26 October 2016 - Warwick to The Head of the Condamine River

At 10.30am, after completing household duties, we headed off to The Head, about 60km away.  It is the beginning of the vast Condamine river which makes its way westward across Queensland to ultimately join up with the mighty Darling River.

On the way we passed through the town of Killarney where we had morning tea at the town's park.  The park had two beautiful flowering trees in full blossom.

261016 Flowering tree at Killarney

Blossoms from the flowering tree at Killarney

After Killarney we visited three Condamine River  water falls - Browns Falls, Daggs Falls and Queen Mary Falls.  

261016 The site visit for today

The track into Brown's Falls was all but non-existent and, after a period of struggling backwards and forwards across the stream, we called it a day.  A couple walking with us did the same thing, particularly after the male member of the team ended up with both feet in the water to avoid tumbling in.  Oh to be young again!

261016 The stream (unnavigable for us) up to Browns Falls

Daggs Falls were fantastic.  We only had to walk 10 metres from the car park to a lookout, which provided a great view of the falls.  At about 38m, they are not quite as high as the Queen Mary Falls but were nonetheless picturesque, with a fair amount of water coming over them. 

261016 Daggs Falls

The 40m Queen Mary Falls lived up to expectations but we decided not to do the circuit walk to the bottom of the falls - for fear of being late for our lunch.

261016 Queen Mary Falls

261016 The stream at the top of Queen Mary Falls

Near the top of the Queen Mary Falls we came across a spectacular mass of yellow blooms from a Jacksonia Scoparia. It is commonly known as dogwood, and is a native species of a pea-flowered, greyish, leafless, broom-like shrub or small tree that occurs in the south east of Queensland and eastern New South Wales.

261016 A Jacksonia Scoparia

261016 Jacksonia Scoparia blossoms up close

261016 Jacksonia Scaporia showing the needle-like leaves

Lunch was at the Spring Valley Cafe on the side of a hill overlooking The Head and over the valley to Mount Superbus and Wilson's Peak.  Mount Superbus is the site of a Lancaster aircraft crash, which occurred in 1955.  The meal did not live up to the expectations we had, based on our previous visits to the cafe.  We could best describe the meal as Nepalese, a cross between Chinese and Indian, with a little more emphasis on the Indian. 

The view from Carr's Lookout, not far from the cafe, is beautiful.

261016 From Carr's Lookout - Mt Superbus on LHS and Wilson's Peak on RHS

261016 The view from Carr's Lookout at Spring Valley

We drove to the bottom of the escarpment before returning up the mountain again and heading home to Warwick.