During covid, when we couldn’t do any travel because the state borders were closed, we discovered rail trails. These are old, disused rail lines where the train tracks have been removed, and the corridors turned into cycling / walking routes. During covid we did some sections of the Brisbane Valley Rail trail, and the Kingaroy to Yarraman link trail. We go away for the weekend and base ourselves in a local motel and do a couple of days of relatively easy (but decent distances!) flattish walking through countryside. So earlier this year I asked Michael if there were any more rail trails we could do as I was keen for another one, and this is what he suggested. https://www.boyneburnettinlandrailtrail.org.au/
Michael and Karen set off a couple of days early so they could go do some walking in local National Parks. We set off at 5am on Saturday morning with a plan to meet them in Golembil between 12-1pm. Rather than have to get up a minute earlier than we needed to, I suggested to Russell we wake up at 4.45, get in the car and go at 5.00, and have breakfast en route. Good suggestion. I drove from Brisbane to Gympie and we did a Macca’s drive through coffee and swapped drivers, as I was really feeling quite tired (as usual I didn’t sleep so well last night!). We had decided, as the GPS had us arriving around 11am, that would could have a more leisurely breakfast, and opted to aim for our favourite cafe in Childers - Insane Caffeine.
We arrived there around 8.30am. Whenever we’ve visited this place it’s been absolutely heaving, but today, being a regular Saturday and not part of a long weekend or school holidays, it was quite reasonable. So we felt pretty safe in ordering breakfast, with the hope that we would be able to enjoy it without feeling too rushed. They are not known for swift service here.
I love this cafe because (1) the coffee is excellent; (2) the food is amazing and (3) the decor, with its old sewing machines and bric-a-brac inside, and it’s rusty lawn equipment outside, is just ‘old worldly’. Again today it didn’t disappoint - and they were a bit quicker about the service! One small interesting little thing - I went to the toilet (not so interesting) but obviously no one had used it yet today, because sitting on the toilet seat was a black box - a rodent trap of sorts - and the toilet bowl was full of toilet paper. I wonder if they did that because they have some sort of pest problem. I tentatively prodded the rodent trap to see if there were any inhabitants, and once I ascertained there were not, I lifted it off the toilet seat and on to the floor, and attended to ablutions.
We left Childers at around 9.30 and from there it was pretty smooth sailing until the turn off - I’m not sure which turn off - to a dirt road. Yay, finally we’re on a real adventure. Happy to say that Evie handled it very well. By around 11.45 we were approaching the outskirts of Golembil, only to find that Golembil isn’t really a town at all. We were basically to meet Michael and Karen in the middle of, for want of a better word, a large paddock. There were several caravans set up in a circle, with a couple of rather large women sitting in plastic chairs out the front. One was doing her knitting. Turns out these women are part of “Friends of the Boyne-Burnett Rail Trail” - a volunteer organisation who are restoring the rail trail, given that there is no government funding for this venture. Well these women looked nothing like rail trail restorers!
Michael and Karen had been talking to the restorers and lamented the lack of any form of signage for the trail. The ladies told us where to go to park our car for the other end (Builyan) and gave some pointers for us. So we then set off to Builyan (about 15-20 minutes away) to do the car shuffle, leaving Michael and Karen’s car in Golembil. This is a very small town - literally a community hall and a cafe (which was closed - they’re Seventh Day Adventists). The community hall had decent public toilets (and showers, if you’re free camping!). Karen grabbed Michael’s car keys, and we then all set off to walk back to Golembil, which was anything between 10-15 kms away - information on this rail trail is very vague and conflicting. We figured we would just find out.
This route was a slight, but constant, uphill. Not enough to be too taxing but just enough for you to know about it. The path was quite pleasant, but the ground was relatively soft, so it gave way a little underfoot. The route involved 6 rail bridges, which were all marked ‘no public liability’; but they didn’t say that you couldn’t go on them - which was just as well, because for several of them there was no visible alternative! The first bridge was in pretty good repair, and it had a metal plank along the middle, which looked quite sturdy. We couldn’t see any other alternative as it was quite a scramble down a decent decline to the gully below, so we decided to just go for it. It was actually quite fun.
The next bridge we came to definitely couldn’t have been avoided. It spanned a steep gully with a creek, full of water in it. We had no alternative but to walk across, but it was quite tricky, because this time there was no metal plank, but two, weathered, wooden planks - and the bridge was curved! Being almost twice the distance of the other one, it was a bit scary - I had to just focus on the wooden planks and try not to see through the sleepers down to the water below!
The trail went past sleepy farms and cleared paddocks (with over grown grass). There were several gates to navigate including one tricky ‘bushie’s gate’ which was basically a piece of wire loosely attached around the post - when you dismantled it, the whole gate collapsed! The countryside, whilst being typical Aussie bush / farm land, was actually very pretty - this was a lovely, scenic walk. The bridges really made it quite an adventure though! There were 2 that we could not cross, because they had vegetation growing over the opposite end, so we couldn’t see if we could actually get off the bridge or not. The last bridge we crossed was quite weathered, and as we stepped on the planks, there were many sections where you thought that the wood just might collapse. I stepped onto one that had rounded off, lost my balance a little and thought I was a goner. Fortunately not! But it was a little tricky.
Karen and I arrived back to the car at Golembil at 3:40pm after walking just over 3 hrs. The distance covered was 14.23km. We didn’t waste any time, and we got into the car and drove back to Builyan to pick up Evie (our car). When we got back to Golembil the boys still hadn’t turned up, which was surprising, and Karen started to get a bit concerned. We parked the car and headed to the track head to wait, and about 10 minutes later they turned up, about 45 minutes after we had finished the walk.We then headed to the Miriam Vale Hotel, our accommodation for the weekend. It was almost an hour’s drive from the walk, along well maintained dirt roads. Our cabin is more than adequate; dining table; sofa; TV; kitchenette; shower and bedroom - but the kitchenette doesn’t have a cooktop, and we had brought breakfast items that would need cooking. Fortunately Michael and Karen have been camping the past few days and they have their cooktop.
After showering and getting settled, we moseyed into the Hotel for dinner. This hotel is a real country pub. The front bar has your local larrikins, rough as guts. The room is decked out in Aussie flag bunting that has seen better days; the walls are covered with usual bric-a-brac, including, strangely, various people’s drivers licences. I’m not sure what that is all about!
The next room has a pool table; a couple of long TAB type tables; and a wrought iron stove. There’s a dining room out the back that has a couple of nice tables and the room is decked out in more bric a brac, including; an old radio; a milk urn; some old saws on the wall; and, of all things, the speaker system from a drive in theatre!
We ordered our meals and they were substantive and delicious. We then adjourned to our room to discuss plans for Michael’s Kosciuszko trip at the end of the year and just generally chew the fat. What a brilliant day!
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