The South Queensland Circumnavigation (June 2015)

Young Ollie decided, when looking down the barrel of the arrival of his second offspring, that a week of tranquil and relaxing distraction was called for. What he actually decided was to rope me in to a week long cycle tour of the South of Queensland.

It made sense, when June offers rubbish cycling conditions locally, to aim for more hospitable climes. So, I confidently left the planning to the man with the inspiration and motivation without realising that he paid little heed to contour lines on maps when randomly picking the towns around our 650k, seven day circuitous route:

Brisbane to Toowoomba

We were credit card touring, so packed light and used our road bikes for the long haul. A delayed flight over the ditch, quick bike assembly at the airport, train out to Ipswich, and an heroic push to make Toowoomba by dusk - failed.

We couldn't find our way out of suburbia due to a Google Map ghost road, but found some helpful, yet bemused, bogans who directed us to carry our steads off-road and over streams to get back on track. Sense of humour failures aside; we made the bottom of the plateau at night and fought our way up a massive incline in the dark, through the stench of incessant, effluent filled cattle lorries belching out diesel fumes. Exhausted and traumatised, we awoke the next morning and lucked-out at an amazing coffee shop that offered redemption through quality caffeine and muesli.

Toowoomba to Kilcoy

Was a breeze by Comparison. The roads out here are well maintained, wide and have hardly any cars. The scenery is a constant scrolling, pastoral scene of rolling hills, quaint towns, big forests and lake vistas. We descended off of the plateau with ease.

 

Kilcoy to Maleny

Only to realise that Maleny was on top of the plateau and along a saw tooth ridge-line. It, being next to the Glasshouse Mountains should have been a giveaway. It's a lovely town full of artisans, retirees and new age therapeutic spas for the wealthy of Brisbane to unwind from their stressful jobs and find inner peace. But why pay top dollar when inner peace can easily be attained through sheer exhaustion and the mere elation of making it to your destination?

My marvellous God-mum lives here, so we included a well deserved rest day by the beach.

Maleny to Noosa

Here, we see the two protagonists hitting their stride, lapping up hills and racing along empty roads. I'd been to Noosa many moons ago but left with a hollow impression. This time round; the sea, beaches, bars, food and accommodation made me reluctant to leave. Before we did, we made a relaxing day trip up to Boreen Point and spent a long lunch at the super cool Apollonian Hotel.

Noosa back to Brisbane

We tried to make it all the way back in one fell swoop but were confronted with broken spokes, more random off-road action through forest plantations and a spate of punctures. Nobly knowing when to call it quits, we jumped on a train to finish off the trip before it finished us off.