Into the Forest

July 31, 2021

Yarraman to Nanango

After 161km on the BVRT we were on the roads today. We're heading for the Kingaroy-Kilkiven Rail Trail but have two days on quiet back roads to get to Kingaroy. We've looked at all the profiles and scared ourselves silly thinking about the hills.

The lady at the Yarraman Caravan Park was strongly against us taking the link along the old stock route to Nanango. "It's full of washouts and ruts, it's muddy and slippery" she said. "You'll be pushing your bikes the whole way." Not to mention having to go right down yesterday's big hill to start from the bottom.

Turns out the lady is big into trail bikes, and she gave us the low down on a route starting at the front gate of the caravan park with no loss of altitude.

Boy, were we glad we listened to her!

Before we left we had an orange bonding moment in the Caravan Park carpark.

The state forests around Yarraman were initially set aside in 1901 during the timber boom and are now part hoop pine plantations and part native forest, managed for conservation as well as timber production. They are crisscrossed by a maze of Forestry and trail bike tracks and also border on the Meandu mine which supplies the nearby Tarong Power station.

"Go up the horse track beside the road", she said. "That'll keep you away from the traffic until you go into the forest."

It was beautiful in the forest. The head wind couldn't reach us, the sun couldn't burn us, the road surface was perfect, and it was downhill until we reached Rocky CK.

And then it went up. So we walked. And walked. But we knew a payoff was coming, so we were happy. It was nice walking in the forest.

We had a final view of the power station and then the downhill was about to begin.

And what a downhill it was. The views were stunning, the road went on and on, down and down. There were no cars, which was a good thing because after 161km on the rail trail I'm having trouble remembering to stay on the left.

And the downhill lasted all the way into Nanango. We even got a sweet little shared path for the last km or two.

Along the way we got the message that SE Qld had entered a snap 3-day lockdown due to a Covid hotspot. Thankfully we left the affected LGAs two days ago, but we are busy developing alternative plans in case Covid disrupts the original one. I think we're up to plan Q, but we're aiming for the full alphabet to cover all our bases.

We have our own ensuite with our tent site in the Homestead Caravan Park, so now we can charge our phones in the bathroom instead of lurking in the camp kitchen. Yay!

Livestock of the day: kangaroos in the paddock behind the Caravan Park.

Home for the night: Homestead Caravan Park, Nanango.

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