Category: Queensland

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Easter Day April 1: What a great rail trail

Author: Mr A

Location: Pullenvale & Ipswich, Brisbane’s far western suburbs, Queensland

Rail trails are our favourite kind of riding – away from cars, devoid of steep hills, and in Victoria and SA tantalisingly peppered with wineries. Queensland also has one I found out through Dr Google, via the very helpful site railtrails.org.au, completely funded and run by volunteers. Alas no wineries on this section of rail trail, perhaps accounting for the fact that in the 30km of riding it we saw 2 other cyclists! Who knows why such a wonderful ride, safely tucked away from other road users, winding through beautiful scenery, wouldn’t attract heaps of riders on a public holiday?I loaded up the bikes onto the Cruiser, so glad we have a spare wheel mounted bike rack with us, as it was a 30 minute drive through narrow twisting country lanes that were decidedly un-bike friendly, to where Google told us was the start of the trail. This turned out to be 7km from the actual start of rail trail itself, but still on a good bike path. After a detour to find a toilet (there’s none on this section of the trail) we were finally on our way.What a fantastic ride – we were almost immediately surrounded by bush and farmland, rolling hills on either side, only the birds twittering away and not an engine noise to be heard. The trail is called the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail and stretches for 160km, with further sections still attracting funding and being completed. I do hope no one who agreed to spend the money is counting traffic on it. Four of us on the first 22km of the trail on a public holiday would surely cause them to think ‘Is this money being well spent?’ Perhaps the “build it and they will come” philosophy is operating here. Let’s hope they are right, but with cycling participation nationally falling for this type of casual riding, I have my doubts. What a shame. We had an awesome few hours on this gem of a ride.Back at base in Pullenvale and a late lunch magically appeared from Maria (our friends’ mum). Given we were two hours earlier than planned I’m not sure quite how, but we weren’t complaining. A Moravian favourite apparently of cauliflower, broccoli, mince and spaghetti was washed down with a beer. Perfect. Then it was off to the local garden centre for cake, coffee and potting compost – not all these items were consumables of course.I then settled in for a long overdue bike cleaning and maintenance session while madam did some work on a couple of research papers she is preparing with doctors in the USA. A very light salad and a dose of Netflix and a sound sleep again in the quiet haven of our location.

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Thursday 29 & Friday 30 March – Not quite in the big smoke

Author: Mrs A

Location: Pullenvale, west of Brisbane, Queensland

We were awoken around 6am on Thursday by a rain shower, which had us leaping out of bed to close the skylights and rescue the washing we had hung out last night. Despite it still being dark, once awake, we couldn’t really go back to sleep, and so set about getting packed up and ready to head off on our way.

We were on the road by shortly after 7am and heading north into Queensland through intermittent heavy rain showers. Other than a brief interlude for fuel as we crossed the border, we didn’t stop until we reached Pullenvale. There is no official camping area here, rather we have been invited by some old friends to camp on their property. We pulled in through their gate and parked up right alongside their swimming pool, with access to power, water and our own bathroom with shower! It could not be more perfect, other than the fact our friends Martina and Karel plus their two sons are away at the moment, so we don’t get to see them.We were settled in by 2pm, then realising that Queensland is an hour behind New South Wales, so had to change our watches to 1pm (it’s ok NSW readers, you need to change your clocks on Sunday – also an hour back!). The afternoon continued to be warm and showery, truly tropical with high humidity. Martina’s mother, Maria, is living at the house, so we caught up with her for a cup of tea and a chat. She has moved here from the Czech Republic, and although her English is not perfect we managed to enjoy a conversation.

Good Friday morning Mr A cooked us all breakfast on the BBQ which we shared with Maria, before we headed out to see a bit of the area. We have both visited Brisbane for work, but had never seen the suburban areas. Pullenvale is about 17km west of the city, and feels very rural. The property on which we are staying is 10,000 square metres, consisting of rolling lawns, a dam, creek, waterfall and several fields. The next door neighbours have horses – it’s all a long way from the Brisbane we have ever seen! We decided to drive out to Mount Coot-Tha, 287 metres above sea level and towering above Brisbane and the coast. It is also home to many bush walks, mountain bike trails and picnic spots. We brought along our hiking shoes hoping the rain would stop and we could do a walk.

Alas the rain was determined to continue, with heavy downpours every 15 minutes or so. We drove though winding streets to reach the lookout, and dodged the rain to catch the view while it was visible.Beaten by the weather, we decided to abandon our walk plans and headed back for a pot of tea and a hot cross bun. It is Good Friday after all!

We had a relaxing afternoon, spent swimming in the pool and reading as the weather brightened up. It’s so nice to have the place pretty much to ourselves, and Tassie is really enjoying having the run of the place.

A lovely relaxing evening was spent with dinner eaten outside by the pool – a Goan Fish Curry which we accompanied with a fine bottle of red and shared with Maria.

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Day 7: Saturday 3rd June – Ayrshire Hills to Mount Isa 

From: Ayrshire Hills bush camp off the Old Landsborough Highway

To: Mount Isa, north-west Queensland

Distance: 403 km

Time: 4.5 hours

Well not every day can be perfect, and this was one of those. Some time during the night, what started as a niggling headache evolved into a full blown migraine, which made the 403 kms quite a challenge for me, feeling hot and cold, shivering with stinging, streaming eyes and pounding head. I was not the best of travel companions.


Thankfully it was a ‘relatively’ short drive to Mount Isa, where we pulled in to a very basic caravan park and set up under a tree. I collapsed in bed feeling awful while the very patient Mr A set about doing our washing and cycled into the city centre to find me strong drugs and stock up on supplies. Our next two nights are going to be bush camping, so we needed to ensure we were well stocked with water and food for the trip.

Mount Isa is here because of the mining (lead, silver, copper and zinc) with a large Aboriginal community and substantial poverty and crime. Much of the mining population is fly-in, fly-out. It was slightly disturbing being warned as we entered to ensure we lock our car and van at night. We were amused when the park owner asked us whether we had an address – many of the grey nomads coming through here have sold up their homes and are living as gypsies, wherever they park up being their home.

I was last here 18 years ago, when I called through via coach on the way to Darwin. I was given 2 hours to explore, and my lasting impression of the town from the lookout was the metallic taste of the air here. I am guessing the pollution levels have been decreased now, as I don’t notice that today.

Hoping for a good night’s sleep tonight, in preparation for more long hours and distances over the next couple of days…fingers crossed!

And finally, back by popular demand, the top three things learned from podcasts today:

  • There are two types of artists (including musicians, painters, writers) – the Picassos – those who can pen a song/paint a finished masterpiece in 15 minutes (eg Bob Dylan) and those who take years – the Cezannes (eg Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello)
  • The Toyota scandal in the USA in 2009 (accelerator stuck to the floor, brakes don’t work) cost Toyota billions in court costs and recalls, but in reality was caused by human error (foot hitting accelerator instead of the brake in an unfamiliar car)
  • The Challenger space shuttle disaster, while horrendous, improved engineering and NASA’s business processes exponentially
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Day 6: Friday 2nd June

From: Cooper Creek

To: Ayrshire Hills bush camp off the Old Lansborough “Highway” (dirt road), an hour south of Kynuna, central QLD

Distance: 560km

Time: 7.30am  – 4pm = 8.5 hrs


Highlights:

Leaving Cooper Creek in the dawn light we headed north again on a single lane road (tarmac) and playing

1.  Spot the road train coming

2. Spot the suicidal roo

3. Hold your breath until the next bend (about 130km so we lost that one!)

We arrived at the birthplace of Qantas, Longreach, and resupplied with the de rigour huge Queensland bread rolls and a few other essentials for the road trip still to come. A series of podcasts and before we know it we are eagerly trying to find our camp for the night. WikiCamps again delivers – we turned off at some low lying hills along the Old Lansborough Highway (the first hills we have seen for days) and follow a dirt track around their base. I manage to drive a bit too close to a washout and the road collapses, the car dropping about half a metre into it! Low range is enagaged and reverse gear backs us out safely…phew…


We then pull up to our camp for the night facing the setting sun. A quick clamber up the low hill behind us and the view opens up. The sandy plain is covered in footprints from camels, kangaroos and goats, plus shows us evidence of snakes and lizards which had passed by during the day.


It’s wine o’clock and what a sunset.  It has to be a spag bol with a delicious red from our wine cabinet after a show like that!
The evening continued with a fabulous moon and starlit night – the lack of light pollution allows us to try out some more star photography…and yes, we can still wear shorts at 10pm! 

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