We arrived at Dandabah campground, of Bunya Mountains National Park, late Sat morning, having braved dirt roads and steep mountainsides in our new (second hand) motorhome. If you haven’t yet, you may want to read about our journey here.

It was a picturesque drive up the mountain and then the short trip down the valley to the campground, only to then be greeted by a wall of campers! Yep, that almost football field sized camping area was pretty full! Everyone was in a ring around the outside, so we squeezed our motorhome into one corner, leaving the centre area still free for the boys to kick a soccer ball around in (till yet more campers arrived…).

The grass was nice and green, wallabies lazed around the place, and there was plenty of bird life around. Just a pity we dislike people! Sorry, I meant to say that despite it being a little more crowded than we typically prefer, it was a very nice place to stay and enjoy.

As per the previous night, set-up only took a few minutes, so after a rest we had a look-around. As well as the campground there is a day use area, along with a general store, cafe/restaurant, and a logging museum full of rusting old stuff and other bits and pieces. I tell you, that skull of the last working bullock in the area was huge! Musta hauled some big logs that one! If skulls are not your thing, there were plenty of saws, axes and explanations of the old logging equipment, processes and the people who worked there.

We set off on a 4km hike to take in some of the rainforest, waterfalls and look-outs.The rainforest was nice – very similar to Maleny. Forgive me if I don’t gush too much, but having lived at Maleny for several years it was all very familiar. Still nice and beautiful though. You are going to have to excuse the quality of photos – I really must get a good camera soon (Nicole’s reasonable point and shoot recently died)! These are from my phone, with a filthy dirty lens cover….

One thing I did notice was the large amount of bird life around. You could see all sorts, and hear their calls. I never got into being a binocular wearing log – I’ll leave that to my sister Amy – but I’m sure the species count would have been high!

On return to camp we tested out the stove in the motorhome (it works), got our torches out for the night (that battery…), and sat around and rested – as you do when camping.

Sunday we had planned to do a 10km circuit walk, but the boys protested loudly. Jonathan was just being a sook (don’t feel bad for them – they’ve done several walks that long), but Daniel’s complaint was valid (didn’t want to stuff himself given an all day futsal competition Mon, and cross country Tues – which he’d been training for). Instead we packed up and drove to the other end and did a 5km return walk.

And that ended our stay at the Bunya Mountains!

Hopping into the motorhome to return, we thought we smelt gas, but a check of the gas bottles confirmed they were definitely turned off. Returning to Brissy via a different route, we headed down the south western side of the range to Maclagan, then Oakey. Not surprisingly it was even drier out that way. Lunch stop at Toowoomba followed by the final leg into Brisbane.

Except that half way to Brissy, I started noticing this hissing and spitting sound in the cab. Pulling over at the top of a hill it took me a while to work out where it was coming from – under the drivers seat! Yep, the two vehicle batteries are located there and one of them was boiling hot, hissing, spitting and emitting smoke! That is not a good thing…… It also suddenly explained the many smells we’d experienced in the motorhome. We’d noticed quite a few odors (including that gas one), but I’d just put it off as dealers cleaning/detailing chemicals drying out and burning off thanks to the hot engine bay. But nope, turns out for hours we’d been breathing in lovely acid fumes, hydrogen gas, and whatever else batteries output when in the process of self combustion! Thankfully none of it must have reached sufficient concentrations to spontaneously explode or cause a fire, which hydrogen can tend to do!! Using the windows for air conditioning was a good decision!

It took a while to diagnose all this, and work out what to do. Not having brought any tools didn’t help (a nearby motorist who pulled over to talk on this phone was roped in to help with that!). I couldn’t start the vehicle with that battery disconnected, so ended up connecting it to get the engine running, then disconnecting to prevent the formation of a motorhome fireball, and then driving home – being careful not to stall it. The fun and games we go through to have a good weekend away! In the scheme of things batteries are pretty minor (consumables almost) so if that’s the worst that happens over the next year I’ll be very pleased!

So despite the somewhat inglorious ending, we had a good time and enjoyed our first trip in our motorhome. Many more to come!

 
Postscript1: Monday morning I sent a polite but firm email to Talvor about how the motorhome wrecked our holiday and the terrible dangers it exposed my wife and kids to (or something like that…. 😉 ). They have agreed to replace all the batteries!
 
Postscript2: Well done to Daniel – he came second in his cross country! Lucky we didn’t make him do the 10km walk!