Friday

We met at the BP Burpengary at 1.00pm Friday. I arrived first, then Ben L arrived in his Forester, next was our trip leaders Greg & Kathy, who were fashionably late after going to get beer. And Big John brought up the rear. David was to meet us up there that night and Keith P  met up with the convoy on the road outside Kilcoy.

 

Things seemed to be going well, but as we got near Yarraman Greg & Kathy's new CB began playing up, so we made a stop to look at the map because Kathy said that Greg's navigating skills were not good. We found a shortcut, then on to Maidenwell, and then up the range to the Bunyas.

Once there we went to the kiosk to get the keys (one for the gate) and watched all the birds coming down to get fed. There were a lot of different birds, but the parrots outnumbered the other types.

The house was rather big. It had 4 bedrooms and a sun room which used to have beds in it too. The first thing on the agenda was to sort out our rooms, and then because it was Beer O'Clock we cracked a coldy while we all unpacked. Greg & Kathy had the most to unpack because they had all the food. So after all that was packed away, we had "Happy Hour" outside. Meanwhile, Kathy made a great dip, which didn't last long. We stayed outside drinking and feeding the birds until it got too cold. Keith & I had already started the fire, so it was nice and warm inside.

 

David arrived at about 8:00 pm and we sat down to a very nice meal, thanks to Kathy's great cooking skills. Then it was time to sit back and relax. I think I relaxed a bit too much. 

Master Chef Kathy

 

 

Saturday

We went to the Rimfire winery, about 30 km away. We took two cars, Ben's Forester with David and Keith, and the Pie Van with Big John, Greg, Kathy and me. Kathy drove the Pie Van and did a good job until she had to down change on a hill. We had lost so much speed that by the time Kathy had found the right gear, she had to go down one more gear, which caused some laughs from both cars. a We all did some wine tasting and I think that everyone bought some wine.  On the way back, David "had" to stop at a rock farm that was also a 4WD park, but on inquiring they had closed the 4WD park, much to David's disappointment. We had a nice relaxing afternoon, doing not much of anything, but we all had another very good meal and a very good night.

Sunday

Rik's Beast and the Mighty Pie Van

Keith had work commitments and left early, before some were even up. We started with a big breakfast of bacon and eggs that Greg cooked on the BBQ. We were packed and out of the house before 10:00 am. It had been a very windy weekend up in the mountains and as we came down the eastern side we saw the evidence of this, as sticks & leaves had been blown all over the road. We turned for Nanango, and we said goodbye to Ben as he to had to get back to town. So we were down to four cars. After a bit of driving around we found the turn-off to the stock route , but ` when we got to the gate it was locked. So we turned around to find a different way in. It wasn't long before we were on the right track. We had not gone too far when the call went out for a morning tea stop. David said that there's a spot just up a bit, we came to a creek with some shade around and with some water in the creek. After a 15 minute stop we were off again. Greg and Kathy's CB was getting worse, Kathy's chit chat got less and less. At some time later on, it got that bad that, unlike with their old one, they could not even hear us. We had been I driving for a bit when David spotted a track up a hill. Dave had a go and got  up and said "it's not that bad". So I had a go and got up. Dave had a go at a second hill, but it was too loose so we came down and continued on. Most of this track was easygoing, winding around through dry creeks, but there was a nice bit, up a small gorge of sandstone which was a bit tricky, but fun.

We were soon out of the stock route. We then drove along a lot of gravel roads, at one stage following a water pipe line going to the power station. We had lunch in shade in the small town of Linville. After lunch, Big John left us so we were down to three cars.

David took us to another track that took us through a creek seven or eight times. Some of the creek crossings had water in them. Not a bad rally track. This track came out on the Jimna road, then it was on to Kilcoy where we said our goodbyes.

It was a great weekend and a good time was had by all. 0n behalf of everyone a big thanks goes to Kathy for making this trip what it was. We're waiting for next year.

Rik Close SC328