Condamine Gorge & Queen Mary Falls 2014

[djhampson]

Just a quick trip report from this weekends trip.

We meet up at the Golden Arches and thankfully I spoke to a few others about the route I'd planned because it turned out that the road I was planning on using has been closed for 2 years. Good trip prep!

So we headed south to Rathdowny and then down Burnett Creek Rd & Fletcher Rd, White Swamp Rd and into Condamine Gorge Rd.

Along the way there were chances to admire the convey and the views while 2 cars had intermittent issues.

Guy had to abandon the trip due to a faulty fuel pump But after Ian cleaned out his fuel line in his Series it behaved itself so much I had trouble keeping up!

After the 14 crossings, most of which were easy but one had a decent amount of water we got to Killarney for lunch. Then some of us went on to Queen Mary Falls for a quick walk out to the Falls Lookout.

From there some went to their cabins or tent while the rest of us made our way home.

Thanks to everyone who came along! And to Scott \ Mark et al who helped re-plan the route.


Some pics...
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/05/894.jpghttps://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/05/895.jpg

[ezyrama]

It was a fun drive, Great weekend with great company. Ralph decided to play silly buggers though. We by-passed the sediment filter at Maroon thinking that was causing the fuel starvation and all was good until we got onto White Swamp Road when it reared it ugly head again. This time we blew down the fuel line back thru to the tank (words of wisdom from Harry) and he behaved himself after that. Luckily I went 1st down Condamine River Road as it was interesting trying to stop after the 2nd crossing with a gut full of water in the drums :o:o. After a walk at the falls we had happy hour on the Mason's verandah we had a nice night sitting in front of a genuine imitation log fire inside our cabin sipping on a few bottles of red. Sunday morning after bacon & eggs on the verandah, we slowly cruised back into Killarney, I fueled up and we made our way across the top of the mountain through Yangan and across to Gladfield, down to Aratula for a coffee. As we left I heard a strange noise coming from under the bonnet, stopped, found the water pump letting go. Filled it up with some Bar's Leak and topped it up with about 1ltr of water. Drove home stopping every 15 minutes to check but only putting about 250mm in each time. Now to find a new water pump.
Cheers Ian

[GuyG]

Ah yes, the joys of intermittent issues. This was the same problem I had on leaving Levuka and 2 days before the Easter trip - but in between its been fine. I have found a couple of other issues along the way which I have fixed. This pump is only 3 years old and shouldn't have given up just yet. I am going to fit an external pump first to check it is the pump and not something else ie wiring, as that's a lot easier than pulling out the tank to get to the pump. I have thought about just cutting a hole in the rear floor but that would only be of use while the draws are removed.

I managed to get about 20km towards home before I gave up and called RACQ - just within the 100km free towing limit. It took them about 2 hours to arrive, and it turned out to be the same people that turned up for the Rosevale Pub trip to assist Tim.

Thanks for the phone call Harry to confirm I made it home safely.