Author: Joel

Had a great time catching up with friends in Brisbane. Some I knew were there, and others I didn’t. I also enjoyed a bit of hiking in a local national park, exploring bits of the town, visiting museums, and snooping around various trendy neighbourhoods. We did most of our transportation in and around town via speedy river ferries, which were pretty cool. The thing to do in Queensland cities, it seems, is to open a free public pool in the busiest tourist part of town. Arlie Beach, Cairns, and Brisbane all had them.

Decided to scrub down my car after 10,000 kilometres of caked-on dirt. It wasn’t easy finding a place where you could do it yourself, but I finally found one. Once I got there, I naturally needed a bit of time to get all the mud off. By the time I was finished, a long line of people waiting in line behind me were beginning to give me disgruntled looks.

Mt Coot-tha Summit Hike (second half of)

Brisbane River Cruise with Dinner

On my 1-month anniversary of starting my road trip from Adelaide, I was scheduled to drop in on some expat friends in Perth who have moved to Brisbane in the past few years and spend the weekend catching up with them and seeing the city for the first time.

On the way down, I dropped by a few beach spots, including Bridie Island, where I had my first nice swim in real surf without any crocs or jellyfish to worry about.

Point Cartwright Lighthouse Hike

Bridie Island Swim

The drive into Brisbane was quite amazing, with its labyrinth of roads and endless roller-coaster hills. There is no way I would have been able to figure out my way around if it weren’t for my GPS! Brisbane roads seemed to be a combination of San Francisco and Boston rolled into one. Even my friends there seemed to get a bit confused from time to time when trying to find their way around.

Today’s Drive

Had one last night to camp before arriving in Brisbane to visit some friends and see the city. The area I camped in was quite beautiful, but the campground was another state forest full of bogans. After pitching my tent in what appeared to be a deserted campground, I ventured off to explore some of the sites in the area, including The Glasshouse Mountains and The Australia Zoo.

The Glasshouse Mountains were really quite interesting, since they were actually volcanic plugs that were once below the earth’s surface but were not sticking up as mountains because of the erosion of the surrounding rock. There was a series of them in a line that James Cook spotted and named while exploring the area.

Glass House Mountains National Park Hike

The Australian Zoo was Steve “Crikey” Irwin’s base before he died and is still run by his surviving family. Not being a huge fan, I was a bit put off by what appeared to be too much emphasis on the family members as celebrities and not enough on wildlife. I was especially put off by the $60 price tag (!) to visit the place for the day. I spoke with several friends since I decided to skip it, and they all said it was quite good. For $60, I would have felt obligated to spend an entire day there – and that would have made it difficult to get into Brisbane during peak rush hour at the end of the day.

While I was out, the campsite quickly filled up with loud, boisterous bogans smoking dope and drinking too much beer in the evening. Some of them were actually trying to be quiet and friendly (perhaps to head off any complaints), but the combination of very hot weather, very high humidity, and very stagnant air made it difficult to sleep that night. Campfires made it especially bad because every time there was a slight breeze, it blew smoke into my tent and choked me out.

Today’s Drive

At last, a national park with actual mountain bike trails! They’re shared with horse trails and maintenance 4WD tracks, but at least they have SOMETHING here! So yes, I took my Cannondale mountain bike out for a spin in Conondale National Park this morning while it was still a bit cool. The only problem was that there were only two flavours of trails: straight up (Nanga Challenge style) or back and forth, meandering through river beds, which seemed to get progressively deeper. I did a bit of both, but didn’t last too long in the heatwave. At least I found a nice spot for a swim along the way.

Conondale National Park Mountain Biking

The Drive to Conondale

Had my first cold night since I started this trip! Found myself completely zipped up in my sleeping bag and still a bit chilly in the wee early hours of the morning. Checked my thermometer and found it was 14ºC (upper 50ºFs), which really isn’t THAT cold, but it sure was nice for a change. A heavy fog rolled into our mountain-top campsite by morning, and my tent was soaking (again), so I left it there and went for a wonderful scenic 5km hike down the road past waterfalls, giant Bunya Pines, and other dense rainforest stuff. Many of the Bunya Pines were chopped down in the 1800’s for their cedar, but there were still quite a few of them. Absolutely huge trees with soccer ball-sized pinecones (nothing that you’d want to drop on your head, mind you) that were believed to be alive in the age of the dinosaurs.

After spending several hours hiking and photographing the area, I returned to my campsite to pack up my tent and head back down the mountain towards my next campsite. Someone tipped me off that a nasty heatwave was moving into the area, and sure enough, I found the temperatures back up over the 100F mark while I was driving my car. I was pleased to find myself being directed back up another mountain range and the temperature dropping fast as I climbed, but only continued on to drop off the other side and into a hot, stuffy creek valley where the campsites were located. At least there were some nice places to swim nearby.

Saw yet another bush turkey, but also a huge monitor lizard move through my campsite a few times. The campsite was a reserved one that actually turned out to be nice, shady, relatively private, but just a bit too hot this time.

Hike up Mt. Kiangarow

Exploring Bunya Mountains National Park

Felt a bit sad to be leaving Hervey Bay and Fraser Island after just one night. It was another wet, dreary morning, but that didn’t stop all the cyclists there from doing their morning ritual, the Esplanade Drive circuit. I headed out to a recommended cafe for breakfast and had a Canadian Breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, Australian bacon, and pancakes with maple syrup and whipped cream. Not sure if the Canadians have sanctioned this, but it went down well with a cup of coffee.

After breakfast, I walked across the road and took one last look at the beach while I continued to dodge the occasional showers. I had another 4 hours of driving to do before reaching my prearranged stay at Bunya National Park. The terrain is now noticeably browner than it was throughout the tropics, which isn’t quite as attractive, but far more comfortable. As I drove, I noticed a mountain range looming in the distance, which is always good news at this time of year for cooler temperatures.

Bunya Mountains National Park has turned out to be really beautiful with excellent hiking tracks through extensive rainforests with great views, and very nice campsites.

Our campsite has a Donkey Boiler shower that involves lighting a fire under a steel boiler to heat water. The water automatically spits out of the boiler into a bucket, which you mix with cooler water and dump into a shower bag in a shower room that is suspended from the ceiling by a pulley system. You hoist the shower back up and grab your hot shower before the shower bag empties through a shower head on its underside. All rather complicated, really, but it sure looks pretty cool!

I only had time to do one short hike this afternoon, but hopefully I will have time to do one of the longer ones tomorrow morning.

The Drive from Hervey Bay to Bunya Mountains National Park

There are so many mangoes growing up this way that it is not uncommon to find yourself driving over a pile of squished ones that have dropped from a wild tree. Roadside stands will refuse to sell you individual mangoes – you must purchase a bucket or box full for $10 if you want any at all. Supermarkets still sell them individually, but for a higher price.

I did manage to buy a few pineapples from a roadside stand which were really sweet and flavorful. Probably the nicest ones i’ve ever eaten.

After another long day of driving, I finally managed to punch through – out of the Tropic of Capricorn to nice dry Mediterranean-style weather. What a relief it is to be able to take a bike ride without sweating profusely at the slightest effort. I’ve arrived in a nice little launch pad for Fraser Island that is VERY bike-friendly, has endless beaches, a good ~20km bike path the entire way, a bike-friendly 1km long pier/jetty, nice stinger-free and croc-free swimming, and not too much commercialism or elite resorts clogging the place up. My kind of place, Hervey Bay. It seemed very community-oriented. I’m checked into a YHA here and was a bit taken aback to find no air conditioning, but I don’t think I’ll need it since it is cooling off nicely. Must be in the middle of pineapple land because I’ve seen quite a few roadside stands selling nothing but pineapple since I got here.

Hervey Bay Coastal Ride & Swim

Harvey Bay also looks like a nice, cruisy place for sea kayaking, with no swell, clear waters, and a fantastic place to explore just across the bay (Fraser Island). Just as long as the wind doesn’t kick up, as it always seems to do in the afternoon.

Hervey Bay Cruise

The Drive to Get Here

Queensland has a few strange parking practices. They are one of the few places I can think of that reverse-diagonal park. Very odd. I can’t see what the benefit is. They also seem very keen to maintain very wide streets with parking in the middle and along the sides of the road. Sometimes the parking is perpendicular to the traffic flow, and sometimes it is parallel. Both parking methods leave me turning my head in circles constantly to ensure I don’t hit anyone.

After a nice cool night up in the Eugella National Park mountains, I drove down the long switchback road through the fog and back into the hot, coastal flats. I’m getting a bit wary of Queensland road signs that say “fatigue zone next xxx kms” because I’ve learned that really means some tedious driving is ahead. Sure enough, I designated my entire day’s drive down to Byfield National Park as being in this category. At one point, they even had trivia signs up to try and help keep you awake! I finally get down to Byfield to find plenty of bogans gearing up to hit the beaches in 4WDs, trail bikes, and quad bikes. On a fit, showery afternoon, I explore a bit of a plantation area to suss out possible MTB rides. Unfortunately, I somehow ended up with a less-than-stellar campsite right along the main road to the beach (while everyone else is nestled deeper in a forest behind me). I’m right about where all the 4WDs stop to reinflate their tyres after coming off the beach.

Not sure about this system Queensland uses for selecting campsites online. I’ve been stuck with a few dogs because their maps and illustrations don’t really depict the locations very well.

Today’s drive