2026-03-14
We started the day with a tasty breakfast of hash browns, bacon and coffee (ok Lea had tea), although to be fair, this wasn't the start of my day, I went for a wander first, and found a Red-necked Wallaby, female, carrying a joey in her pouch.
After breakfast, we got ourselves organised, piled in to our car, and drove out to Mudlo National Park to go for a short walk. It was meant to be a 30 min circuit of about 1.2km, but part of the path crossed a creek bed, which I presume is usually dry, but very much wasn't this time, so we back-tracked, and did the other half of the circuit as well. This meant we actually did about 2km or so, and so it was time to head to Goomeri for lunch when we got back to the car.
We opted to go to the Goomeri Bakery and Café and this was an excellent choice. Well worth visiting if you're in the area for the various pastries and sweet treats alone. After lunch we wandered along the road looking at the other shops, before stumbling across a confectioner and ice-creamery. Which of course we had to go inside, as is the unwritten rule associated with such stores. We came out with some white choc and raspberry slab bars, some chocolate honeycomb, a white chocolate frog and a caramel filled echidna.
Now that we had chocolate though, it was time to make our way back to camp, but not before a small detour to Kincombi Falls. There are three lookouts here. We set off for the 3rd one, which started with a 10m descent down narrow concrete stairs with no railings, and the ground falling away on both sides steeply, followed by a 5m section with one railing that had sheer drops on both sides, and then more railingless stairs. It was at this point we bailed on this lookout and went back up. The 2nd lookout though was also a steep descent, but at least had chainlink fences and railings all the way down and around the platform that sat on the edge of the deep gorge. From here we could see the falls and the 1st lookout (which was also railing-less and also pointing away from the falls). The falls themselves had water flowing over them, but were not particularly impressive. Back to the car, and back to camp we went.
I checked on dinner (which I'd put on in the morning) and it was still cooking away (slow cooked beef cheek ragu), so I grabbed the camera and went for a walk around the caravan park, having a good look around and checking for wildlife. I spotted several birds, some of which are below.
Pale-headed Rosella
Pheasant-Coucal
Back at camp, Mum and Dad brought around a table and chairs and we setup outside our van with a view to having dinner outside as the was a lovely breeze. I finished cooking dinner, adding gnocchi to the ragu and cooking that out, then slicing the now very tender beef cheeks and putting them back in the ragu and reducing the liquid.
While waiting for the ragu to reduce, we were visited by a Kookaburra and a pair of cheeky Rainbow Lorikeets. I grabbed a dried date from the van to offer to the lorikeets, who proceed to use me as a perch while feeding.
The lorikeets are 2/3s of the date, and so I left the rest on the table and within seconds the kookaburra had taken off with that. It then went back to hunting for lizards and earthworms.
Dinner, was delicious and the perfect amount for four people.
After dinner, we sat around and talked, and then the stars came out so we watched those until the clouds obscured our view.
Tomorrow we pack up and head home having successfully tested the van and worked out what we forgot to pack.