Three Peaks, Two Lookouts and One Winter Onsie Weekend

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One Friday in June this year, we travelled from our home in Brisbane to Warwick. We went via Cunningham's Gap where we 'climbed' (read: hiked up) Mount Mitchell. It had beautiful views at the top however there were a LOT of weeds on the out and back trail. (Photo is a screenshot of my Strava app)

The road back to Brisbane 

The top had great views, though was quite windy that day.

It looked like all the stones had been formed to make a nice path that suited the Xanthorrhoea trees (grass trees) perfectly.

You can see how windy it is from the way those grass trees (& Caroline's hair) was blown sideways.

Once we made it to the end of the track, we turned around and headed back down again.

Sweaty and satisfied we headed to Warwick to grab intel from the Visitor's Information Centre and did a self-guided walk around town before checking in at our (great) accommodation at the Country Rose Motel. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant that I've forgotten the name of, but where the food was warm and yum!

The massive steel sculpture at Queens Park is a tribute to horses which help build the area into what it is today. I managed to catch this photo at first light as we were headed to parkrun.

Warwick, also known as Gooragooby, is in the Southern Downs Area on the traditional lands of the Keinjan (Aboriginal) Peoples.

 The "Welcome to Winter" (onsie-themed) parkrun was our reason for visiting this regional town. We'd been planning to go to since we first heard about it years ago. We'd bought bright-coloured onsies especially for the occasion and they were great in for this super frosty (cold) parkrun!

A small but welcoming local group with a few visiting tourists. (Photo credit to the parkrun volunteer photographer)

We attended the super small first timers briefing so we didn't get lost. (Photo credit to the parkrun volunteer photographer)

It was cold but hard work in the onsie. I was heating up quicky on the inside! (Photo credit to the parkrun volunteer photographer)

Here's what @consciouscat had to say about it: "The numbers were small, the locals were super friendly (as country parkrun seem to display) and the course was lovely! And cold 🥶 Did I mention it was cold? 😅" (Photo credit to the parkrun volunteer photographer)

My time was a little slower that morning as we had done a pretty decent hike, with a fair bit of elevation just the day before. Most of this run is alongside the Condamine River (as you can see in the photo. (Photo is a screenshot of my Strava app)

We met Gemma, a fellow Uber tourist (& her husband Neil) who were "voluntouring" from Gatton parkrun to help fill in the Warwick roster that day. A handful of us sat in Zarrafas after parkrun for coffee and breakfast, swapping stories about climbing mountains, pursuing new parkruns and chasing snow.

Country Cows

Our Saturday continued with a costume change to something more sensible for a hike before heading north to Goomburra where we had an "active recovery" afternoon with our visits to our "Two Lookouts": Castle Mountain Lookout and Sylvester's Lookout. This was followed by the Cascades walk: a short, twisty-turny hike that crossed the same creek several times!

The road we had to take to get there. Not that deep but a little bit of fun.

A short but enjoyable stroll to stretch the legs. (Photo is a screenshot of my Strava app)

The path to get to Mount Castle was beautiful, but we did have to watch where we were putting our feet!

The castle wall; view from Mount Castle Lookout.

The same view but with us in it. Much better this way ;) 

(Photo is a screenshot of my Strava app of the Cascades Walk)

Caroline (Conscious Cat) as she crossed one of the many creek crossings on that walk.

Me, caught mid step, crossing that same creek. (Thanks for the photo Conscious Cat)

There were many, many beautiful ferns on that walk. Lucky we remembered to look up.

More creek crossings...

Then it was home for a much needed nap before dinner. After searching endlessly for gluten free options for dinner (wanting another new option for dinner on night two) we found ourselves at one of the more upmarket local pubs only to find that at 5pm they were already fully booked for the entire night!

They directed us to another pub nearby, but it was the same story over there.  Warwick was clearly doing well with tourists. We found out that they usually get a flood of tourists in winter, but that with Covid restricting interstate and international travel, their tourist numbers have been through the roof!

We decided to make life easy for ourselves and pulled into the nearby Domino's pizza place and ordered a large, gluten-free, sourdough Vegorama pizza. 

Sunday called for a proper sleep in. We ditched the alarm clock (knowing that my body always wakes up early anyway) and at 6am, while it was still (literally) zero degrees outside, we finished packing, piled sensible layers on and then jumped in the 4WD. While we'd done all the tough roads that needed the higher clearance the day before we were back on the main highway again, headed for Cunningham's Gap once again.

This time our hike saw us on the north side, headed up Mount Courdeax on-route to Bare Rock (and Morgan's Walk). It was cold! So we hiked fast! The views at the top of these Peaks (2 and 3, of 3 for the trip) were fabulous and this trail had far fewer weeds and a LOT of ferns and fig trees It was really pretty and definitely worth doing if you are someone who lives in SE Qld and likes hiking up peaks.

(Photo credit: National Parks, Main Range hiking map sign board)

(Photo is a screenshot of my Strava app)

Mount Courdeax lookout.

The back of Mount Courdeax as we headed onward, towards Bare Rock.

Because I don't like missing out on anything and we figured it was unlikely that we would come back, we took the first out and back trail to Bare Rock (lovely), and then did the second one to Morgan's Walk (pretty average) before making the long trip back down the mountain, jogging much of the way.

Bare Rock: pretty but cold!

It's pretty bare up on Bare Rock ;) 

More Xanthorrhoea (Grass) trees. They seem to grow a lot in these rocky, outcrop type areas.

Once we were off the mountain it was time to take these amazing, tired bodies home. Another awesome trip done.

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