7th Sept., 2013

As we left Bell, we noticed that we were just over 30km from the Bunya Mountains, which form a National Park, & would probably have been an interesting area to explore.  The drive to Kaimkillenbun & Quinalow was a scenic one, but the countryside was extremely dry!  At Kaimkillenbun, "The Bun Pub's" name made us smile & we could see evidence of earlier inhabitants as we passed a few small deserted homes.  A herd of cows, along our route, were eating hay rather than grass, so brown was their pasture.

We were in an area of small country towns, hills & pasture land &, at one point, we crossed the Dividing Range (I guessed that we were on the drier side of it).  However, things soon turned green again, indicating that we might have crossed the Divide again.  We became 'lost' in the Yarraman State Forest area for a short time but doubled back on ourselves & soon found the road that we wanted.

Blackbutt was a lovely little town with an avenue of lush green trees & a wide main street.  There was a large lake just outside the town & camping areas were dotted amonst a forest of tall gum trees.

In another attractive town, Moore, we saw several lovely Queenslander-style homes before we climbed back out of it into the surrounding hills.

At Kilcoy, a sign post indicated that we were 75km from the Sunshine Coast.  Some rainbow lorikeets greeted us as we parked the caravan & a passer-by directed us to a place for lunch.  We knew that we were in Queensland by the terms in which he described a bakery that he obviously couldn't recommend!

We set off into the hills again, passing wineries & entering the Moreton Bay Region, where more brilliant bougainvilleas cropped up from time to time along the verges.  We drove through Peachester & saw the Glass House Mountains on our right.  Through gaps in the trees, we could see the coast, far away in the distance.  We passed the "Australia Zoo" on our right as we travelled through Beerwah & there were directions to mountain ranges on both sides.  Finally, we saw signs to the Ginger Factory & the Ettamogah Pub & knew that we were very close to Coolum, where we would catch up with our family!