Minyon Falls, NSW / Lake Moogerah, QLD

(15/12/2017  –  03/01/2018)

And we’re back on the road again!!!  After we left Mackay we travelled down the coast.   We were going to stop overnight at Rockhampton but decided to keep going and we found a little free camp spot at the Calliope River Rest Area.  It was a lovely quiet area along the river so we stayed here for the night and then in the morning we packed up and headed down to Hervey Bay.

My mum flew up from Sydney to Hervey Bay and we met up with her on the Friday afternoon and we stayed at my uncle’s house for 3 nights.    On Monday we then travelled down to the Sunshine Coast where we stayed with family friends for another 3 nights.   From there we headed down to Northern Rivers NSW to spend Christmas with Andrew’s family.

Whilst we were there, we had a lovely day out at Minyon Falls.

Minyon Falls lookout offers stunning views of the waterfall and rainforest. With easy parking, picnic spots and barbecue facilities, it’s a great day trip location.  Minyon Falls lookout is in Nightcap National Park.

The view from Minyon Falls lookout is the best in the area; not only of the falls themselves, but on a clear day you might be lucky to see all the way out to the coast.

From the lookout, you can watch the cascades flow over Minyon Falls to a deep palm-shaded gorge roughly 100m below.   The tops of the cliffs are forested with Australian eucalypts, like blackbutt and scribbly gum.  At the base of the falls is a beautiful natural pool that was made for swimming.

There are also a couple of bushwalks that leave from the picnic area, including Boggy Creek Walk, which takes you to Rummery Park campground and Minyon Falls Walking track, which takes you down to the base of the falls.

We weren’t really planning on going on a bushwalk so didn’t have the appropriate footwear, so we only did a short walk for a couple of kms through the national park and then returned back to the car.

We packed up on the Saturday and headed back up to Queensland to Lake Moogerah Caravan Park where we booked a couple of campsites with Andrew’s cousin and his family for New Year.      Going back to Qld also meant change of time again!!!

Lake Moogerah Caravan Park is situated right on the shores of beautiful Lake Moogerah and surrounded by the spectacular scenery of the Scenic Rim – everywhere you turn you’ll see mountains!

Lake Moogerah is a popular destination for boating, fishing, water-skiing or for having a picnic on the grassy banks. The lake has been stocked with Australian Bass, Golden Perch, Silver Perch, Mary River Cod and Saratoga. You will need a permit to fish but there are no boating restrictions on the lake and two concrete launching ramps are provided.

OMG, it was so packed there, obviously a very popular spot for campers over the Christmas/New Year break.  There lots of boats and jet skis around on the lake.   Even though we pre booked sites together, it was first in best dressed so you didn’t actually get an allocated site, this was not we were expecting!! With so many people around, how were we going to find somewhere for our caravan to fit amongst all the tents!!! Fortunately we found a great spot and we were only about 30 metres from the Lake!!!

One day we took a drive out to some of the wineries in the area.    We went out to Kooroomba Vineyard and Lavender Farm which is located at Mt. Alford and did some wine tasting of white, red and champagne but we didn’t like any of them LOL LOL.

From there we then visited Bunjurgen Estate which is a 60-acre property situated 10 km south of the township of Boonah, not far from Lake Moogerah.  We did some tasting of their grape juice (which the kids all loved – very very sweet!!!), and us adults tried the Chambourcin Rose, tawny port, white port, cherry port and verjuice (early harvest Shiraz).