04.12.10 Glen Rock Regional Park

We've decided to camp here for the weekend.  Not sure if I learned about this place from My Swag or DERM, but this is what DERM says about it, but it's definitely NOT in Camps Australia # 5 and I seriously think it shouldn't be. 

This is our little secret okay?  

From Gatton, turn right at the sign,

and continue over 16 creek crossings until you are there (yes 16 of them).  

You are driving through the Food Garden of Brisbane the whole way.  We were surprised by how fertile the plains are and what sort of produce is out that way.  Alas, no road side stalls.  Never mind.  As you travel down the valley the landscape changes slowly from wide fertile valley to some excellent cattle country. 

We arrived about 1030 to a dismal day.  It had been sprinkling on and off the whole way, but since we are used to camping in the wet, were not discouraged.  Our first view of this place was 3k's from the front gate ... a restored old slab hut which is now the information centre.

It's filled with information on the Glen Rock area.  Owned by many over the years, many different brands used on cattle here, and some maps showing proximity to other regional and national parks.  A good read and very interesting.

So we headed down to look at the camping area.  I was impressed with the size of each site and the facilities are great as well.  Each site has a picnic table which is under enough cover for midday sun and a bbq with flip over plate.  No bollards here to stop a camper trailer getting in.  They are so large that there isn't an issue with a camper trailer turning around or putting up every piece of canvas in sight!  They are crazy large.  But don't think I'm complaining, it's just the excitement of finding a perfect untouched campsite not far from home, where no-one goes.

Looking south from the northern side of the ring road to the closest camp to the creek.

Looking north from northern side of the ring road to our camp, which is closest to the creek.

 View from the wheel chair ramp to the toilets (it's grassed).

 Looking east from the northern side of the ring road.

This photo taken from the top of the hill in the photo above.  Gotta get phone reception somewhere!

So we set up camp and were blissfully happy to find that we were the only ones here.  No other bookings noted on the website.  Yippee!  Wandered to the creek to check things out.  It started to sprinkle and didn't let up till roughly 1700.  Nothing overly drastic where we were, but it appears that further upstream things were vastly different.  The creek was getting noisier and noisier, but we didn't realise what was happening until it was too late.  We moved from the grassy campsites to the road base carpark on higher ground just to be safe.  Such a hassle, but better to have a camper than watch it wash downstream as we didn't know what the creek was likely to do while we slept.  This photo below shows how it looked late Saturday arvo.

When we returned to the creek the next morning (it was starting to get noisier), we found that it had risen roughly 1 metre and that meant we had no way out.  We'd have to sit and wait for the creek to go down before we could attempt a crossing.   So Sunday morning we headed down to the crossing to see where the water was up to ...

 

As we don't have a snorkel on the ute, and it's about 1 foot shorter than a landcruiser, we decided to wait it out back at camp.  Not so much the depth of the water, although it could go down some to be safe, but the force with which it was going through the crossing.   We'd have to actually get across it on foot first, to remove the barbed wire fence that was blocking our way.  We couldn't get across on foot ... too fast water flow.  We can't stop in the middle of the creek in the car, no snorkel and it would flood the car.  Nothing to do but wait.

And same again on Monday morning.  Sorry boss I guess I'll be late in ... lucky I stock the pantry well!  We'd be fine for a few days if required, but would need some help after that.  I reckon we'd have at least 3 or 4 days extra food in store, but I might up that to a weeks worth ...

Here is the only local at this end of the road, trying to get his fence back on Monday morning.  Even if we made it across, we'd have to contend with his barbed wire fence, so I'm glad that he was doing his best to clear the way for us.  He's flooded in too he tells us.

We climbed that nearby hill once more to get some reception on the phone and let people know we were alive and just fine.  Neither telstra nor optus work out here.  Poor Glenn had to go further up into the hills to get a signal, which was patchy, while I waited at the top of the first hill taking in the view and getting my breathe back.  Just Gorgeous!

During the second night we discovered all the creatures making such noise ... no doubt rejoicing in the rain and wet soggy conditions.  Wasn't much else to do in the situation except investigate your surrounding.  If you go there be prepared to see these guys around camp ... along with cicada's and birds of all types.

Also, this place is covered in 4 leaf clovers ... so be sure to have a good look for them.  We found 10 without really trying, so I'm putting in the lotto this weekend.  I also found one of these but a shame I couldn't find the bird in question.

We decided to have lunch on Monday and check the creek crossing yet again (probably for the 6th time), but the ranger beat us to it, and he stopped at our camp first up.  He made it in, so we'll make it out.  And he was nice enough to keep busy till we'd packed up.  And of course, it started to rain again once we'd made the decision to pack our totally dry camper away, so as you can imagine, it's now up outside the house, trying to dry in this intermittent rainy weather we are having.

All in all a great (forced long) weekend.  I'm definitely going there again, but I might leave it till there is no forcast for rain ... or I might not!!

Trip Kilometres: 320 + trips back to the entrance to see if we can get out which is 6k's return
Trip Duration: 48 hours