The Gorge Camping Reserve near Aratula, SE Queensland.

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”

Anzac weekend we headed away with a Social Camping and 4wd Group to The Gorge Camping Reserve

The Gorge Camping Reserve is near Lake Moggerah, which is located within the Scenic Rim region of south-east Queensland and is one of those places that you hear about via word-of-mouth.  It is a privately owned camping reserve and is really only a ‘bush camping’ reserve although there are a couple of toilets up near the entrance and a couple of bush showers there as well.  The owners limit the number of campers allowed at any one time so you can be guaranteed to set up in your own little piece of paradise with little interruption from other people.

The Gorge is located right on Reynolds Creek and is the perfect spot for swimming or canoeing.  The track into the bottom camping section is probably only suitable for 4WD especially if it happened to be wet, although we did see a couple of people come down in cars and one group even towed a caravan in, albeit with a 4WD.  We picked a spot and positioned our tent so we had a lovely view of the creek and there was also a spot for a camp fire, but didn’t use it because we used the main fire. Once setup we walked around catching up with everyone and did a bit of exploring.

After lunch we then jumped into the car and took a drive down to Lake Moogerah. Lake Moogerah is a picturesque destination, popular with locals and tourists to the area. It is popular with boating, water skiing and jet skiing enthusiasts. Public access to enter Mt Edwards National Park and beautification of the picnic areas around the lake have added to its appeal as a tourist attraction. We checked out the Dam wall and gave Shari (our dog) a run around in the park. We have already penciled in camping at Camp Moogerah in the future. We headed back to the camp site and headed to the main fire for some yarns and drinks.

The next day we were up and early for a trip to Stanthorpe. Our first stop was Vincenzo’s, which was twenty kilometres short of Stanthorpe on the New England Highway. It’s a wonderful delicatessen, café and wine store owned and run by a fantastically, quirky Italian man. His shop stocks everything from olives to salami and macadamias to merlot. My personal favourite was his homemade tomato relish with chilli. On the move again we hit the Markets in the Mountains at the showgrounds. Kim went in while I took Shari for a walk around the grounds. We then headed to the town centre and walked around and checked out a couple of shops that were open. We then stumbled across a car and boot market at Woolworths. Getting towards lunch we decided to head back. On the way back we took a detour at Vincenzo’s to Castle Glen.

Castle Glen Australia started its life in 1990 when the vines Chardonnay, Semillon, White Muscat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and many alternative varieties. Traditional English style Liqueurs and the 'World First' Crème Liqueurs followed to become a large part of the business through the late 1990's and early 2000's and now boasts a range of 500 plus truly unique products. In 1994, Cedric designed and built "The Castle" - an iconic building sitting in the heart of the Granite Belt. Kim picked up her favourite Musk Liqueur and a Green Splice.

Back to camp we headed back to the fire for some more yarns and drinks and the next day packed up and headed home. Looking for the next trip.