VanDijkTrack

After visiting Cania Gorge, we travelled to Mudlo National Park. On our way we crossed the beautiful landscapes of North Burnett with creative patterns of (dry) brown grass and green trees. Along the Burnett River, near Gayndah, the oldest town in Queensland (1849) we visited McConnell’s lookout (350km north west of Brisbane). A steep road brought us to the top of the mountain where we could get a good overview of the area. Along the river it was much greener than elsewhere. Later that day we discovered that many of the green spots were fields with orange trees.

In this situations it is impressive how quiet it can be on such nice locations. Again we were the only visitors here.

After arriving at Mudlo National Park we had a picnic and walked the Mudlo gap track through a high density bush. A steep path was finally bringing us to the Pearsons Lookout.

From between the trees at Pearsons Lookout we had a nice view and took some rest. Then we walked back to our car and went home.

In the next weekend we went to a park in Eatons Hill with a playground and a athletics track. Here Nicole could practice some skating. Since we are in Australia Nicole didn’t use her skates this intense. Jorick had to learn to ride his bike without the side-wheels. Since it’s very hilly in our living area, there are not so many opportunities to learn cycling around our home.

Also in this park you have to keep your dog on leash and bags are provided at the entrance to clean up the poop of your dog. Not a bad idea.

Kind regards,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick

The kids had a short winter holiday. After Jan went with them to the  theater play “Beauty and the Beast”  in the Fame Theater (our cultural experiences are  limited here) we got packed for a trip to Cania Gorge National Park around 500 km north of Brisbane and Mudlo National Park, around 300 km from Brisbane.

The Big4 Caravan Park Cania Gorge had a few cabins available so we made a reservation in their online reservation system, provided credit card details and got a confirmation. Nevertheless, on the day of arrival we got a message that no cabin was available for us. We were surprised and asked the lady to help us finding an alternative solution, but she got very cranky. She didn’t help us, we should have known that it was busy, shouldn’t have used the online reservation system because they weren’t connected to it (how could we know)and it was our fault after all. We found it weird, but didn’t want to get in a bad mood. After looking around we were happy to find an alternative in Monto Three Moon Motel where we stayed two nights and got treated very well.

Although Canarvon Gorge is still our favorite, also Cania Gorge showed to be a beautiful National Park. We first drove to Lake Cania at the beginning of the gorge. From there we made a walk to the Shamrock mine site. Unfortunately we didn’t find any gold there, so we went to a local barbeque site, played soccer and tennis and enjoyed sunset. We stayed the night in our motel in Monto.

The following day we started with the short Big Foot walk (1 km) leading to a colored rock in the shape of a big foot. Next it was time for the Fern Tree Pool and Giants Chair circuit (5.6 km). The whole area was very dry and the Fern Tree Pool didn’t contain much water. Then we went to the Giants Chair Lookout.

Again it was time to rest, for a barbeque and a little play before we started the track to the Dragon Cave and the Gorge Lookout.

On our way to the Dragon Cave we saw some beautiful plants like the Silver Eilkhorns. In the cave Nicole found another hand stencil form the aboriginals. Next was the track to the Gorge Lookout.

Finally we ended our day with some soccer. It was a beautiful quiet environment and our play was stimulated by the sounds of many birds and some kangaroos watching from a distance. When it got dark we drove to Monto, had dinner and a good night sleep.

The next day we went to Mudlo National Park (Kikivan). We’ll update you soon.

Cheers,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick