking - looks like they have a range of cabins, if nothing else they make a dam good brew.
Turns out it was just as well we had not travelled the Condamine River Rd. Not only because of the rising river levels but because it has been promoted in places like "Dirty Weekends". According to people who live along this gazetted road it has
become a place to avoid on the weekends as it now a popular rip
it up route with 4WD enthusiasts. Talk about rip it up, it is amazing how fast some 4WD will travel on the bitumen when there are stock grazing the road side. While we putted along we were passed by some who drove like they were on a mission for a beef steak on the bullbar. I then found my accompanying friend before he had taken too much of a hold - charming, a tick on the scalp, fortunately no friends. Travelling back along the same route this time Carrs Lookout gave a magnificent view over the
Condamine Valley - the headwaters for the Murray Darling River system. It is a beautiful road to putter along, sections seem like they would be beautiful to ride, so long as you didn't end up like a beef steak.
From Boonah it was back to Brisbane via Beaudesert. The works for the new dam go on for miles - for such a large project it is surprising that it has had so little media coverage. Jimboomba is morphing from a town like Boonah to a yet another bland suburban fringe dwelling linked by concrete corridors to the epicentre of
Brisbane. Watching the sunset over the mountains then moving along these grey transport channels was like going down a black hole into another place a world away from the wombats, flowers and the immense granite beauty of Girraween.
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