Brisbane North-West

From the city of Brisbane you can travel only in a north, west,
or southerly direction. At the northern
edge of the city, which is 60 km from home, you leave the last suburb behind and enter the D’Aguilar National Park
where the road instantly starts to rise about
500 meters until it reaches the
top at Mount Nebo.

Gert asked to stop there for coffee but I knew of a nice place
about ten km further down the road at
Mount Glorious. The coffee shop there is
set up to accommodate bikers, of which there are hundreds, who stop there
during the weekends. On Google Earth (street level) it shows a weekday picture
with about 6 bikes out the front. There are bike magazines to read and bike
paraphernalia including some interesting signs.

We were now at about 650 meters and from here it is all the way
down into the valley behind the mountains which serves as Brisbane's prime
water catchment area, supported by two large dams which look after our water
supply.

At the bottom we turned
right toward Lake Somerset and the Somerset dam. On our left we got a glimpse
of Lake Wivenhoe which has its Wivenhoe dam. The two lakes are connected, which
means that a balance must be maintained between the two. During a period of
prolonged heavy rain the engineers need to stay on top of it otherwise things
can go awfully wrong - as it did some years ago when Brisbane city flooded.



The landscape has now changed to grassy dry hills filled with
grazing cattle, grown for the meat industry. The nearby town of Kilcoy is the
centre of the district and the place where most of the cattle will end up. The town started as a centre for the timber
industry but now the main industry is beef production.



(A week later we were in the area again and passed the ancient
volcanoes just north of the city. These volcanoes are around 20-25 million
years old and only the plugs remain - which is the hard core of the volcano.
The rest of the mountains have eroded away. It’s a nice trip riding around and
amongst these giants. That day we rode to the town of Mapleton along the top
edge of the mountains where the sides of the mountain sharply drop away at
either side. A spectacular ride to say the least.)

Anyway back to Kilcoy

During our fuel stop I received a phone call from my friend Mitchell
who lives in the area. Mitchell (and my Dutch friend Rob) rode their
motorcycles from Holland to Australia back in 2002. Mitchell liked Australia so
much that he stayed and started his own business. Just over a year ago he
bought some land with an old house and has been working hard to make it all
nice and like new again. Anyway, we paid him a visit which was good as he could
also meet Gert. The following week we would be there again to attend to his
wedding -.

Via Caboolture we entered onto the main road system again and
made a quick stop at Steve Irwin's (The Crocodile man) Australia Zoo. A bit
strange when you see all the advertising there, it is like he has never died.

Got home just in time to enjoy Gert’s famous homemade tomato soup
- but not before we first had a swim in the pool.