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.