After 2 1/2 years walking with this group I continue to be amazed at the new walking areas we discover so close to home. Brisbane, it seems, has an endless supply of nature areas and walking tracks, and today's walk in the Chermside Hills was a real gem. Chermside Hills Reserve, Raven Street Reserve and Milne Hill Reserve link to form 129 acres of bushland known as Chermside Hills Reserves, part of the Mountains to Mangroves corridor that extends from the D'Agular Ranges to Boondall Wetlands and Moreton Bay. We began at the Downfall Creek Bushland Centre, but our only downfall for the day had already occurred - we wrecked our diets by devouring Jocelyn's delicious apple, almond and pistachio cake for morning tea. The Downfall Creek Centre provided maps and interesting displays inside, with activities especially set up for children on school holidays. This brought back some memories for the retired teachers in our group and gave us cause to pause, reflect and rejoice. The reserves, along the banks of Downfall and Cabbage Tree Creeks, are comprised of open forest, woodland and dry rainforest. We began by taking the short Senses Trail, followed by a variety of other tracks through the reserves leading us by rivers, down valleys and up hills that provided great views of Moreton Bay, the city and surrounding mountains. We saw plenty of birdlife, a few wallabies and signs of koalas and possums. In all we covered about 10 kilometres today, with still more tracks to explore at some time. in the future. A picnic lunch completed another perfect day. So friends, this is another hiking area that comes highly recommended by our little group. Do it soon. You won't be disappointed.
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The weather gods were a bit undecided today, sending slight drizzle interspersed with bright blue, sunny skies. The dampness could not dampen our spirits though as we explored another surprising find in the suburbs of Brisbane. Sherwood Forest Park, better known now as Sherwood Arboretum, is a peaceful park on the Brisbane River with meandering pathways through trees and open grassy areas, a boardwalk along the river, wetland areas and abundant wildlife. The only disappointment was no sign of Robin Hood at all. Sherwood Arboretum is one of four arboreta in Queensland and showcases trees from South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales. It covers an area of 15 hectares, containing approximately 1,100 trees from about 300 species and is on the Queensland Heritage Register. When Europeans first arrived, the Jagera and Turrbal Aboriginal people occupied land in this area. It was heavily timbered and Sherwood was the name given to a farm, then the shire and now a suburb. We left Sherwood and made it in time to catch a movie at the nearby Graceville Regal Twin. Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant starred in the excellent film, Florence Foster Jenkins - a story based on a real New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice. A late lunch and then dessert at the Lick Ice-cream shop completed another perfect day out with 'the hungry hikers' as our little group has now come to be known.
Winter is here, but the country doesn't know it. The sky was blue and the temperature in the mid 20s as we explored Murwillumbah and surrounds on today's walk. An early start from home had us in Murwillumbah in time for breakfast, which was yummy of course. Murwillumbah is a lovely town with interesting old buildings, cafes, antique and clothing stores lining its streets. We followed the Heritage Walk and climbed up to the top of Lions Lookout where we were afforded beautiful views of the lush, green surrounding countryside, the wide, sleepy Tweed River and nearby Mt Warning (which I climbed a couple of weeks ago). Fun fact - Murwillumbah is the eighth town mentioned in the original Australia version of the song "I've Been Everywhere". A stop at the Visitor Information Centre was interesting. Inside one room the walls are painted with a panoramic 360 degree view of the Tweed caldera from the summit of Mt Warning. Jocelyn and Margot think that counts as actually reaching the summit, but their day will come. Next stop was the Tweed Regional Gallery in which the interior of Margaret Olley's Paddington home has been re-created.. Visitors are able to peer inside original windows and doors to view the eclectic assortment of belongings Olley kept in her cluttered and colourful home. As well as being a renowned Australian artist, Olley was also the subject of paintings by many of her artist friends, including Russell Drysdale. She was twice the subject of an Archibald Prize winning painting; the first by William Dobell in 1948, and the other by Ben Quilty in 2011. Although actual hiking distances were not great today, we did cram a lot in, including food. A late, leisurely lunch at the nearby Tumbulgum Tavern was a perfect finale to our ventures in Northern New South Wales.
Brisbane continues to be a city of surprises to me. Today we walked 17 kilometres through bushland in the heart of the suburbs. There is a well maintained, shared bicycle/pedestrian path that follows Bulimba Creek from Wishart to Murrarie. It runs through bushland, meadows and parklands with picnic areas and children's playgrounds along the way. We have previously walked the section between Minnippi Parklands Carindale Shopping Centre, but today we walked the Wishart - Carindale section. Although today was officially the first day of winter, the weather was mild. We began from Boorabbin Picnic Ground in Wishart on the Southern side of Mt Gravatt - Capalaba Road, where there is ample car parking and toilets if required. Most of the walk was through green areas with plenty of trees and bird life, but there were some places where we climbed some steep streets around the border of the Pacific Pines Golf Club. |
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