As we made the transition from Ipswich City Council into Scenic Rim Council it meant a zonal change from large single dwelling properties to farm land. We didn’t think of it much but what we weren’t expecting was the amount of harvest files. And as it got hotter more and more of them came out. The boundary change also meant the end of wide roads which turned into single vehicle roads and which eventually then turned into gravel roads – the gravel roads that we had been seeking. As this was originally a series of old farming roads in the area that had the railway line doing the majority of the heavy hauling to the east in the early 1920’s it was largely straight (until you got to property lines where it was a sharp turn to the east/west following the property line before a another sharp 90 degree turn to then travel south) following the contour of the rolling terrain. As soon as you got to the top of one crest you could see the road go down and then up the other side and every now and then you could see the next crest on the higher hill.

By now the sun was up and with the rolling hills and with no shade we were starting to feel the temperature as it rose into the high 20’s. As we made the turn off from the gravel farming roads onto the bitumen again the temperature felt instantly hotter as a result of it absorbing the heat from the sun and a few km down the road the temperature had already reached 31 degrees. The road wasn’t too busy. Between Rosevale and Aratula we only had 3 cars overtake us – those 3 of which were all a couple km out from Aratula. When the road turned back to gravel, rode next to the Bremmer River and we had some shade from the sun it felt a lot cooler even though it was still 33 degrees. As there were no cars around as we rode along the dirt roads all the yellow butterflies  would fly out from the tall grass on the fringes of the road. Bronwyn was recording a view of this as I was riding along and all the butterflies flew out. At least she thought she was until she went to stop recording and heard the recording start chime. It was at this point an oncoming milk tanker came past which had caused the butterflies to come out. As a result  as we were riding along no more butterflies came out from the grass much to the disappointment and annoyance of Bronwyn.

As we were riding behind Mount Fraser we had slowly been climbing in elevation. Combined with the mountain range/Bremmer River to our right and trees giving us some shade we didn’t quite know just how much we had gained in elevation. As we rode along a short section of wooded area in the distance we would see the valley slowly start to come into view. We had seen how it was greener at the start of the ride but with the extra elevation and a greater view of a wider area we could actually see just how green and vibrant the area had become. Normally the area would be full of grazing cows but during the drier months property owners had either sold the majority of their cattle or moved them to other areas so it was quite unusual to see vibrant tall green grass of this magnitude so close to Brisbane. Along with the awesome view came the return of the sealed roads, no shade and a warmer temperature. Riding next to the river, in the shade with lots of trees and a slight breeze the temperature had dropped to 26 degrees. Within a few minutes the temperature on our Garmin GPS units was displaying 33-34 degrees and increasing. Just a couple km out from Aratula we came across the first stop sign/red light since we left Rosewood. This is when Bronwyn had really felt the effects of the heat. Upon arriving at Aratula we had some lunch and stocked up on powerade. We decided to call it a day and reverted our bail out plan at Boonah. We just had to get to Boonah first – so we decided to take the shorter way there via Fassifern Valley. When we left Boonah the temperature quickly updated to 38-39 degrees on our GPS units. Every now and then there was some shade cover but there was very little. The grass through Fassifern Valley was quite tall with it being taller than Luke in various points.

 As we were descending into Boonah we decided to stop at the park on the fringe of the town to have a little rest before going into town for lunch. From the lookout its easy to see the difference that the rain had made since we were last here in August none more evident by the dry/cracked pond in the park at the bottom now being full along with playfully swimming around. Even though we bailed at Boonah we still checked out the Mt French lookout that looked out over the now very green smoke hazed valley below.