We are thinking of getting our car done up a bit like this – but without the spelling mistake, obviously! Maybe in lime green or lurid pink!
Fish and chips at the Boat Shed at Cotton Tree while frisby is in session.
And back home for a typical day with the youngsters…
We are off to Coolum Beach. We can’t stand all the electromagnetic waves being generated around the kitchen table!
It’s one of those “crowded” beaches. Slightly crowded for the first 50 metres from the carpark and partly occupied out to about 100 metres. Then you get virtually solo occupancy for the next five kilometres. There’s lots of evidence of the recent coastal erosion with tall sand cliffs over long distances.
While we were walking, we noticed a cargo ship lurking offshore. The “Find Ship” app. confirmed it was indeed lurking and had been for a while. Presumably awaiting her turn at the wharves in Brisbane. It was the “Morning Calm” and it’s track looked like that of a demented jellyfish!
It’s time for another foray into the hinterland. We have been invited to stay with Steve and Marie in Samford a few kms outside the Greater Brisbane area. We met them many years ago in Tasmania. And we are still bothering them! This was one of those days where the weather was very localised. And looking back north from Campbell’s Pocket Road, the Glasshouse Mountains are visible in front of a bit of serious rainfall. Over Keils Mountain! Where we have just come from. And we were in pleasant sunshine. Result!
Our hosts live in a luxury retirement village with fabulous facilties. A coffee shop, a restaurant (we had a lovely snack lunch there), a library (Steve is working his way through the entire collection systematically. He’s got to the 25th book (“Sirens”) in the 6th compartment reading from the left end!) …
… a gym, a twenty one seat theatre …
… and swimming pool – all on site.
Superb! Samford village is a short walk out of the back gate, and farming land five minutes walk the other way.
To get to the field with horses involved crossing a bridge showing serious damage sustained in the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred. Quite a few bits were missing or bent!
Samford Creek is normally a placid steam, but evidence of accumulated branches in trees round about indicated that the water level must have been at least three metres above normal.
Marie cooked a lovely chicken curry for us all. Excellent! This was followed by an “interesting” selection of traditional Australian films. The content of which should remain confidential, but will it? Probably not! The first was “The Adventures of Barry McKenzie” starring Barry Humphries. The second was “Sirens” which was very “interesting” in a totally different direction!!! We had to endure the WHOLE film!!! Lucky we are all over 18! I’m going to have to rethink my views about retirement villages and the residents thereof! Just saying!
Typically, we had decided to not rush home the following morning. We negotiated a cash deal for a night in another wild country property in the hills behind Ocean View. Almost unseen and with no booking reference. Possibly a bit risky! With time on our hands, leaving Samford, we headed south into the forest. We have been reliably informed that there is a walking and cycling trail in them there trees. It’ll be a disused railway line, I’m sure. But first we have to find an access point. We need to geo-locate a carpark beside a tennis court with a locked and padlocked toilet block. We found it on the third pass!
The access path, at almost a kilometre, was a little longer than expected. (I was going to say “anticipated” but that might have been an incorrect use of the word!) It did eventually lead onto the Rail Trail. The Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. The long distance track which runs from Wulkuraka near Ipswich to Yarraman a distance of 161 kms. We don’t really have time to complete the whole thing, so we skipped the first 60 or so kms.
The first thing we discovered was that we needed a couple of horses.
On the whole trail, and quite possibly adjacent territory along the valley, horses have absolute priority over pedestrians AND bicycles. Walkers can only trump cyclists. Maybe someone should tell the speedy two-wheelers! Horses would make travelling easier and much quicker!
Our schedule (on foot) says that we should arrive in Yarraman about 7 pm. 7 pm, the day after next! But we had forgotten the sandwiches, so we bailed out once we had gone far enough to be able to say we walked (on) the trail!
We then returned to Samford and took highway 31 to Mt. Glorious, via Mt. Nebo. We had imagined that the café at the summit of Glorious would have spectacular views. Glorious views even!. But it was completely surrounded by trees. No outlook at all, let alone a view! So we kept going another 15 kms to the Wivenhoe Lookout.
Here are two views of a distant Wivenhoe Dam – one partly obscured and one uninterrupted. On the viewing platform we met another John – a very popular name! This one was, or had been, a retained fireman responsible for safety operations of the fire service throughout Queensland. At least, his responsibilities lay in that area. He was also a part time Renault service engineer and collector of old and, in his words, “not worth stealing” cars. Earlier in our conversation, I had commented on our concern about the safety of the parking lot, because someone had abandoned an old Renault there! That didn’t offend him – in fact he seemed quite proud of his strategy!
By the time we retreated to the carpark, we had got quite a full life history. How he was planning to desert Brisbane (too busy) for Warwick. (Toowoomba was too expensive and Stanthorpe too cold!)
We also now know about the hazards of Viton seals in car engine fires. They are apparently replacements for silicone rubber seals. ln a fire, they can generate hydrogen fluoride and, potentially, hydrofluoric acid. This is a highly corrosive liquid, capable of causing severe burns to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. Not only that, but the fluoride ion in the HF can be absorbed into the bloodstream and bind to calcium, leading to systemic toxicity and potential damage to tissues, including bones. The moral of this story is that cars which are on fire should be avoided. Probably sensible on several levels, but, I guess that’s not an option for firemen!
The other moral would be not to talk to strange Johns!
OK. So that’s Mt Glorious fully explored. There’s really only one sensible way out – and that’s back to Samford again! Back round the 250 bends and curves. I counted them. But I did take a phone call from our host-to-be, and I can’t steer, count bends and talk on the phone all at the same time. So we need to add five minutes worth of bends to the total!
Now we are about to find out the wonders of our country accommodation. In the backwaters of Ocean View. Front and back garden views!
The bedroom had a charm of it’s own! With three Cadillacs beside the bed!
Real aircraft carrier style monsters!
Actually, I can’t tell a lie. Well, perhaps a bit! Sometimes! But in this case, I have to admit, those photos were taken in our host’s apartment one floor down! He was a real character. The cars had amazing provenance. Apparently, one belonged to F. D. Roosevelt and President Bush rode in another. It turned out that our host had something of an athletic background. He had been a triathlete in his youth. And he had an amazing collection of sporting memorabilia.
Including, a shirt signed by all the players in an early State of Origin rugby league match. An annual clash between the Queensland and New South Wales State teams. And there were dozens of similar framed mementos of all sorts of sporting and cultural events hanging all round the bedroom-garage!
Moving swiftly on …
Driving away from our lodgings, we needed a coffee. Five kms up the road, we stopped at the Ocean View Estate. A Vineyard with a restaurant and coffee bar. But it was shut till 11.30. Over an hour away. Retreat! On the way out of the estate we saw a gallery. So, obviously we stopped for a nosey! It transpired that the gallery was actually a museum. A museum of mathematics. “Mathema”. UNBELIEVABLE! In the middle of nowhere – a stunning exhibition of mathematics.
It has explanations of how the Aztecs, ancient Egyptians, Incas and a host of other ancient civilizations managed their finances, tax returns and building projects. It has quizzes for the younger generations and toys and puzzles for everyone. Far too complicated to explain here. I highly recommend you check out www.MathemaGallery.com.au. Save me blathering on about it. Let’s just say that by the time we left, the estate coffee shop had opened and closed. Lunch was almost finished!
A final exhibit was a statue in the garden. “The Hand of Plato”. The significance of this had to be explained to us. A Platonic solid (of which there are five) is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent regular polygons, and the same number of faces meet at each vertex. Keep up! Clearly these are not to be confused with Archimedean solids which (as everyone knows) belong to a class of convex polyhedra, or 3D shapes, that are formed by regular polygons, but NOT all of the same type.
After all that intellectual excitement, we really do need a drink. A further five minutes up the road we found the Pit Stop café. Another unique place. Australia does have ’em! The view inside was spectacular! Biking and motoring miscellania covered every inch (centimetre) of the walls and ceiling.
The view outside wasn’t half bad either. Brisbane was clearly visible on the horizon. It was almost possible to see The Hand of Plato. Well, it would be if we could see into the valley behind us!
The final surprise of the day – surely there can’t be any more weird things to find on the way home – was “The Place To Be Café”. At Delany’s Creek just short of the township of D’Aguilar. This place is overrun with pigs. Big ones…
Like this one metre tall lady – and little ones …
I counted 250+ (really) and later found another 25 or so outside in the front garden. According to her husband, the lady proprietor was a lover of pigs. Pigs of all sizes, shapes and colours. Well that is a surprise! Customers often set their five year olds the task of counting them while they have their lunch and an afternoon nap in peace. I feel right at home! But I bet I saw more porkers than any five year old!
I reckon it would be a challenge to find another such eclectic collection of random places in such a short section of country road anywhere else in the universe. But then again, that’s a big place, so it is just possible!
Now, own up… who has just been searching for the film “Sirens” on the internet?