Day 76 - Bone rattling along

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Lowood to Toogoolawah, via the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail 57km

Kerstin and I seem to have an affinity for motorcyclists.   The Lowood Showgrounds/campground is hosting a gathering of motorcyclists and their vintage machines.  We once found ourselves in Rapid City South Dakota at the same time as the Sturgis Harley Davidson motorcycle rally.  But that is a whole other story.  This morning, while we finished our latest read aloud book, we could smell the egg and bacon breakfast being put on for the motorcyclists.  Our porridge and instant coffee was not so appealing.  But with last chapter read the day beckoned, and just as we were setting up for breakfast, we get an offer we can't refuse.  "Do you girls want the leftover eggs and bacon?"  Of course the answer was an emphatic "yes please!"

Free breakfast!

Spoilt by eggs, bacon, sausage and well buttered bread rolls, we roll out of camp to the sound of vintage motorcycles rumbling away, a sound we will now always have a smile for.  They took the roads and we the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.  Which to be honest, I kind of expected to be just like the Riesling Trail at home, just longer.  This is not the correct assumption.   The BVRT is a converted rail corridor, a multi use trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.  It passes through a number of small towns, and in the towns the trail and its surrounding infrastructure is excellent.  Paved surfaces, covered picnic areas, public toilets, bakeries, water bottle refill stations, signage, restored vintage railway platforms.  Between the towns the trail varies from short sections of lovely smooth bits on well packed fine gravel to long sections of bone rattling loose rocks, sometimes it's single track, sometimes double, there are cattle grids everywhere, and at weird angles making crossing them in the wet a bit dicey.  And if there are cattle grids, there is often also cattle and cattle equals cow pats.   So most of today was a bit of the bicycle version of an obstacle course.

Mexican stand-off 

Regardless, the trail was quite busy on this Sunday of a long weekend, with a huge diversity of people out adventuring, from a group of women who looked to be training for a very long distance run, to the less friendly "serious" riders trying to beat their Strava time, parents with kids, thru hikers, even a group of twenty or so horse riders.

Once the rain and wind came in the afternoon Kerstin and I found ourselves alone on the trail.  Which gave us better scope for dodging cow pats, and the opportunity to spot a Wedge Tail perched in the tallest tree in the paddock, and to stop and watch with awe as she spread her massive wings and sailed off.


The rain and wind came again just as we arrived at the Toogoolawah showgrounds.  But being the creative campers that we are, we parked ourselves in the lee of what is probably the bar when the showgrounds are in use.  The showers prove excellent, but the toilet has a surprise in store.  On flushing a green tree frog is revealed, but not flushed!  Turns out there is another excellent reason to put the lid down!  The caretaker tells us that once they get in it's next to impossible to get them out again as they are territorial and just keep returning!

Location: Toogoolawah QLD 4313, Australia

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