Camp Mountain

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Although I’ve ridden some of the trails around Camp Mountain before, this is the first time I’ve ridden to the summit.

I took the long gruelling climb to the top via the “long track”, followed by a fast bone-jarring ride back down along the “short track”. If you speak to anyone who’s ridden up Camp Mountain, and you tell them you’ve ridden up it, the first thing they’ll probably ask you is “Did you go up the long track or the short track?”. The long track is “easier”, because you take longer to reach the top, so it’s not as steep. Even so, it’s a tough climb and I had to walk a short bit that was steep and washed out from recent rain.

The short track is really steep. I had to be really careful riding down it. I think anyone who has ridden UP it must be incredibly fit. (You know who you are )

There are some spectacular views from the lookout on Camp Mountain, including this greate view of the city.

I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself after completing the gruelling climb to the summit.

These tall, straight, blue gums look like something out of a Jackson Pollock painting.

Dalaipi’s Waterhole

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Dalaipi’s Waterhole

In Aboriginal Dream-time stories from this area, “Taggan” was the spirit of the Rainbow.

Whenever the end of the rainbow touched the water, Taggan would leave small crystal stones, and the Aborigines seemed to know exactly where to dive for these prized stones.

Only one or two older, experienced men in a tribe would be allowed to have these stones which they believed gave them special powers to bring thunder, cure disease, or bring rain.

These special men were called “Turwrans”.

One of the great Turrwans of our area was Dalaipi. The local people looked on him as their Rain Maker.

Tom Petrie tells of how Dalaipi wanted to make rain come once, and dove into the North Pine River with his tomahawk to look for a “taggan” stone quite close to where I took this picture today.

The North Pine Tribe believed that in winter, the flying foxes hid under the water where the “taggan stops”, and that they waited till the warm weather came back before returning.

Today I couldn’t see any rainbow spirits, or flying foxes, but I thought a lot about Dalaipi and this place that was special to him.




(Source: “Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland” by Constance Campbell Petrie)

Family Hike

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I crashed the bike riding down the Goat Track from Mt Nebo this week. I got some pretty bad scratches, and suffered a painful shoulder injury which will need a week or two to recover.

Rather than mope around the house, Liz and the kids agreed to come for a hike through one of my favourite mountain biking places. We drove up to Mt Tibrogargan and hiked 8.8km around the Trachyte Circuit in the Glasshouse Moiuntains.

Liz and the kids walk along one of the many trails with Mount Tibrogargan hunched over pensively in the background.

We wound our way up towards the Jack Ferris Lookout which has some great views of the valley.

Liz and Beerwah – two legendary mothers.

Harrison enjoys the view of Tibrogargan from the lookout.

Lilly checks out Mount Tiberoowuccum from the lookout.

This blue healer cattle dog was sitting eagerly on the back of a ute driving past us. Suddenly the driver stopped, turned around, let the dog off, and started driving again.

The blue healer happily ran along in front of the car – rejoicing in his dogginess.

And the driver seemed pretty happy that he didn’t have to walk while his dog got some exercise.

Harrison and Lilly celebrate finishing our walk.

Well done team. 8.8km, 548m ascent, just over 2 hours. Thanks so much for a great time.