Rocky River

We met at Hungry Jacks Beaudesert at 7.45am Saturday morning. There were 16 cars in tow. It was our biggest trip in a long time.

The crew included:

 Rob & Vicki Noble in their Forester
Morgan in his Subaru Brumby
James in his L series wagon
Rob & Narelle Moulton in their L series wagon
Jan in his Forester
Mary in her Forester
Daza in his Forester
Dave Martin & John McKenna in Dave’s Forester
Kelvin in his Suzuki
Brad in his Rodeo
Phil in his Brumby
Shane in his Outback
John Julie & Justin Shera in his Forester
Will in his L series
Will’s Dad, Marshall in his Mitsubishi 4WD van.
Dibs & Della in their Forester.

This trip started with Daza, Rob & Narelle meeting up with Graeme & Della at their house and travelling to Beaudesert to stay in a motel called the “Anallee” which I thoroughly recommend. The man who runs that place was great.

 Graeme decided to put some water in the washer bottle for the windscreen, (which Della had already done) not watching what he was doing, he put water in the power steering pump! We had to ring Narelle & Rob who were on the way to get them to call into the local servo in Beerwah and pick up some new fluid. While we waited, Daz and Graeme flushed the bottle out. Once fixed, we set off to Beaudesert to meet Mad Mary.

We reached our destination about 3pm and booked into our rooms. We could smell burning oil and noticed Rob had done a CV boot in his car. We then had to find a mechanic to fix it. Fortunately we found a wonderful guy who was willing to take a booking that late on a Friday. He did the job in no time. Mary drove Rob to get his car as the others were getting over the limit. By the time they got back, almost a whole bottle of triple distilled bourbon had been drunk between Daza, Graeme, and Della! Narelle was on the home made rum!

The Railway Hotel was recommended to us for dinner. The meals were amazing and many laughs were had with the publican.

We woke up at 7am and got our things together. As we were celebrating Narelle’s birthday, we stopped at the bakery to pick up a birthday cake. (Thank goodness they had one - and a candle too!)

We met up as planned and Yarney gave us the trip run down. We waited for Will and Marshall who were running a little late, then we all set off.

The drive was spectacular! Della took many photos of the old farmhouses and shacks.

We drove all around the Tabulam area which was amazing. The countryside was so beautiful and people remarked on how amazing some of the old shacks were. We assumed that they were used as weekenders.

We went to an old gold mine called “Lady Empress Mine”.

We followed an overgrown track through the rainforest to get to it. Climbing over large fallen trees and slippery surfaces, Della injured her shoulder. She put it in a sling to take the pressure off. It was better in no time.

We drove on further through the Rocky River area,(we now know why this area is called Rocky River!)

It is amazing and has huge boulders and rocks everywhere which makes it a spectacular sight.

We stopped for lunch at Macleods Creek a very special place for a picnic on a hot summer’s day.

After driving through creek and river crossings, we headed for our campsite. On the way
Dibs & Della were behind Morgan who slid out on one of the corners. It was quite scary as we came around the corner and found him sideways across the road in front of us! Thank goodness he was ok.

We arrived at our camping area and while we pitched the tents, Daza and Graeme went to collect fire wood. The soon returned with two roof baskets full! It was a nice area with a small creek behind us.

That night some people went into the Drake hotel for dinner. Dave Martin and John left us as they had
things to do on Sunday. We sat around the fire having a few drinks and spinning a few yarns. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Narelle and ate cake.

Towards the end of the night people slowly wandered off to their sites and went to bed. As usual
there were some rogues left awake and the laughter began with Rob & his plastic tubing Didgeridoo.
It was a great night, however we did have to go to bed so we didn’t make it too late.

In the morning we said goodbye to John, Julie and Justin as they were leaving to go to the Snowy Mountains.

We left for our day trip through the forest. On the way, not far from where we camped, Yarney spotted a huge hill and – yes, he drove up it!  Dibs and I followed, but I bailed half way. Everyone made it to the top and the view was amazing!

We drove through the forest following a few different tracks, some of them closed off, others with trees across them. We stopped at Girard Fire tower in the Girard State Forest for a break. It had a spectacular 360 degree view.

We went to the Drake Hotel, famous for its world record of the largest number of motorbikes to drive through a bar!

Yarney received a text from Julie to let us know that she had found a tick. Della and Vicky also found ticks on themselves. We said goodbye to Rob and Vicky who were heading home to Ballina. We hit the road again stopping for lunch at Paddy’s Flat. This is another great area to camp.

We headed for home via Tooloom Falls.

We stopped at Beaudesert for dinner, and after saying our goodbyes, we went our separate ways.

All in all, it turned out to be a really good trip and everybody had a great time.

Thanks once again to our Trip leader, Yarney and to all the people involved in the club for putting together such amazing trips.

Dibs & Della