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Thanks to Mark for organising another fun day out. Kathy and I were running late so while the others met up at Beaudesert’s golden arches we went straight to Rathlogan Grove in Rathdowney and met Mark & Arie, Kerry and her friend Steph, Dave & his chauffeur Fiona and his supervisor for the day Chris, Ben & Jane their son Hunter and Lara & Andrew, a new couple interested in joining the club.

Rathlogan Grove is an olive grove with a nice little café that sells coffee and snacks along with olive products and an assortment of other local products such as soap, jewellery & accessories for the home. Once everyone had finished looking around and buying stuff we headed off to see if we could find some dirt.
After turning off the main road too soon but quickly realising our mistake it wasn’t long before we were on a dirt road getting the cars filthy from all the dust. Mark lead us to a lookout showed on his Hema map. We decided not to bother lowering our tyre pressure’s even though it did get quite rough in places. Mark spotted one challenging side track on the way to the lookout that we all had a go at. Fiona & Dave did well to get up it with no locker after Dave’s rear locker sprung a leak and his front didn’t work either.

We had to do a short walk up a hill to get to the lookout that had a great view out across the valley. On the way back down we passed several groups of hikers on their way up the hill making us glad we were in our cars and not on foot.


By the time we drove back down to the flat it was lunch time so we stopped at Waterfall Creek Reserve Camping Ground and had a nice leisurely lunch next to the dry creek. Time was getting on and we still had a long way to go so we packed up and we followed Mark back to the main road and on to White Swamp Road passing Maroon Lake on the way. Along the way we briefly crossed the border into NSW.

Then it was onto Condamine River Rd to do the 14 river crossings. The River Rd wasn’t in very good condition with lots of big potholes all along it. A couple of the river crossings were deepish with the water lapping around the bottom of the doors but everyone got through with no problems. Once through the crossings we stopped briefly to check out a couple of roadside stalls. The first was selling tubs of honey for $15 and you could feed the horses for $5. Nobody was there to collect money, it was just the honour system where you left money in a little box. The second stall sold pumpkins and from here everyone decided to say their goodbye’s and head home as it was getting late.

An old truck at one of our roadside stops.


Kathy and I drove home via Queen Mary Falls and had a quick look at Dag Falls which had a lookout next to the road.


Thanks to everyone who came along and made it a long but enjoyable drive. It is a beautiful part of QLD around that area.

Cheers,

Cos.

Sorry - still working on the photo links. They will be visible shortly
Very nice write-up of the trip report Cos.

I thought I'd share a couple of photos from an angle that others probably won't have been able to take.

Looking at the group, at the look-out, looking at the view (and not a single look-glass in site).


While stopping for lunch, I'm not sure if the parking was politically correct, e.g. all the white cars together in the shade. . But it's ok, it only appears that way due to the brightness and lack of contrast. There is a silver car hiding in the group of "white cars"


It was certainly a nice day trip.

Here's Dave's photos he tried putting up;


The lookout


Our lunch stop

We had a great time as well.

Here are a few photos:

Thanks Mark for organizing this trip. Both Steph & I thoroughly enjoyed it, very relaxing despite more driving for me. The countryside round that area is always very picturesque.

Kez

Thanks for posting the photos for me Cos.

Hi Ben ... unfortunately I can't see your photos. I couldn't get my onedrive photos to display either.