Rabbit Fence & Bald Rock Trip
We met at Macca’s Beaudesert.  Joe and Cheryl were in their outback, Yarney in his Forester who was the Trip leader and Brad with Tony and the kids in their Rodeo.  Dave was in his XT Forester, Phil and Stan in the Hilux and me in my Forester XT (The Tank).
We headed out on the Mt Lindsay Hwy. Before long we had to detour along the Lions Rd due to a landslip up in the mountains. Our first stop was the Rail Loop Lookout. Talking to a gentleman who was taking photos of bell birds, we were told we had missed a freight train by 15 minutes. The engines were through the tunnel while the back hadn’t gone in yet so it had done the full loop.  Back on the road again we had a small detour along the hidden valley road with numerous water crossings.

Yarney decided to get some video of us going through the water and got soaked by Jo in the Outback.

Stan being born and bred in the area knew some of the history and told some stories of the district.
Finally back on the Mt Lindsay Hwy we arrived at the first turn onto the dirt. We drove through our first border gate, continuing along the track we got to a low point where it was a bit boggy so we had to make an alternative route along the fence line. With only a small amount of mud, we all got through except for Dave who had to have a second go. Continuing on we got to the Maryland National Park where we stopped to have lunch by a stream.
With about 9 gates to go through, everyone had a turn of closing the gates.

Driving along we scared a Wedge Tailed Eagle that was in the bushes probably having a feed on something.

With a wingspan of about 1.2 metres it was a big bugger. We stopped to take photos of him in the distance. Reaching the end of that section of the rabbit fence we drove to the Highway and on to Stanthorpe. We stopped to pick up some fruit from a local stall and Jo got some really good pure apple juice.
After that it was onto Bald Rock National Park.  We were all looking forward to getting there. It was around 4 o’clock so it was a lot cooler to do the climb.

We started at an easy pace.

One third of the way up everyone stopped for a break. We all made it up to the top in the end.

Signing the visitor’s book and admiring the stunning view we got our breath back ready for the trek back down. 

Once down, we set off to have dinner at Macca’s in Warwick and then headed back home - it was a big day. It was a great trip and everyone enjoyed it.
Mary Horner