It’s 5am on a Sunday and time to get little Orlando up to begin his day. Luckily, he’s always up for an adventure. We make our way to the gym carpark in Wynnum to meet about 20 fellow climbers and it’s great to see half a dozen other kids are coming along for the day too. Once coffees are bought we are on our way to White Rock.
Not too far into the drive, Ollie fell asleep and just after 6am I noticed the sky lighting up with the most amazing colours, which told me I was missing a great sunrise photo op and if you knew me well, you’d understand why I was feeling sad… lol.
We arrive just after 6.30am to set off on our early hike.
During the first part of the walk, about a kilometre in, I started to carry Orlando for a while until we got to some stairs where he came to life and wanted to climb all 39 (yes, we counted) himself.
After getting a nice group pic we proceeded to the final ascent with a little angled climb (20m) to reach the platform before we walked across to White Rock and wasn’t it worth the hike! I’m sure this rock has seen a huge amount of selfies and group pics over time and we made sure to not disappoint it by delivering another 100+ of our own!
*As per Cultural Protocol the Traditional Owners have requested no one climbs White Rock.
*Pictured above is the view from the Main Ridge Lookout.
The trail back was a different one and was so enjoyable Orlando ran pretty much the whole way, bar a few trips where I had to catch him from face planting. The end of this trail came out to a more exposed open trail that we came in on and Ollie decided he had run/walked enough and so it was now time for sitting on Daddy’s shoulders while singing ‘Old McDonald’ and asking me for animals to add to the song.
Another hiking group had decided to do this same hike, but started at 9am, so we bumped into them almost at the end of our trail. I told their leader about the Summer Land Camels Farm we were going to, just over the Ipswich border into the Scenic Rim, and later discovered they also decided to go for a look.
Another sleep in the car for Orlando and 30 minutes later we arrived at the farm and boy was he excited. After everyone devoured their camel burgers, camel hot dogs, camel steak sandwiches, coffee made with camel milk and even camel milk gelato, we made our way to feeding of the camels and riding them.
Ollie fed them a few bags of hay and even kept trying to feed them from an empty bag he was having so much fun. No riding for Orlando, but two of the little girls in our group did and they were loving every minute of it.
This region certainly has some amazing things to see and I’m positive both these destinations will be visited by myself and Orlando again soon.
