Condamine Gorge and Queen Mary Falls

January 29, 2006

 Having a 2 and a bit hour trip ahead of us to get to the meeting point at Boonah meant a real early start for me but with Dad organizing the drinks and me loading the car it was pretty much straight into it. We were the last to arrive at the meeting point at just after nine and basically straight after the trip briefing was done and we were off.

The trip across the dirt road to the intersection to the Dam was a fun one with Dave Martin setting a nice swift pace. Upon arriving at the dam we had morning tea and for those who wanted to a closer look at the Dam and area.

It was then on to the start of the head road with Jan making a bit of confusion by not waiting at the intersection for the car behind to know the turn off (fine) but once Big John our tail end Charlie pulled up we were off to do the many creek crossings of the head road. There was not a lot of water in the many crossings as Rik managed to cross them all successfully in his RX Liberty wagon which is still at the factory height settings.

At about half road distance we stopped for a photo shoot but just prior to that I had to remove the rear shocks in the MY due to the mount on the driver’s side breaking through on one of the rather deep dry causeways. I have now used that as an excuse to fix the MY up real good, so it is now in lots of pieces with plans set for a 5 speed, long travel rear shocks, new paint and freshened up interior plus a set of King springs for the front. As the motor has recently been rebuilt it will be a while before the EJ ends up as a power plant.

Upon arrival at Queen Mary Falls it was declared lunch time and we all sat down and had lunch, with the number of Suby’s in the one spot it wasn’t long before we had a few people inquiring about them. Once lunch was downed it was off to walk out to the lookouts of the falls and take some piccys.

It was then time to load up and head out back down the range to Boonah, on the way we stopped at the lookout to the highest Mountain in Qld, which was high enough to make it feel a little cool outside. Ron Penfold filled those gathered in on some of the history around the area, then a final stop to see a waterfall on the way down the range. I amused many following the MY with its boat like handling on the run down the range.

Arriving at the Junction of the road heading back into Boonah, there were a small group who headed off for some extra tripping and for the rest we went home. Another member of our group used this time to tighten his tail shaft bolts up as he had forgotten to tighten them prior to starting the trip.

See you tripping.

Dave Gibson SC574