Have had a lovely 10 day safari around this region (about 150kms inland from the Sunshine Coast). We travelled with Kay, Ian, Val and Barry - 5 motorhomes in total.
Kay and Ian are keen bushwalkers and very knowledgable so we learnt and saw a lot. First stop was the tiny town of Linville - a great free camp on a railway walking trail. The following day we drove to Maidenwell and again a free campsite behind the Kings Hotel and next door to the
Maidenwell Astromomical Observatory
On a cloud-free moonless night the visitor can stargaze to their heart's content as the Maidenwell Astronomical Observatory has no street light glow - meaning stars, moon and planets are clear and crisp in the observatory's three big 14-inch computer assisted telescopes.
Well that's what their brochure states ..............unfortunately, whilst we were eating our meal at the Pub, we were interupted by a call for "the person who's parked behind the pub with their lights on to return to their vehicle and douse their lights".........Mr Val had left his exterior LED strip lights on and was causing havoc with the telescopes next door!!
 |
| the lovely campsite at Maidenwell |
The following morning we were up bright and early and headed to Kumbia to another very friendly freecampsite. After a quick lunch we all piled into Laurie & Val's vehicles and drove to the nearby Bunya Mountains. As it's a National Park Timmy and Skye had to remain behind in our motorhomes.
The Bunya Mountains National Park contain the largest stand of ancient Bunya Pines in the world. According to some geological papers Kay had, the mountains were formed some 25 million years ago and are the remains of an old shield volcano (more information on this
here).
We stopped at three camping areas and did short walks from each. Our first stop was Burton's Well where there were many huge grass trees, next stop Westcott which is on the other side of the range with dry rainforest and "
balds". We attempted to walk to the escarpment here but took a wrong turn - never mind, we still had an interesting walk with glimpses over the escarpment.
We then drove up to Paradise, which is aptly named - this side of the range is moist rainforest with immense Bunya Pines (with their soccer sized pine cones - watch out in February and March when they fall), the undergrowth is ferns and epiphytes (air plants) on fallen trees so it's like walking through a lush green world.
