Brisbane and Charlotte's Birthday

Our little girl is seven, how scary, she's a little lady now.  She has been so excited leading up to this day.  She had worried that seeing she had left her friends and family back home in Tassie that she wouldn't have a very good birthday party, luckily she was wrong. 
We started the day by opening her presents with Carly and Sophi.  Charlotte got spoilt rotten by us and everyone else who sent parcels for her.  She was very happy and pleased with everything she was given.  Then we walked the girls to school.   We were mean and made her do some school work then she spent the rest of the day playing with her new things and waiting for the girls to get home.

Mark bought Charlotte a Ukulele, and gosh she was pleased.

We took Charlotte, Jake, Carly and Sophi to Mini Mates, which is a miniature horse riding school.  They got to riding, groom and feed the horses.  The kids had a ball.  Even Jake was a cowboy and had a few rides.  Charlotte just loved it, and am thinking she now wants a pony of her own!   Charlotte chose to go to McDonald's for tea then we went back to Meg and Lee's for cake.  I made an attempt at a horse cake with a lot of help from Meg, thanks.  Charlotte had a very happy birthday.

We managed to catch up with my good friend Jess Smith who I went to high school with years ago.  Who whenever we're near her place we always try to pop in and catch up on each others lives.  A great night, yummy curries and good company.  Kids had fun with Jessie, as they call her, watching E.T. for the first time.  They certainly had plenty of questions to ask Jess about the movie!!!



Canungra

Whilst we were at Mount Barney we met another family on holidays who were from Queensland.  They suggested we head to Tamborine Mountain and O'Reilly's near Canungra on the way back to Brisbane, so we did.  We set up base for the night at the Canungra showgrounds, then headed to check out Tamborine Mountain.  It's this really pretty drive up this windy mountain, and much to our amusement in the middle of no where there is suddenly this traffic light.  The road narrows and was only one lane, hence the need for a traffic light.
From the top of Mt Tamborine you get these most amazing views.  From one side you can look over the Gold Coast and the ocean.  From the other side you get a gorgeous view over the hinterland and mountain ranges.  We got there late in the day which was a pain.  Then we spent half an hour looking for the local brewery only to get there to find it was an amazing looking place but was shut.  You can imagine what Mark was like, he even went up and looked sadly in the window.  We had a bit more of a drive around.  Watched the sun set over the mountain then headed out for tea.
We had driven past an Irish pub earlier and Mark was adamant he wanted to go there for tea.  Turns out it was a great little pub and we had a tasty tea.  It sits up on the hill and looks great at night all lit up.  Mark has since proclaimed that he would love to buy it and run it, thank god its not for sale and we have no money!  It's called Clancy's for anyone who's ever in the area.

Someone was rude enough to graffiti the sign, am guessing they were kept waiting a while!

Looking out at the Goldie

Looking back towards Mt Barney

Mark's new pub

This is us set up at Canungra showgrounds. Kids had time for a bit of bike riding.  We've been busy trying to teach Jake to ride without training wheels, which he can do now but lacks confidence.  Won't be long though.

We got up early the next day and set off for O'Reilly's.  It's this great area on top of the mountain right next door to a hotel.  The drive up is a real goat track, sealed but windy.  You get almost to the top then your going through this gorgeous forest.  We went for a walk along the board walk and through to the tree top walk.  It's a bit like the Tahune Airwalk in Tassie but this is free. The local community all chipped in donations to build it, they even wrote the donors names on each plank.   You walk along these suspended walk ways until you get to this giant tree. Then you can climb up these ladders to the top of the tree.  The view from the top is amazing, according to Mark and Charlotte.  Jake got scared half way up and wouldn't go any further.   

One of many fabulous views as we travelled up to O'Reilly's

Charlotte has discovered that she really isn't afraid of anything anymore, she is such an awesome girl.

Jake and me half way up the tree.

The view from the top of the tree

There is a bird feeding area at O'Reilly's and all these lovely Rosella's all fly down and land on you, much to my horror.  I have a phobia about birds flapping near my head.  But I was very brave and got used to it in the end. The kids were at least smart and wore hats!!  It was pretty awesome though.



O'Reilly's is named after Bernard O'Reilly who in 1937 rescued two survivors of an aeroplane crash.  The authorities had already conducted a search but had been unable to find the men, so Bernard decided to head into the forest to find them himself and succeeded. 

A monument at O'Reilly's

We had such a great day at O'Reilly's we could have spent so much more time there but it was Charlotte's birthday the next day and we had things to do.  On our drive home the kids asked to listen to one of their favourite songs about the Wonky Donkey.  Just as I put it on we went past a paddock of donkeys, it was so weird.  So of course we had to pull over to play the song to the donkeys and to give them a pat.

I was walking down the road when i saw a donkey, heehaw!!!

The Scenic Rim in southern Queensland really is a beautiful area and well worth a visit if your in Queensland.  We are so glad we did.  Good bye Canungra, hello Brisbane and Charlotte's seventh birthday.

Mount Barney Lodge

My brother James recommended Mount Barney Lodge to us.  It's about an hour inland between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.  Its an eco friendly lodge and camping area on a lovely acreage right next to a river.  We set up camp next to an under cover picnic area (very handy).  It was incredibly scenic, sitting out front of the van overlooking the bush.
There is this great flowing small river that runs from Yellow Pinch reserve down past the lodge.  We had quite a few walks along beside it.  There is a waterhole, that on a summers day would be gorgeous, they even have a rope swing, maybe we'll have to head back in summer.  I had so much fun with the kids at the river.  It reminded me of a place near where we lived one year at Edith Creek when I was 9.  Am sure my siblings would remember, we used to play down there exploring and making up tales of finding tasmanian tigers!  I made up this story for Jake and HCarlotte, that there were these creatures called 'fire farting dragon bears' and 'duckasaurus' that lived by the river.  We could hear them, but never seemed to actually see any.  We played a lovely game of throwing 'boats' of sticks down the river and chasing them to see where they ended up.  It was a great area to hang out with the kids.  They were learning about maps for school so I made up treasure hunts for them and hide there morning tea as the reward at the end, they loved it.  It was so nice to just play with the kids, these simple but so much fun games.

Doing school work at Rathdowney at a picnic ground as there was no reception at Mt Barney

Mark reading the plaque on top of the hill at Rathdowney

Just one of many gorgeous views

Of course we found plenty of time for camp fires and marsh mellows, for the kids of course.

It entertained the kids no end to shine a torch up at there faces and pretend to be monsters

We asked the staff at the lodge for some ideas on walks to do with the kids.  They suggested Yellow Pinch Reserve, so we decided to give it a go.  Boy was it a full day.  We headed of with this very basic simple map and a few instructions, they said it would take three hours but took us almost five hours. First you walk up this old 4wd track then cut up this path to yellow pinch mountain, its a pretty steep rocky climb to the top but had amazing views of Mount Barney.  Then you walk back down and go around the base of the mountain and follow the river home.  Sounds easy, but not so.  The river was easy enough to see, but the path wasn't, we kinda made our own path.  Took a fair bit of climbing over rocks and bush bashing.  We had a picnic lunch by the river and rested for a while before heading off again.   Poor Jakey right at  the end he declared that 'this is the worst day of my life'  he soon perked up though when we spotted the landcruiser.  The kids did such a wonderful job, there little legs would have been exhausted.

One of the rock pools

Lunch time and the kids are smiling

We spent a fair bit of time hanging around the camp reading books and relaxing.  It was beautiful during the day but so so cold at night.  They had no power for us and we weren't allowed to use our generator and it got down to the minuses over night!

Hunting for treasure

The view of Mount Barney from a hill behind the lodge

Mark grew up with dairy cattle so he was keen for the kids to have an understanding of this so we decided to take them to a local dairy.  Was a great afternoon, the farms run by an old couple, their daughter and her three kids who were about Jake  and Charlotte's age.  We got to see and milk the cows, which the kids loved.  The kids who live on the  farm also did a talk on cow bones for the kids, was very humorous. 

Hand milking the cows

Feeding the cows

The bone talk from the farm kids

Making cream

Beautiful sunset

The kids and Mark very super keen to check out the local Alpaca farm, me not so much, their kinda weird looking and they spit!  But I begrudgingly went along, and turns out it was a lovely little place run by the dynamite old girl who was tough as and called a spade a spade. We got to feed and pat the Alpacas, learn all about them and where they come from.  I didn't even see one spit at all!  I think they were pretty well trained, I wouldn't dare step out of line with that old bird, she even had Jake behaving.   



The old girl had even built a replica of a traditional old hut.

We thought it best to take the kids on another bush walk, while they had memories of such a tough walk.  We took them to Queen Mary falls about an hour or so from Mount Barney.  We had a picnic lunch at the reserve area then headed off on our very long bush walk.  Much to the kids delight it only took us an hour and was a really easy walk.  You walk through the bush down hill until you are at the base of the water falls, pretty specie.

Our little bush walkers

Queen Mary Falls

Gorgeous view from a little cafe on the hill where we stopped for afternoon tea

We had such a great time at Mount Barney plenty of time for adventure and relaxing, would be even better in the summer I would think.  We off to Canungra next them back to Brisbane.