After leaving Gilgandra we made a beeline for the Queensland border so we could be close to Brisbane to pick up our little darlings. A search for camping not too far from Brisbane but also reasonably close to the Granite Belt of southeast Queensland yielded the Bigriggen Park, which boasts bush camping and a great environment for kids. We liked it so much when we arrived that we decided to book an extra night. Here's a photo of our camp set-up, with the kids' tent pitched under our bed (some might say a bit too close for comfort!):
The camping was great, with lots of room for the kids to run around.
We did one walk to the top of Mt Edwards from Lake Moogerah. Asha, full of beans, was the star of this walk, going to the top twice: once with me and once with Di. There wasn't a lot to photograph but I did make one picture of this interesting fungi which had grown around a leaf ...
From Bigriggen we moved to Stanthorpe for a couple of nights so we could visit Bald Rock National Park. (In retrospect we wished we'd gone to camp there, but we couldn't get any info on the camping and we thought, like the campgrounds at Giraween, it would be full during the school holidays.)
On the way through the Border Ranges we stopped for lunch at a little town called Bonalbo, where the kids also burnt off a bit of energy stored up in the car ...
Our little hike to the top of Bald Rock was fabulous, with wonderful views on a stunning spring day. Here's a photo of Di and the kids near the top of the peak ...
On the drive back we passed this amusing sculpture ...
A fantastic wind had come up by the time we got back to Stanthorpe so after lunch we got out the kids' kites and flew them both right out to the end of their strings. Asha and Zae were just a bit nervous about the kites being so high in the sky so we reeled them back in before they vanished into the stratosphere.
The next day we shifted to Girraween, where we had managed to snag just a couple of days at the end of our week with Asha and Zae. It was a scintillating day when we arrived so we wasted no time getting camp set up and then walking to the top of the Pyramid and back. We took a few photos along the way, but my favourite is probably this one ...
On our last full day at Girraween we hiked to the top of Castle Rock and then along to have a look at Turtle Rock. Although it was a bit showery and cool, the kids didn't complain at all and we had great fun scampering to the top of Castle Rock and tip-toeing back down dodging the puddles. As you can see if you look closely at the next photo, the spring flowers are starting to come out ...
The irises are especially beautiful just at the moment ...
After dropping the kids back at the airport we stopped in at Scarborough for a visit with our friends Max and Prue, enjoying dinner with them and their extended family. The next morning before leaving we went for brunch with them and Nev and Dot, who were also down in Tassie last summer for a "rendezvous".
While it would have been nice to join Max and Prue for an upcoming camping trip we really wanted to start our slow journey south and do a bit more riding in new territory, so we headed off across the border to Kingscliff. We had a terrific ride there through some lovely rolling terrain. You know you can only be in Australia when you see signage like this ...
Yesterday we moved further south to the quaint little town of Bellingen, where we are currently camped in the showgrounds. Today we had a very interesting ride. Some quite rough sealed roads; a bit of dirt; despite no long hills, quite a lot of up and down and then, finally, a lovely descent back into the heart of the town. Here's a photo of Di getting to the top of one of the hills on the gravel section of our ride ...
... and another of her relaxing back at camp reading a novel on the iPad ...
We hope to do another ride in the morning before leaving to head further south to our friends Graham and Liz in Bonnells Bay. The weather looks good, let's hope the legs are willing.
Here's a map showing the territory we've covered since our last post ...
We're not quite sure exactly where we're headed after Bonnells Bay, but we'll be in wonderful Wagga Wagga in a week and a half. How we get there remains to be seen ...
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