M
mickd
Guest
For sometime now I have been wanting to visit the wreckage of an American fighter plane Beautiful Betsy in KroombitTopsNational Park, approx 450 klm north of home. I had made a couple of prevous attempts to locate and visit the site, both of which had been unsuccessful. This time however it would be different, I had the swag packed just in case and was determined… no matter how long it took…
The general trip plan would be something along the lines of . Cooroy – Woolooga – Biggenden – Mt Perry –Monto Cania Gorge - Ubobo – Kroombits – Miriamvale with a short burst back down the Bruce to home.
So it would be, just before before dawn on Saturday I headed out of Cooroy on my little adventure
Weather looked good, although there were signs of some earlier rain here and there
Saw a few land marks here and there on route to Biggenden
An hour or so into the trip and things were going well (or so I thought) still
doing my usual squirming around getting comfy as is normal for about the first 300 or so klm of a trip. Funnily enough Old Silver was doing a bit of squirming in the rear end herself so we pulled up for a quick check over ……
Hey spike, do you know anything about this .........??
mmmmm real character building stuff this is
A quick plug in the tyre and all was good, but I was now out of gas bombs and although I still had the little hand pump in the kit, but didn’t fancy attacking another tubeless flat with that and I knew there was some pretty average roads ahead. What to do ?
I decided to do a quick back track to Gympie to stock up on spares, grabbed a few more gas canisters and a spare tube from the bike shop, just in case. All in all things were going well, 4 hrs since leaving home and I had traveled approx 40 klm as the crow flys, the plan was looking fragile, but at least I had the swag. Off we went again.
Checked out some more history along the way
And pretty soon rolled into the historic town of Mt Perry
Famous for Copper mining, the discovery of rich copper deposits early 1860s by Henry Dingle, lead to the development of mining town Mt Perry, as news of the discovery spread fast, and many prospectors took up blocks. By 1871 the town had three hotels, three butchers, one blacksmith, one shoemaker, one saddler, two storekeepers, three or four dairymen, one cordial maker, and a school soon to be opened. Many mines and mining companies were set up and smelters built, bringing forth a tide of miners who had heard about the promise of constant employment.
The size of a mining town is invariably measured by the number of ‘pubs’ it could boast. By this measure MountPerry stands high, for it could boast at least twenty-five hotels in its first years. Many of these would have been no more than a bark humpy with a keg set up on a rough counter. Naturally these did not last, and by 1876 the town had settled down to six regular hostelries.
Anyway enough of the waffle, I have other places to see.
From Mt Perry, a quick Detour off the beaten track to visit the Boolbonda Tunnel and it was about this point I noticed a few ominous clouds building to the north
The tunnel was constructed in 1883/1884 as part of a railway from Bundaberg to MountPerry. This section of the line closed in 1960. The significance of the 192 metre tunnel is that it remains as the longest unsupported tunnel in the southern hemisphere.
Continuing North for Monto and the road opens up …. Old Silver was loving this section
Plenty of water in the BurnetRiver
And Not long after the sky opened up and there was plenty of water everywhere else as well..
Never mind, we forged ahead but decided to bypass Cania Gorge and head straight to Ubobo and the Kroombits, I knew if it got too wet up that way I would not get in and yet another attempt would be foiled..It absolutely poured down from Monto through to Ubobo and the rain combined with poor road conditions made for some pretty slow but interesting traveling. But all in all, things were not looking too promising
Still raining
Bugger, although we were only 1 wd I knew that meant we were out as well.
What to do ?
The general trip plan would be something along the lines of . Cooroy – Woolooga – Biggenden – Mt Perry –Monto Cania Gorge - Ubobo – Kroombits – Miriamvale with a short burst back down the Bruce to home.
So it would be, just before before dawn on Saturday I headed out of Cooroy on my little adventure
Weather looked good, although there were signs of some earlier rain here and there
Saw a few land marks here and there on route to Biggenden
An hour or so into the trip and things were going well (or so I thought) still
doing my usual squirming around getting comfy as is normal for about the first 300 or so klm of a trip. Funnily enough Old Silver was doing a bit of squirming in the rear end herself so we pulled up for a quick check over ……
Hey spike, do you know anything about this .........??
mmmmm real character building stuff this is
A quick plug in the tyre and all was good, but I was now out of gas bombs and although I still had the little hand pump in the kit, but didn’t fancy attacking another tubeless flat with that and I knew there was some pretty average roads ahead. What to do ?
I decided to do a quick back track to Gympie to stock up on spares, grabbed a few more gas canisters and a spare tube from the bike shop, just in case. All in all things were going well, 4 hrs since leaving home and I had traveled approx 40 klm as the crow flys, the plan was looking fragile, but at least I had the swag. Off we went again.
Checked out some more history along the way
And pretty soon rolled into the historic town of Mt Perry
Famous for Copper mining, the discovery of rich copper deposits early 1860s by Henry Dingle, lead to the development of mining town Mt Perry, as news of the discovery spread fast, and many prospectors took up blocks. By 1871 the town had three hotels, three butchers, one blacksmith, one shoemaker, one saddler, two storekeepers, three or four dairymen, one cordial maker, and a school soon to be opened. Many mines and mining companies were set up and smelters built, bringing forth a tide of miners who had heard about the promise of constant employment.
The size of a mining town is invariably measured by the number of ‘pubs’ it could boast. By this measure MountPerry stands high, for it could boast at least twenty-five hotels in its first years. Many of these would have been no more than a bark humpy with a keg set up on a rough counter. Naturally these did not last, and by 1876 the town had settled down to six regular hostelries.
Anyway enough of the waffle, I have other places to see.
From Mt Perry, a quick Detour off the beaten track to visit the Boolbonda Tunnel and it was about this point I noticed a few ominous clouds building to the north
The tunnel was constructed in 1883/1884 as part of a railway from Bundaberg to MountPerry. This section of the line closed in 1960. The significance of the 192 metre tunnel is that it remains as the longest unsupported tunnel in the southern hemisphere.
Continuing North for Monto and the road opens up …. Old Silver was loving this section
Plenty of water in the BurnetRiver
And Not long after the sky opened up and there was plenty of water everywhere else as well..
Never mind, we forged ahead but decided to bypass Cania Gorge and head straight to Ubobo and the Kroombits, I knew if it got too wet up that way I would not get in and yet another attempt would be foiled..It absolutely poured down from Monto through to Ubobo and the rain combined with poor road conditions made for some pretty slow but interesting traveling. But all in all, things were not looking too promising
Still raining
Bugger, although we were only 1 wd I knew that meant we were out as well.
What to do ?