Our Bunya Mountains Holiday

Last Thursday evening we headed for the Bunya Mountains where we stayed 4 nights in a holiday home called Eden.

Our 'home' in the mountains

I have had bush walking cravings, exacerbated by our wonderful time in the Blue Mountains, so the plan was to get my fill of walking in before bubs comes. I can confidently say that I got my fill!

At roughly the half way (6km) point; 8 month preggy bump

On the Friday we set off on the Barkers Creek Circuit. 12 kilometres and 3 1/2 hours later we emerged from the bush. We had the single pram and the sling with us, but Abigail walked a considerable amount of that distance on her little legs. Very proud of her. A couple of times Jon was pushing Abigail in the pram while Sarah was on his back, so am also very proud of him! Towards the end of the walk, Sarah wanted down from the pram and she took off running. She ran and ran and ran. I was quite amazed at how far she was going. Then she started crying and running. We have learnt over time that Sarah can get quite demoralised by long journeys (like the drive back from Sydney) and it seemed that she had simply had enough and just wanted out of the bush, poor thing. Thankfully we were only about 10 minutes from the end. While I then plonked myself down on a picnic bench, the girls ran around happily (energetically even!) playing in the sunshine, and Jon went off to retrieve a nearby cache.

Abigail and Sarah practicing their letter recognition

The next day my legs were sore (I wonder how Abigail's were?). We decided we'd just do a little (1hr) walk to the highest point of the Bunya Mountains - Mount Kiangarow (where there also happened to be a cache hiding). At the top were rocks to climb on much to the girls delight (they love to climb). While Abigail had dragged her feet up the mountain, both girls happily ran most of the way back down.

Rock climbing

Driving back down the mountain, we stopped to 'quickly' grab another cache - it was only supposed to be a 15-20 minute walk. 2 hours later we emerged without the cache. It was a looped path which we took clockwise; the cache was 20 minutes in counter-clockwise. Jon however had managed to go off and find another cache along the way (and got himself lost for a while in the bush - a bit of a scare; meanwhile the girls and I had continued slowly on the path back to the car), so we didn't come away empty-handed - just very tired. Off we went to get ice-blocks to raise everyone's morale!
 

That afternoon we kicked back a bit and the girls watched most of Nemo (their second ever movie; the first half of Sound of Music being their first). I believe it was Jon's first time to see it too.

The next day (Sunday) my legs were sorer still. The weather had turned very cold and wet, so thankfully anymore bushwalking was out! Instead we spent the morning (driving) to find some nearby caches. The wind was freezing, so it was good to get back home and light the fire. With that roaring and hot soup in our bellies, warmth returned. That afternoon, Jon and I sat in front of the fire and completed a 500 piece puzzle together.

There was a lot of bird life to be seen or heard, much to Jon's pleasure. His bird-list has grown. King parrots, crimson rosellas, bower birds and currawongs visited us on our deck each day, while whip birds, rifle birds, and cat birds could be heard around us (though we didn't see them). An attempt to feed the birds some sunflower seeds resulted in them landing on him; Abigail did not appreciate it when a king parrot landed on her!

Monday morning we headed for home. We picked up some more caches along the way before stopping in Toowoomba for a Sizzler lunch. With full bellies (and sugar overload for the girls) we drove the final leg to Brisbane.

Cache nearby

Location of another cache

Signing the cache

We got home late afternoon to find the deep freeze was turned off. Thankfully (probably because I had it so full) some things were still completely frozen (6 meals of vindaloo survived, along with about 5 kgs of chicken), but much had to be thrown out (including 5kg basa - sigh). My wonderful husband cleaned it out for me and got it going again. There is always something to be thankful for, and in this case I am thankful for a clean freezer which I can stock neatly - no more miscellaneous or unwanted items (think chickpea tikka masala) floating about. I have already managed to cook a meal to freeze (Country Captain Chicken) and will have another after dinner tonight (Mama's Healthy BBQ Chicken). Tomorrow I will be able to add at least 4 meals of chilli mince and beans to my stash.

Once the car was unloaded, Jon went out and picked up another set of bunks we've been waiting on, which we assembled after dinner. We've left the slats off until we get a couple of mattresses - voila, another thing for the girls to climb on (have I mentioned they love climbing?).

We had a lovely holiday, made possible by some lovely friends. I hope, with a sufficient break from it now, that the girls aren't put off bushwalking for life; I certainly feel the need to put my feet up a bit!