Ric & Marc picked us up in the morning and took us for a drive around the hills to the west , views down to the Glasshouse Mountains & Brisbane were great even though it was overcast & threatening to rain .
After a nice cup of tea , we headed around to Maleny and found the cheese shop - what a selection they had , soft cheeses , cheddars , blue vein etc etc etc , we purchased some Mexican Chilli and another chilli one - tried it yesterday , and oh my , wasn't it nice !!!
Then it was Baroon Pocket Dam for a Bbq lunch . The dam is a small one , but deep , surrounded by hills .
After a sausage sizzle , chasing scrub turkeys away from the table & food that they'd taken a liking to , it was back on the road to Kondalilla Falls . With the recent rainfall , the falls should be flowing well .
We parked and started off down the hill on a 3.7 klm walk . Before long the track took us into the rainforest and down to the first creek & small falls .
Then around to the next falls .
Further down the track is the lookout down the valley below the main falls - it looks out onto the Blackall Range .
Onward down the track , there's a fork in the track - one to the lookout and the other to the pool above the falls - a popular swimming spot !!
Down to the main falls lookout delivered a great view of about 70% of the falls - they drop 80m to the bottom - the lower 30m was covered by trees . There is a circuit walk that takes you down into the valley below and then back up the other side , we declined and headed back to the car instead .
Here's some of the rainforest we wandered through .
Next on our day out was Mapleton Falls , just a short walk from the carpark . Views of the falls are from above and behind unfortunately . A shower of rain greeted us , falling into the valley below . Underneath the falls is a rainforest canopy of trees and a lot of palms .
With that we headed for home and a cold beer . It was a lovely day spent with Ric & Marc , getting chauffeured around and seeing the sights .
Next day we got the bikes out and rode down to Mooloolaba Spit , on the way is a memorial to HMAS Brisbane - the hull was sunk off the coast and now is a reef and dive spot - the only one where you can scuba dive and make your way through the ship's engine rooms etc . The memorial points to the spot where into sits .
From there it was down to Mooloolaba Beach .
The spit is just below the tall buildings in the previous photo , the next view is from the Spit Beach looking back toward Mooloolaba Beach . This is an excellent spot swim if you don't want waves .
There's a fresh fish shop here , they also serve fish & chips - we have eaten here probably 4 times over a 20 year period , and it's always been great - today didn't disappoint either . We had a piece of coral trout & chips and some calamari chips - awesome !!
Making our way back to the van , we passed a lake with some massive sculptures in it . They are a black swan and an egret - they're mounted on an island , out of reach of people . The black swan is the local council emblem , the egret is the emblem of it's sister city in China . The swan would have a wing span of around 6m !!
We are now down near the Gold Coast for about 3 weeks , we negotiated Brisbane's traffic , finding our fridge supplier and getting a new seal installed .
Well there you have it , Christmas is around the corner so I'll take this opportunity to wish all our readers a wonderful christmas and new year !!
A map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cFOpDDmXggqCaWowNxpIfYaOf1_BJ0Mf&usp=sharing
