50-cent Fun - Gatton about!

Most of our 50-cent adventures so far have been toward the Coast, usually along the one train line. Today's was a bit trickier.  We caught an 8:24am train to Rosewood, then a 9:03am bus through to Gatton.

We've been to Gatton a number of times previously but always by car, so it was nifty to see a bit more countryside when travelling by bus.  One of the highlights was spotting so many Whistling-ducks at the University of Queensland campus!

We arrived in Gatton very close to 10:00am.  There was an agricultural supply store adjacent the station, with chooks for sale!

Gatton has three opshops in a row along the main street, so we checked for bargains before strolling further. 

I'd checked for geocaches before leaving home.  We enjoyed walking over to it, before stopping in a park for some morning tea - and pondering what to do next.

It was a bit of a walk back to the station, or up to the Cultural Centre - which had a nicer outlook for our lunch picnic.  

There was a bus stop about 800m from where we were but a long delay before the next bus.  We opted to walk up to the Cultural Centre, with Nick carrying my bag most of the way.

The Cultural Centre houses the library, art gallery and a transport museum - as well as a cafe.  We looked through the current exhibition and decided to save visiting the museum for another day.

Lunch was necessary by that stage and we found a picnic table looking out over the lake, with some purple swamp hens for company!  There were so many birds - and the lake was a lot more full than it had been on our last vist.  There'd be some upgrades to the paths and other tables, which became evident when we walked around, before catching the 2:37pm bus back to Rosewood station.  We got home a bit after 4:30pm, very pleased with our bargain day out!

Morning tea and lunch were self-catered.  Drinks and snacks are bought on special, especially for our 50-cent adventure outings. Our 200ml insulated bottle is a new purchase, spotted at Kmart for $6.00.  It's just the right size for milk and now has extra can cooler insulation.

We walked about 6.5km in total.  The distance from home to Gatton is 58.5km. Local diesel is $1.76 per litre today. A return drive would have cost around $18.90.

I've checked my GoCard history and it seems the total cost for my journey was 50-cents!  I made sure to tap on/off at all the changes but was expecting to pay 50-cents each way, not in total. Bargain!

50-cent Fun - Happy Queensland Day (and Night)!

Queensland Day is celebrated on 6 June, being the anniversary of the state's separation from New South Wales in 1859.

To date, our 50-cent adventures have been day trips, departing our local station about 8am and heading back home from the city around 2pm.

Our Queensland Day adventure was prompted by a free ticket offer to the Croc! exhibition - and we do love a freebie!  I booked 2pm tickets and we set off from home after a quick toasted sandwich lunch.

Please note how appropriately attired we were for our Croc! appreciation!

The exhibition was very interesting and we spent an hour or so there, as well as more time in the general access museum exhibits.

We travelled a lot lighter for this adventure, having decided to dine out using a First Table discount offer.  

Afternoon tea was necessary and we sourced that at Southbank, sharing some sweet potato fries with our tea and coffee.  (We closely guarded our chippies after an ibis pinched someone else's battered fish fillet)!  

We had a couple of hours before our dinner booking, so walked down to the river and cruised on a CityCat - always a favourite activity.  We thought there was enough time to do a full river loop but we were wrong!

Even though we changed ferries as soon as we realised our error, we were well and truly late for our reservation - fully expecting the discount offer to be invalid.  The staff were so lovely and happy to honour our bargain offer.

We dined very well, then headed back down to the river for another cruise, for full appreciation of the city lights. 

Landmarks across the state will light up maroon on QLD Day to celebrate.

Neither of us had consciously worn maroon but were a bit chuffed with ourselves to be very on-theme for the day! I'd put on an extra thermal top before dinner, and thought to include a wool wrap for cruising.  I used it as a knee rug for some extra warmth, cos we sat outside most of the time. The lights were so pretty and it was fun to see the maroon-lit landmarks.  

It was close to midnight when we started heading back to Central Station - and we arrived home after 1am!  What an excellent bargain adventure!

How much of a bargain was it?  Our inbound fares were 50c each. The exhibition tickets were free as part of QLD Day - saving us $58.00.  We spent $25.00 for afternoon tea.  The pre-dinner ferry cruise was 50c each (for about 2 hours).  Dinner was $102.00 for booking fee, two courses and two glasses of wine - saving $57.00.  Our post-dinner cruise and train ride home was just another 50c each!

We spent a total of $3.00 for fares and $127.00 on dining - after saving $105.00, all up.  $130.00 for 13 hours of fun - hooray for us!

Edited to add notes regarding fuel and parking cost comparisons - the return distance from the Museum is 77km. Local diesel is currently $1.99, so the fuel cost would be just over $15.00. 

We often pay a flat-rate of $18.00 to park near the Museum but that carpark closes at midnight. (A 24-hour access carpark would have charged $35.00).  So there were additional savings of  $33.00 or $50.00, depending on carpark choice.

Fire appreciation!

I invited friends to enjoy a fire appreciation evening a few weeks back, which sparked (hah!) the purchase of a new fire pit - cos ours had rusted through (after nearly three years of excellent service).  The replacement was a $50.00 Facebook marketplace find, with a welded safety edge and legs.  How good is that?

We still had plenty of firelighters and wood from our Byron Bay weekend, as well as some old furniture pieces from a recent clean-up.  We dined on BBQ-ed sausages, corn on the cob, "space potatoes" (baked in foil) and a lovely salad made by our guests.

Nick and I achieved our 700th geocaching find during the week, so dessert was a celebratory cake (in fire theme) - after some giant marshmallow toasting.  Once all the cooking was done, we added magic flame packs to the fire and admired all the pretty colours.

We had giant sparklers as a finale but Mr Dog was very weird with those - and seemed to think he needed to protect everyone.  (Well, I assume all the barking and dashing about was due to alarm.  He was definitely excited and not in a good way, so we put the pack away again)!  

It was a great night and really enjoyed sharing it with friends.  Now that the weather is cooler, there may be opportunity for another evening under the stars in the not-too-distant future.  We might even drag the camper trailer out for some backyard camping - maybe!

I found lots of cake inspiration by googling "free printable campfire cupcake toppers".  After all the browsing I decided on one larger cake, dusted with icing sugar "ash". I used a mix of lollies and biscuits for the fire. The coals were orange, red and brown smarties as well as raspberry jelly sweets.  The firewood was Arnott's TeeVee Snacks Malt Sticks and some thinner chocolate Pocky sticks.

Exhibition rocks!

Even though the focus of our recent Canberra trip was to visit the Botticelli to Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery (!), we were also approaching 700 geocaching finds and wanted to increase our tally while away.

There were caches quite close to our accommodation but this site seemed more interesting and we set off to find it.  

The information at the site described William Branwhite Clarke as the father of Australian geology.  His research formed the basis of the first geological map of New South Wales, published in 1880.  (We'd visited the National Library the previous day and wondered whether some of his maps may have been held there).  

From the creek we walked along the Majura Cycleway, a lot further than we intended - and we were very pleased an Uber driver responded to our pick-up request, quite near the Australian Federal Police training centre.  It was mid-afternoon by the time we made it back to our room (after stopping at a shopping centre for late lunch) and we needed a nap before our evening attendance at the Van Gogh exhibition!  (By the end of the day we'd walked more than 10km and a radox bath was greatly appreciated).

I've done a bit more research about Woolshed Creek since returning home.  I found this article.  We actually drove past the shale/sandstone uncomformity en route to the National Gallery!

Lake Broadwater

I've seen the turn-off for Lake Broadwater on other trips, when detouring wasn't an option (due to time issues or because we were travelling with Bandit).  I'm glad we deviated this trip.  Even in the rain, it was a lovely spot.

There were a few soggy roos about and quite a lot of birds to entertain us.

We had thought we might dine at the "bottom pub" on our second night in Jandowae but opted to stay in, enjoy our splendid cheese platter - and play Super Scrabble!

We chose a picnic table near the water and set up to boil the kettle.  (Nick's good work on the stove the previous day meant it worked wonderfully, which was great).

I set out the leftover cheese platter goodies, so we had quite a flash picnic.  The crows were very keen to share our supplies.  One in particular was a pate fan - he/she was not at all impressed when offered sundried tomato as an alternative! Nick had left the tailgate down and needed to shut that again - cos two crows were on a mission to get in the back and rummage through our stuff! 

Soggy Sunday ...

It was a smooth pack-up on Sunday morning, albeit a damp one. We left a little after 10:00am, so as to have a last, quick look around town before starting the drive home.  I took a few pics (in the light rain).

The pink building is the Club Hotel (or "top pub").  It was the first two-storey construction in the town, though no longer seems to be in operation.

Bell beauty ...

We found ourselves at Bell later in the afternoon.  I used the public toilet in the park and spotted a sign inviting visitors to view the church murals. 

As beautiful as the murals were inside the building I was quite taken with some of the other details, particularly the pressed metal ceiling and the bell design on the front step treads.

The church, grounds and gardens were obviously very well cared for, which was lovely to see.  We had a quick stroll around The Biblical Garden next door.  There were some interesting plants but we didn't actually realise the full significance of the garden till we were driving out of town and saw the sign stating many of the plants were from biblical times.  There's a great article about the garden, here. 

Dingo Fence Drive

We hadn't planned to do much while at Jandowae but did want to revisit the Dingo Fence Drive, so traveled in Elmer Fudd rather than our small, red car.

On the way out of town we pulled over to check some signs I'd seen the previous day.  They were not large enough to read as we drove past, so it was good to see one up close and view the grass around it.

As previously, we stopped to read the information board at the start of the track.  I think we might have been just as taken with the tenacity of a prickly pear growing in the upper branches of a dead tree, too!

We made our way to the Boiling Springs Lookout and set up our chairs and picnic table to enjoy a cuppa and some late morning tea.

Nick had packed two small stoves as one was being finicky.  He was able to do some minor repairs to it though, which was great work.

We sat for quite a while, listening to the wind in the grass and nearby trees.  It was a very pleasant interlude. 

A group of apostle birds visited briefly - and we caught a quick glimpse of a mistletoe bird.

Athlone Cottage

We had a late lunch on the verandah of our cabin and then drove the short distance into town to explore a bit.

There was much excitement when we spotted a huge lot of whistling ducks on a little dam just on the edge of town!  That sight required a couple of u-turns to enable photos and footage to be taken.  No doubt the locals thought us crazy!

We'd seen a little of Jandowae on a previous trip, when we'd stayed at Dalby - but had been very focussed on the huge bottle trees, rather than much else of the township.

Nick and I had a bit of a wander around the outside of Athlone Cottage.  The charcoal fridge on the verandah was interesting as were some of the out-buildings.  (The cottage is open for viewing at times but not during our visit).

We then strolled down the street for another smooch with the bottle trees - and to revisit the dingo sculpture.

Both the "middle" and "bottom" pubs offered meals both nights of our stay.  Due to Covid-19  restrictions, we made a booking at the Exchange Hotel for later in the evening and enjoyed dining out.

During our walk-around we realised we'd been saying Jandowae to rhyme with "the place to stay" rather than "the place to be" as was on the welcome sign.  We tried very hard to correct ourselves from that point on!

Jandowae - the place to be!

We were up early to finish packing and organise Vaughan for school.  Even so, we didn't expect to depart the driveway before 9:00am - so were quite chuffed to be on the road at 8:30am!

As is usual with road trips, we filled Elmer's tanks close to home.  (Nick had done various checks and topped up oil etc as necessary).

It was a lovely day to be travelling, with clear skies and pretty clouds.  We didn't stop along the way, just chatted and enjoyed being on an adventure!

When booking our Jandowae cabin, our hostess confirmed check-in was any time after ten.  We arrived later in the morning and then talked for ages before unpacking.

I'd created our mini-bar/goodies hamper before we left home, using a basket that had been gifted to us at our wedding (over 14 years ago)!  We didn't end up eating/drinking all the provisions but I did like how everything looked on the kitchen bench!  Coffee, lots of tea, my baby teapot and some breakfast supplies were housed in a different small container.

Glad to Get Away!

We've done some daytrips since last September and we had an over-night backyard stay in our camper trailer - but mostly we stayed at home.  Covid-19 has obviously impacted in recent months but sometimes it's just tricky to organise time away.

Our Young Master is now a teenager and prefers not to venture too far from his room.  (The extended stint of caravan living also scarred him somewhat)!  Erin suffers motion sickness, even on shorter drives - so she offered to hold the fort at home, to give Nick and I a chance for a short break.  Given restrictions in Queensland had only just eased to allow unlimited interstate travel, our first choice of beach-side accommodation didn't work out.  Instead we opted for a budget cabin further inland.  There were a few other guests but we felt as if we had the place to ourselves - and really appreciated the quiet.

We booked a two-night stay and I was finally able to us my rejuvenated carry-all!  (I still haven't attempted to restore the tarnished metal clasps but my efforts to remove the musty smell paid off.  I found a large lavender sachet my mum made and that now lives in the bag).  Di gifted me the smaller, hand-crafted bag for Mothers Day and I used that for some other bits.  I really like how they look together and am seriously considering re-lining the leather one with similar happy yellow fabric to make them even more of a pair. 

Get a Giza at this!

There was frost when we woke on Sunday morning.

The guys in the cabin next to us needed to move their motorbikes into the sun for defrosting before departure!

We packed up for the 10am check-out and admired the dam under clear skies as we drove along.  First stop was at Heavenly Chocolate, near Ballandean - chosen by Vaughan (who felt he deserved a choice cos fancy cheese isn't really his thing)!

The main street dinosaur was made as a float in the 1998 Apple and Grape festival, hence it's neat Fruitisforus name! We spotted him/her en route to the Washpool Farm Soaperie, where Erin and I bought a bag of bargain, hand-made soap seconds.

When I read about the pyramid at Ballandean, it was high on my list of things to see. It's made from blocks of local granite and stands about 17.5 metres tall. It took around eight months to build, using an excavator and dump truck. You can read more of it's story, here.

Vaughan isn't always keen to participate in our group shots, so I bribed him with quicker access to his hand-made chocolate, to ensure positive co-operation!

Feasting like royalty!

We made a slow start on Saturday, sleeping in and then lingering over our BBQed brekkie.

Once on the road, our first stop was to taste some specialty apple juices and a rather fine apple syrup (which we're scheming to drizzle over pikelets)!

Our intended destination was Donnellys Castle - a rock formation and picnic area that we could explore with Bandit.  (Stanthorpe is know for huge boulders in nearby Girraween National Park but that was off-limits for us).

We spotted a cheese factory en route to the castle, so called in to sample some excellent offerings - and bought a couple of favourites.  (We highly recommend Jersey Cow Feta and Brass Monkey Blue)!

It wasn't all that far from the cheese factory to the picnic area and we saw several groups enjoying cheese platter lunches!

Donnellys Castle had quite mixed reviews on some of the sites I checked.

We thought it was brilliant!  So many rocks to scramble over, around and between.  We easily spent several hours there - feasting on cheese and soaking up the sunshine, in between bouts of squeezing through the rock maze. We outlasted many of the other visitors.

The area is said to be one of Captain Thunderbolt's hideouts.  He was obviously another slim individual, like Captain Melville, who had a hideout at Melville Caves, which we visited while in Victoria!

Donnellys Castle is Crown Recreation Reserve named after Ned Donnelly, an original settler of the area.  In 1973 the local Lions Club began to develop the facilities and still maintains them for public enjoyment.

It's quite likely we'll visit Stanthorpe and Donnellys Castle another time.

We may even travel a little further afield to fossick for topaz in the Passchendaele State Forest. Fingers crossed for success!

Stanthorpe sojourn ...

In contrast with our Dalby long weekend, there was very little preparation for our next mini break.

Nick and I bought some provisions from one of our local supermarkets on Friday morning but there was no menu plan - which Nick found quite novel!

We were packed up ready to depart after Vaughan finished school and had a smooth run out to our accommodation on Storm King Dam, near Stanthorpe.  Once there, we sorted ourselves fairly quickly.  It was a little cheaper to take linen for our "mini hut" beds, so we did that - which meant making beds on arrival. (The small cabin didn't have an ensuite but it was Bandit-friendly and definitely bigger than the van)!

I used the small kitchenette and plug-in hotplates to chef some creamy bacon and mushroom pasta for dinner - an easy option that seems a bit flash!  (Well, easy-ish with some improvisation around the limited space and utensils).

Windy Woodlands!

We've visited the Woodlands Historic Park a few times, and enjoyed touring the adjoining Living Legends facility also.

The weather was fairly pleasant for previous excursions but it was definitely rather wild today!

On checking just now it seems the recorded wind speed (at the time of our bushwalk) was near gale force.  Yep, Nick and I were very keen geocachers!  Our efforts logged another 13 found caches, bringing our overall tally to 393 - so we are well on track for finding our 400th during our anniversary month.  Hooray!

One cache was no longer accessible as there is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot (EBB) reserve located within the park.  You can read about these endangered animals here.  After walking a bit over 3km, we decided we'd done our dash for the day and returned to the car for a picnic lunch.  A group of Conservation Volunteers were gathered at the picnic area, perhaps set to do some work for the EBBs.

A trio of magpies flew down to supervise our lunch preparations.  During the latter part of our picnic, a strong gust of wind blew food containers, food and other stuff onto the ground.  The magpies were very pleased of some cheese and crackers but a bit ho-hum about the dried fruit!

Murdered marshmallows!

Nick had to work today. He left home around 5:00am. The rest of us slept in - as long as Oscar (the starved) cat deemed appropriate!

We took our time getting ready but once breakfasted and presentable, we ventured out to collect a parcel of mailed goodies and then visit one of our local libraries.

It was a short drive from the library to this lovely park. The ducks greeted us enthusiastically and a couple of crows keep an eye on us from the trees.

Nick and I explored the park a while back but it was new to Vaughan and Erin, who enjoyed hot chocolates (with marshmallows) while chatting with the resident ducks.

When we had all finished our drinks, I stacked up our small collection of picnic gear and we strolled down the track.

Vaughan was keen to paddle in the shallow water but we encouraged him to walk further.  We had wandered around to the other side of the creek and I was taking photos of the paddling ducks when Erin commented that the crows were taking over our picnic!  As we'd eaten all the muffins, I wasn't greatly worried but Vaughan scrambled across the creek to chase them off.  (He really just wanted an excuse for crossing the water at the causeway)!

While he was in hot pursuit, I remembered the marshmallow bag was open, inside the crate.  When Erin and I returned to the table we could see the bag had been breached and there was a trail of marshmallow crumbs on the table!  Vaughan was not impressed, though had a bit of a smirk when he described one crow with marshmallow stuck to it's beak!

Friday fun ...

We haven't been geocaching for a while.  As it was Friday, I made orange poppyseed cakes as well as a batch of hot choc mix so we could enjoy a simple afternoon tea picnic, after school.

It was quite cold, so our hot drinks were much appreciated as we stood admiring the views (after finding our first cache).

We drove on, doing about a 60km loop in total - and finding two more caches, bringing our overall tally to 380. 

We started caching in June 2010 so are keen to find our 400th cache for our 4th anniversary!

Elmer Fudd's Looney Tunes

Note the recycled Easter hat modeled by "Bugs"!

We saw the posters for Jilliby School's car rally while out and about on some of geocaching picnic days. It sounded like a fun day, so we entered.

Nick was scheduled for a night-shift on the day of the rally and wasn't going to join us but changed his mind (after confirming expected duration time with the organisers). It was just as well he came as three adults for clue-deciphering was definitely better than two - and we still went awry more than once!

We had a lot of fun though - all for a good cause - and we were glad we took part. We didn't win the overall prize but thankfully we didn't come last either! There was a prize for the best-dressed car/crew, which we shared with Hocus Pocus (who dressed as witches and fashioned a giant broomstick to their roof-rack, complete with black cat)!

Our share of the prize included $50 of 7-Eleven fuel vouchers, which Elmer definitely appreciated!

Whoops!

Our first real-time recovery experience ...

We enjoyed Yengo National Park and the surrounding area so much that we returned the next day for more exploring.

Lured by the promise of a geocache, we had driven down a very wet track (fortunately) without issue. After finding the cache we spotted a dryer track for the return trip, thinking it would be better than our original route. However the track edge gave way very soon after we turned on to it, so it didn't turn out to be better at all! In fact, it was all a bit scary as Vaughan and I were quite high on our side - and even when the angle wasn't so steep, Vaughan undid his belt to get out and promptly slid into the downside door!

Fortunately Nick had packed all the recovery gear, so we were able to winch out fairly easily. Vaughan operated the winch control while Nick wound out the cable - and then Nick took over the control while I steered Elmer and Vaughan became our camera-person. We watched the "footage" (complete with Vaughan's commentary) when home again - he did fine work!

After all that excitement, we checked out a camping area and may well return to stay there. I initially thought the access to it was down the very wet/soggy track and had wondered how we would get the trailer down but of course, it had a proper track in very good repair - der!

Devil's rock

Yowah rock stack influence is still evident!

One of our geocaching day-trips took us into Yengo National Park to see some Aboriginal rock carvings and grinding grooves.

We went up through the end of Yarramalong and via a dirt track into the National Park. The last bit was 4WD only, which was an interesting drive.

It was another 250m steep walk from the parking area and well worth the effort. The carvings were quite clear and the views were gorgeous. We stayed up there for quite a while - it was such a beautiful place. (If we go again, I'll try to remember to take my drum).

There were no facilities, so we were glad we packed the camping stove. We perched it on Elmer's back tray and had our sausage sizzle in the carpark before heading off again, to explore some of the convict construction along the Great Northern Road later in the afternoon.