Girraween NP & Mt Barney

admin Outback Queensland N02

Friday 6 November: Girraween National Park

One full day in Girraween (“place of flowers”) enabled us to do all of the northern walking tracks in the morning – The Pyramid, Granite Arch, Bald Rock Creek Circuit, The Junction and the Wyberba Walk – about 10 km in 3 hours (Wikiloc track).  In the afternoon, the southern walking track to The Sphinx and Turtle Rock took us 2 hours for about 7 km (Wikiloc track). We were very happy to see quite a few of the over 700 species of wildflowers in the park.

The Pyramid from the swimming hole
The Pyramid peak
Kangaroo beside the path
Granite Arch
Goanna going up a tree
The Junction (Bald Rock Creek & Ramsay Creek)
Bald Rock Creek
The Sphinx track
Steps to The Sphinx
The Sphinx
Grass Tree with a crooked stem
Cicada emerging
An orchid climbing up the tree
This trip’s Apollo ad

Saturday 7 November: Girraween NP to Mount Barney 225 km

Sunday 8 November: Mount Barney Lower Portals

We drove to the start of the Mount Barney Lower Portals walk and hiked up and back, about 8 km in 2 hours 40 minutes (Wikiloc track). In contrast to Girraween we saw no spectacular flowers, few birds and no kangaroos. Then we drove on to Kalbar for a night at the showgrounds before returning to Brisbane.

Campers at Mount Barney Lodge – Mount Barney behind
Fresh breakfast damper – 3 hours to prepare the fire, 30 minutes to cook, 3 minutes to eat
The Lower Portals walk starts with an attractive climb up between Grass Trees
Mount Barney occasionally visible
The track has eroded in places exposing the tree roots
The second creek crossing
Approaching the Lower Portals the vegetation changes
The Lower Portals – too cold for us to swim
Some people rock hop further up the gorge
Last pub pic – 1900 Royal Hotel in Kalbur

Our second outback Queensland road trip driving over 3000 km in 3 weeks was as enjoyable as the first. Our favourite places? If we had to choose – Quilpie, Thargomindah and Mitchell.