Enjoying our Hinterland
A Tourist Regional Famil.
On Tuesday the 6th of May two busloads kindly supplied by Sun-air took us on a very enjoyable tour of the Hinterland in the Blackall ranges
I was on the bus taking volunteers from Maroochydore and Caloundra, bus number two had folk from Noosa and Coolum.
Our first stop was to view the coastline from Dulong lookout, a grand scene covering Coolum to Maroochydore with Nambour in the foreground. Along the roadside the wild Japanese Sunflower was a burst of golden yellow. Next stop was the Flaxton Barn for a coffee and scones morning tea. Our hosts informed us about the history of their business, there used to be a railway attraction there which became too costly to run, now they have a very interesting Antique shop, a very large range of old phones, radios and kitchenware, plus many novel nick nacks
A chance to work off our morning tea was at the lovely Kondalilla Falls, the start of the Great walk, which is 54 klms. long, most of us did the nearly 2 klm walk through some lovely bushland to the falls, not at its very best just now through lack of water but still a nice setting.
On to Lillyponds Holiday Park for a barby lunch stop. Here our hosts Peter and Alison explained the history of the park, showing us some of the nicely appointed cabins which are rented for approx. $75 per night or there is a back-packers dorm, basic but comfy rooms with a community kitchen and ablution block close by, the charge, $25 a night. There are also many permanent residents who enjoy the parkland surroundings, A delicious selection of sausages and bread were enjoyed , plus some group photography. Lots of mature avocado trees, some 30 years old now heavily laden with fruit which can be picked from April to September, as they cannot send them to market because they don’t spray, not much persuasion was needed for us to gather up some of this wonderful fruit.
We managed a half hour stop at the delightful Montville craft town, always a must for any visitors to the coast then on to the Settlers Rise Winery for a very instructive talk by our host Christine on various white and red wines with a chance to sample their fine product along with cheese and crackers. There is a lovely lookout from the winery out to the coastline with a foreground of different grapes; they also grow more south on the Granite belt.
Another very enjoyable day came to an end, thanks to the great hosts of the day and a special thought goes to our drivers, Richard and David with Sun-air who explained lots of informative touristy things to us, many thanks
Till the next chance to explore
Cheers
JIM FITZTHUM
No comments:
Post a Comment