BreakawayOffroad4x4.com.au

Originally planned as a Janowen Hills 4x4 overnight camping event, the rainy weather changed the events to a Passchendaele State Forest and Condamine River Head day trip. Who was hoping for bad weather???

Anyway, the lucky people to come along on this trip were : Capella_Ben, Gridpack, guests (Jason, Meaghan and daughter), and Dave. It was still raining as we came over the range, so we decided to head further west in the hope the Springs 4x4 park would be reasonably dry. But this was not the case, so we decided to travel a little further to Passchendaele State Forest, which is slightly North-West of Stanthorpe.



The tracks were reasonably flat and easy, but the scenery was great. As seen in the photo below, even the fence posts had moss growing on them.


We continued to drive through the park, and being in granite country, we had to drive around the rocks on the road. Well, they constructed the roads around the rocks.




Three cars hit the same rock ... all the same time, i.e. parked on top of the rock.


There was much mud, but we did find a small-ish puddle.


After going through a variety of scrub, forest and bush, we stopped on the track for lunch, and though not too hard to believe, walked to the side of the track to eat on a granite rock surface. Below is a photo of some of the scrub.


After lunch, we continued to explore Passchendaele State Forest, and even came across a fossicking / mine site. It was more like shallow diggings than an actually mine.
But the rain continued. It wasn't heavy, but reasonably constant.


So the decision was made to head home via the Condamine River Crossings. A quick air-up, and we were on the black-top heading to the Condamine River Crossings.


Jason was showing us how to clean your vehicle the easy way.


Don just wanted to get the salt off his vehicle from the Bribie Island trip a few weeks ago. You can see the bow waves forming in front of the vehicle.


But Dave was thinking that the salty sand could have come up higher, so in went the FJ for a deeper bath.


It was getting dark, so we ended up having a meal at Boonah at a Chinese Restaurant. Though a long day trip, it was an easy but relaxing drive with lots of great scenery.

For a wet and rainy day we had an excellent time. I love an "exploring trip", you never know what you are going to find. As far as state forests go, Passchendaele is the prettiest. There are plenty of sections on native bush as well as some plantations. But amongst it all are the beautiful granite boulders erupting out of the ground. That's one of my favourite landscapes.

We followed a track that went from the north of the forest all the way down to the south. The going was easy with no challenges; the tracks are very well maintained. We didn't see all of it and a return trip is definitely on the cards!

Right at the end, though, we found what would be an absolutely cracker of a track. I won't say too much about it, but I will say we didn't do it because it was too wet, but in the dry it would be VERY spectacular without being challenging. If you want to know more, come on the next trip there!

The short cut home via Condamine River Road was also amazing as the low clouds gave it a really eerie feeling.

Many thanks to Ben for leading the trip.
His plan B worked a treat. The rain did follow us - but except for making Dave's bread toasting at lunch a tad more difficult than he planned - the rain didn't really cause any problem. Though with the temperature down to 10 deg at spots and the rain not looking like stopping, Dave and Ben wisely (in my opinion) decided to forgo camping.
Dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Boonah certainly seemed a much more sensible option to me. (I know...I'm soft)
We definitely a fair variety of beautiful countryside.

I knew that guy we saw was hiding something. He said there was nothing there to find, but the place is packed full of TOPAZ!

http://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activi ... ers-gully/

Thanks for looking this up Ben. I wonder if people are still finding gem quality rocks.

And thanks again for leading the trip. It was a good drive, with lots of interesting scenery.