Prawn Boulder @ Girraween National Park

We went for a drive to the beautiful Girraween national Park on Saturday. There's some stunning country side out there. We went off the beaten track on a little rock climb and came across this:

I think that rock formation looks like a prawn… A agreed so i'm not mad. What you think?

Sitting on top of one of the massive boulders overlooking the prawn amongst other much larger formations, I felt like I was in a day spa listening to a relaxation cd. I could hear water running, birds chattering near and far, slight rustle of the leaves. Very peaceful. The boulders are so enormous that I wondered what would happen if they all decided to start rolling? Then I realized I’d be in deep s**t and stopped wondering.

On the drive out I snapped these wildflowers. Gorgeous.

They say that the best time of year to visit the Girraween National Park is spring because all the wildflowers are in bloom and it isn't too hot. We drove out through Warwick and Stanthorpe and then to the National Park.  After an exhaustive walk/climb (i'm exaggerating) we then drove to Tenterfield, but just prior we came through Wallangarra. I've been through here a tonne of times and have always admired this old train station. It’s frozen in time and I felt so nostalgic roaming around and taking photos of it.

Built in 1887 the railway was used to link the different railway gauages adopted by Queensland and New South Wales. (Wallangarra is on the border) Qld trains used the western side and NSW the eastern. The passenger station is still used now and is referred to as Wallangarra Queensland. I didn’t get the snap, but there’s two other original buildings still there, one used as the Post Office and the other for storage of something it think.

The olive vinyl seats are all still in good nick and are propped along the station walls. I wonder how long they’ve been there for? Train stations of today are so uninteresting by comparison. They had so much more attention to detail back then with far more attractive architecture. I s'pose there was a passenger train every 7000 hours in the early 1900's so you needed something to look at.

We then drove back through Kyogle along Lions Road which brings you to the back end of Beaudesert. There's a Horse Stud called GlenLogan that had what seemed like hundreds of foals awkwardly roaming around the perfectly white fenced paddocks. Beaaauuuuttttiiiifffuuuull drive. This little chap was sleeping in the middle of the road, and is still smoozing in this picture. He was really cute when his front and back legs stretched out, I love turtles.

I'm going to try something new in 2012. That's go somewhere and not buy anything. This was our back seat passenger for the majority of the drive. $5 at a Garage Sale in Warwick.  

It originally came hanging with rope but by the time I took a pic A had already nailed into the wall. Not the wall I envisioned but a wall none the less. Maybe I’ll actually use a hat in the garden now that they’re more accessible.

Morale of the story is: Go for a drive out to Girraween, take a packed lunch and if you have kids, best to stay overnight somewhere. We drove it all in one day which is perfect when you don’t have to entertain anyone except yourself. There are many creek crossings along the drive that If you had the time you can stop and swim in, or camp – dig into a chicken sandwich, explore.

We’ve got a pretty cool country and so much close by, makes you realize how boring computers, televisions and mobile phones are (says the person writing a blog post whilst text messaging a friend …)

Happy Monday! x