Finally, we're out of Brisbane, and head west 300km to the cool Bunya Mountains National Park.
Well, we didn't get out of Brisbane as early as we liked. The Landcruiser, now all nicely hopped up and looking like a 'small-penis' car, needed a few more things finished up--the wiring for the fridge, in particular. So we ducked into town for an hour, bought a cool HEMA map set of twelve 4WD destinations like Fraser Island, Cape York, and the Kimberley, and then picked up the car. Finally, we've left Brisbane, headed towards Toowoomba and the Bunya Mountains.
I had this image of Toowoomba as this windswept town on a plain, like Dubbo or Amarillo, Texas... but as I drove closer and closer, and the mileage posts said it was only 20km, 15km away... I saw this huge ridgeline in front of us, more a mountain range... and I wondered if we were tunneling through it. Nope! We drove up it, to 700m elevation (about 2200 feet), and there was Toowoomba, green and lush on the edge of the escarpment. It was quite a shock. Very leafy and pleasant, not one of those squinty windy dusty towns. We did lunch at, well, the food court at the mall, and picked up dinner supplies.
Then we drove towards the Bunyas, stopping first at Jendobyne Wool shearing shed. They said it was the largest still operational shearing shed and pioneer village... but the woman at the desk said we missed the tour, but we could have a wander around for a mere $12.95 each. Uh, no thanks. We politely declined, watched the short consolation video in the lobby, bought a fridge magnet, and scooted.
The Bunyas aren't an abrupt mountain range like many here; they have a fair amount of foothills in the south with dry sheltered valleys. This is where you'll find the Rimfire winery, where we sampled some of their wares. The shiraz was decent, I liked the sticky black muscat, the curious liqueur verdehlo was a must-buy, and Chris just had to get a bottle of mead. Despite the location--about the latitude of Brisbane, equivalent to Orlando, Florida--Rimfire isn't the northernmost winery in Australia. There's one near Gladstone, and another in the Atherton Tableland west of Cairns.
We then popped up the mountain. We came to the Bunya Mountains to see bunya pines--the plant affectionately known as "Spike" that sits on our front porch in San Jose is a bunya pine. There are also many old bunya pines around farmhouses in California, as they were fashionable in the 1880s. Nowadays, those old bunya pines are forming the characteristic umbrella shape, dropping almost all their lower branches, and developing huge 10kg cones that you wouldn't want to be under when they drop! I've heard the city of Riverside California has a whole street lined with them, and every third year or so when the bunya pines fruit the city has to cone off the street, so to speak, so cars don't get smashed by these cones dropping from 20m above!
Bunya pines are members of the araucaria family of conifers, like Norfolk Island pines and monkey puzzle trees. Hoop pines are another member, and here in the Bunya mountains I expected to see a scattered woodland of hoop pines, with bunyas higher up. But that's not what it's like at all! After driving an hour or so through progressively drier landscape west of Toowoomba, then up the southern slopes of the Bunyas, the eucalypts got thicker... and then suddenly the road went through rain forest, with bunya pines intermixed with hoop pines and typical dense rainforest growth. And it was cold, too--while this is subtropical rainforest, the temperature at the ranger station last night was 9C and the high was 15C. Brrr, I thought this was Queensland! No wonder the campground is empty; people in Brisbane were wearing scarves and gloves when it was 17C out.
So we checked into our comfy cabin, lit a fire, broke out the Old El Paso soft taco kit, and Chris made a nice dinner... I was amused to see that the back of taco kit suggested 'why not try a taco with avocado sauce next time?' It's not guacamole--it's avocado sauce here!
Anyway, we're off to bed. Think we'll do a 10km walk tomorrow... with our long sleeved shirts and fleece and long pants.