It’s Monday and we are scheduled to pick up a car and drive in Australia. Haven’t driven there in quite a few years, you know driving on the wrong side and everything. I (we) still prefer paper maps. They give a much larger view of where you are travelling with more detail than the digital alternative that shows the route quite clearly but as the scale is enlarged does not show detail on the areas surrounding the route. This severely limits opportunities for spontaneous changes to the itinerary. The paper map was put to the test right from the Brisbane airport this morning.
The route was preplanned and it was quite hard to follow the streets through the north part of the city. We did pretty good until we got to the downtown area. We arrived at one corner, and although it was not indicated on the map, we could not make the turn required to continue on our planned route. We ended up in downtown Brisbane. With a bit of quick location finding we were headed back to try to connect with the street we wanted once more. Again, we could not make the proper turn on the same street we were denied access previously and again we were headed into downtown Brisbane. Debbie finally insisted we hook up the GPS. Funny as it seems we were a perfect spot to make a couple of right hand turns and end up exactly on the street we had tried twice to connect with.
For the rest of the day we toured the Australian hinterland with the GPS and several paper maps as tour enhancers. We did vary from the GPS routes a couple of times and the guide lady was quite persistent that we continue to follow her route. We ignored her and still arrived where we wanted to go.
Our objective today is to tour the Scenic Rim and give our friend B a trip through the Aus hinterland. The trip is a day trip so we spent all day getting to the Gold Coast. It is quite a chill drive and it is a good example of what the Australian landscape is adjacent to the east coast. We did the drive counterclockwise starting on the NW corner.
Our first port of call is Kalbar. It is quite a small place but when we pull over to adjust the GPS to get us to the next place we noticed a sign for the local gallery and restoration shop. We walked in the open door. The lady told us opening day for the new gallery is Saturday but if we were welcome to wander if we wanted. The display is of local artisans and some restoration work done by the lady’s husband. There is some really nice stuff. Of course, with our minimalist packing we did not purchase anything but enjoyed the tour.
Aratula is, according the Scenic Rim promo info, an artsy place with crafts and art displays. Not so. The only things crafty we found were in a café/craft shop and there was very few, if any, locally crafted items and I didn’t see any ‘fine’ art at all. The town is a bit out of the way and I personally don’t think worth the diversion.
Boonah is a bit bigger town. We stopped and wandered along the main street. Some nice old buildings and many eateries, any of which are suitable for lunch or midafternoon snack.
We took the side road to Mount Barney and didn’t really understand what we were suppose to see or do there. It is not explained in the literature the purpose for visiting the area. This would be another place I would skip.
Although we nearly missed it, we did stop in Rathdowny. I think the entire town had 7 buildings. Parched as we were it was time to buy a bottle of Coke or two.
Two more stops. Beaudesert was quite a big center. By the time we got there we were late so we drove right through. If you plan to pause, I would say it would take quite a while to tour.
The last place on our list is Canungra. We were told there was quite an active arts and crafts community there. It is a really welcoming town but we wandered around a bit and did not find any galleries or craft shops to poke our noses into.
All in all we enjoyed the drive and the countryside. Way more laid back than the typical Australian city. Not having been to that particular area it was well worth the trip. Aus is so big and there are so many other places to go it is not likely we will do it again but if you’re in the neighbour hood. Spend a day a do the tour.