Warwick for an Extended Weekend - 26 to 29 May 2023

 On Friday afternoon we headed from the Sunshine Coast to Warwick for our favourite running festival of the season - the Warwick Pentathrun.  We chose to drive the scenic route passing close to the west of Somerset Dam with great views.  Warwick Pentathrun is a unique and awesome running event - 5 races over 2 days that add up to a marathon. 

 https://www.pentathrun.com/

Saturday commences with an undulating road half marathon from Warwick to Yangan, followed by a 4.6km cross country late morning and a flat 5km road race, starting and finishing at a pub, in the afternoon.  This was the first time I have not done the full event, due to injury and resulting lack of training, so while Drew was out doing the half marathon I snuck in a walk at Warwick parkrun. This is a relatively flat loop around the Condamine River with steam rising on this cold Saturday morning.  

https://www.parkrun.com.au/warwick/

The cross country, saw me spectating but at least I was able to run the 5km.  After a nap we met a crew of fellow runners at Warwick RSL for dinner - the food was great, the service and speed was excellent.

https://www.warwickrsl.com.au/

Sunday was a very cold start in Warwick, -1.6 degrees Celcius.  The drive out to Killarney was very foggy, and as expected it was even colder there.  First race for the day was the 10km hill climb from Killarney to Queen Mary Falls.  At the top it is very very cold. My Garmin sports watch even gave me a badge called "Frosty" for running in temperatures below freezing. The breakfast at the Cafe at Queen Mary Falls was, as usual, well worth the run up the mountain.  

https://queenmaryfallscaravanpark.com.au/cafe-gift-shop/

Last run for the weekend was the 1500m in Warwick late morning.  This is always quite funny to watch, between the costumes and the unusual gait many people who have done all five events have by then.  Another awesome Pentathrun done by my husband, and two races for me.

After lunch we went exploring as despite coming to this event 6 times, we have always had to rush back for Monday at school.  No school anymore means we could take a day off work and see a few things.  Sunday afternoon was spent exploring Glengallan Homestead and Heritage Centre.  This building would have been very grand and extravagant in its prime (1860's), and became derelict from the 1950's as it was unoccupied.  Parts of it have been restored since the early 2000's and parts left with only safety improvements so that in some rooms the contrast between its highs and lows can be seen.

https://www.facebook.com/GlengallanHomesteadandHeritageCentre

On Monday morning, the windscreen was once again covered in ice, this time we had the luxury of staying in bed until the temperature rose above freezing. 

First up today was the Settlers' Route drive taking in several small villages around the Warwick area.

https://southerndownsandgranitebelt.com.au/plan-your-trip/tourist-drives/settlers-route/

Yangan has a number of interesting looking old buildings, some of which were in use at the time of Federation.  

Even at this time, there was still plenty of frost around.  

This drive takes in some picturesque rolling farmland.  Some of the small villages had pretty avenues of deciduous trees in autumn colour.  

Once we got to Killarney, we took the Falls Drive.  

https://southerndownsandgranitebelt.com.au/plan-your-trip/tourist-drives/the-falls-drive/

Despite having run up this hill six times now I had never actually had the time to look at any of the water falls.  First up was Browns Falls, where I found a series of small falls. The track requires a few creek crossings and good balance.  The signage indicates a short walk, but from what I have read, I think it must be longer as I did not reach the main waterfall.  

https://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/waterfalls/australia-browns-falls/

Second was Daggs Falls, which I had no idea the lookout was literally metres from the race route.  This is a very impressive drop.  

https://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/waterfalls/australia-daggs-falls/

Last up we hiked the Queen Mary Falls Circuit at Queen Mary Falls. This goes around the base of the falls and allows a view up the cliff face. 

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/main-range/journeys/queen-mary-falls-circuit

 We then drove a little further south to the NSW border.

We drove home via Esk, Toogoolawah and Harlin and did some reconnaissance for our upcoming Brisbane Valley Rail Trail adventure.

Kilkivan to Kingaroy (South Burnett) Rail Trail - Day 4

https://www.discoversouthburnett.com.au/towns/kingaroy/

 https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/3239/kilkivan-to-kingaroy-rail-trail-brochure

https://southburnettrailtrail.au/

10 April 2023

Beautiful light as we started our last days walk.  Wooroolin has a picturesque small former church that I could not resist taking a photograph of. 

https://www.churchesaustralia.org/list-of-churches/denominations/presbyterian-church-of--australia/directory/1406-st-andrewand%2339%3Bs-presbyterian-church-former

The countryside was again rolling farming land with the famous red soil. We saw plantations of Duboisia, and walked past the facility where they convert this to the drug scopolamine and its relatives. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-13/sleepy-town-secretive-drug-centre-big-pharma-criminal-cartel/100572628

Another beautiful day walking. We stopped in Crawford to have lunch before the final stretch into Kingaroy. We were all very glad to take our packs and boots off.  

We then all squished into our car to drive back to Wondai – where our two young men switched cars, and then on to Kilkivan.  It was actually surprisingly enjoyable to drive back over the route and remember different things that had happened, as well as appreciating just how far we had walked.

All up 88km in four days with a great group of people and some great memories made.

Kilkivan to Kingaroy (South Burnett) Rail Trail - Day 3

https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/3239/kilkivan-to-kingaroy-rail-trail-brochure 

https://southburnettrailtrail.au/

9 April 2023 – Easter Sunday

The Easter Bunny visited the two “children” (seventeen-year-olds) overnight.  From Murgon to Wondai is my favourite part of the Kilkivan to Kingaroy Rail Trail. The path is bitumen, so easy walking, and the scenery is predominantly bushland with very little roads.  In Wondai we met up with the sixth member of our party.  We dropped some items no longer needed off into his car and picked up the further items he had brought for us. The staff in the Wondai IGA were very helpful with locating the items we wished to purchase for lunch and the next days supplies. 

https://www.discoversouthburnett.com.au/towns/wondai/

https://www.iga.com.au/stores/peries-iga-wondai/

From here the path went through rolling farming country.  Mid-afternoon, we did some redistribution of weight as my knee was slowing my pace to a level that was too slow to arrive in the daylight. We stopped in Tingoora for afternoon tea and then continued on to camp the night at Wooroolin arriving just before sunset.  Here we discovered that while the town has free hot showers, the water available is straight from the dam and not wise to drink without filtering.  The local pub was full of friendly people and does a good pizza.

https://www.discoversouthburnett.com.au/attractions/national-parks-and-reverves/wooroolin-wetland/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Grand-Hotel-Wooroolin/100039988309209/

NOTE: Tingoora is the last town before Kingaroy where there is readily available drinking water – fill up here.

Kilkivan to Kingaroy (South Burnett) Rail Trail - Day 2

 https://southburnettrailtrail.au/

https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/3239/kilkivan-to-kingaroy-rail-trail-brochure

8 April 2023

It rained during the night, so it was a bit of a slow start to the day trying to get tents dry to avoid unnecessary weight.  The three of us girls slept in the larger tent – which is technically three man – and it was rather cosy with the three of us and our packs, despite us all being not much more than five foot tall and 50kg in size.  I cannot imagine three big blokes squeezing in.  During the night my knee was sore, despite not having bothered me at all during the day yesterday. Over breakfast we discovered that one of our group had been so tired on arriving yesterday evening that they had lost all sense of direction – being quite surprised to see the sun now rising in what had been thought to be the West. 

Today was sunny, and a much shorter walk, 18km.  The walking today was harder, however.  Much of the day the grass was long – waist to head height. There was also a section of approximately 5km that was like walking through a creek bed, rocks around two to three inches in size. Every foot placement had to be examined, meaning there was not as much opportunity to look around and enjoy the scenery.

We walked to Murgon today and arrived for a late lunch.  We chose to rest and eat before setting up camp. The afternoon was spent relaxing, playing Zilch, reading and massaging sore muscles.  I experimented with washing my shirt using a laundry sheet and a dry bag jostled around to agitate it – this worked quite well and added less than a gram to my pack for the joy of a clean shirt on day three.  For dinner we went to the Murgon Services Club and the food was perfect.  Having sat for an extended period over dinner we all looked a bit stumbly trying to walk back to camp despite a total alcohol consumption of one standard drink between all of us.

http://www.murgon.net.au/

https://murgonservicesclub.com.au/dining/