Bunya Mountains

Yesterday, I started to blog about our 2007 trip around Australia. Since then Sarah has reclaimed her travel diary, declaring that she will be the one to publish her writing.  That leaves me with just my own diary entries, my memories and Evan's diary.  At this point he shows little inclination to start blogging himself even though he is a fabulous writer.
After spending a full day in the Border Ranges we packed up camp and travelled to the Bunya Mountains via Toowoomba.  South East Queensland was in the grip of a severe drought and this fact was evident as we travelled through the countryside to Toowoomba.  Toowoomba was dangerously close to running out of water and were investigating the possibly of reclaiming sewage as a source of water.  Ironically, a few years into the future in 2011 this arid valley was to be the scene of devastating floods that would roar down towards Brisbane and inundate huge areas of that city.

See to the right how dry the valley is

As we approached the NSW/Queensland border we travelled up Lions Road and saw the spiral loop railway. It is an amazing construction that enables the rail line to spiral up a steep slope that would normally be too much of a gradient for a train to mount.

We loved the Bunya Mountains and, in particular, the Bunya nuts.  They were huge and delicious, like great big pine nuts.  We tried them prepared in a couple of ways, boiled like potatoes and roasted with melted butter, yum.

The trees themselves are magnificent, as are the hoop pines. The forests are tall, dark and peaceful, and lend themselves to exploration and long walks.

 We did a few walks while we were there as well as visiting the main tourist area where we fed the King Parrots.

Evan wrote in his diary about the Bunya Mountains:

25.3.07
On Sunday we went to Paradise Parking.  We went on some walks like the Paradise Falls walk.

On one of the walks we got to walk under a big fig.
On the big falls lookout walk we saw a green snake that wouldn't move so we decided to go to Dandabar for lunch. I had calamari and chips and lift for a drink.

Then we had to take the long walk back.

Read some of Sarah's account here.
I am slowly adding our Australia trip to you tube.  Here is the one for our Bunya Mountains stint.