This morning we set off early (4:30am) to Esk with a plan to do Parkrun and then hike at both Ravensbourne National Park and Crows Nest National Park. Most of the way out to Esk it rained, and rained. It rained some more while I did a warm up. Thankfully it stopped raining while parkrun was on - another tourist run to add to our collection Old Esk Railway Station Parkrun. It is a flat two lap course on a mix of concrete, decomposed granite and grass. In wet conditions it felt like heavy running, but I am confident this would be a nice run when not wet.
https://www.parkrun.com.au/oldeskrailwaystation/
Breakfast was at Brisbane Valley Roasters - lots of people, but prompt service, nice atmosphere and good food.
https://brisbanevalleyroasters.com.au/
We then decided to brave it and head for Ravensbourne National Park with the plan of doing all the walks. Before leaving the car we smothered ourselves in Aeorgard. We set off on the pretty Rainforest Circuit, followed by the Palm Creek Circuit. After stopping numerous times to remove literally hundreds of leeches, we decided not to walk to Buaraba Creek, but to turn around at the Sandstone Overhang. On returning to the carpark we stripped down in the bathrooms and conducted yet more leech removal. When we got in the car we saw the only other people in the park doing exactly the same "dance" in the shelter shed. It was not the day for walking in the rainforest - way too many leeches!
https://parks.desi.qld.gov.au/parks/ravensbourne/things-to-do#toc-1
Change of plans - we headed back to Esk to visit the Glen Rock Gallery - beautiful Phil Lister photographs currently.
https://www.sasiart.com.au/glen-rock-gallery
We had lunch at Lars Anderson Historic House which contains the Nash Gallery and Cafe - a lovely well priced serve of risotto.
Then on to Toogoolawah to see the inside of The Condensary, which holds the Somerset Art Gallery. The interior of the packing shed was burnt out in the past and it has been converted into a gallery space while retaining as much of the historical structure as was possible, including the bomb shelter built during WW2 to protect important documents. I was glad to see this space - I had wanted to when we hike the BVRT but it was closed by the time we got there, so great to finally see how they had preserved this.
Then the lovely drive through the country home. Another great day's adventuring, even if did not follow the original plan.
