Many years ago, 1971 in fact, one wet Friday night two mates and I decided to explore a rumoured track over the mountains from Brisbane to the Brisbane Valley. We were just getting involved in rallying and any rumour of a "secret" road was impossible to ignore. However, this one was very much doubtful. The North West of Brisbane is backed right up against some serious mountains covered in rain forest and actually national park.
The scenic road up from The Gap to Mt Glorious was a great drive (and one up which a few years later I got to drive my dream car, a Fiat X1-9). All bitumen but virtually no straight bits.
Mt Glorious was the end of the road and you had to turn around and retrace your steps, although you could take the even more winding öne way"road down to Samford, in those days pretty much all farming country. The road was one way every two hours!!!!!!
But we were told of a range of farm tracks which went on from Mt Glorious, further up into the range and eventually down the other side to the Brisbane River valley.
It was wet, slippery, two wheel tracks, probably driven only by farm tractors and about 6 gates. We were driving my Renault 10 (maybe with Michelin Xs fitted
). We found our way down to the Brisbane Valley Highway and headed south towards Esk, intending to go home via Ipswich. The bridge just north of Esk was under about 10 feet of water. The level was normally about 20 metres lower than the bridge. So we reversed our route and got home via Kilcoy and Caboolture (about 2am).
A few years ago I heard they had pushed a scenic tourist road through along a similar route. Over the years it's become very popular with bike groups especially on the weekends.
This link gives a bit of an insight to the Mt Glorious area today.
Day Tripping In Mt Glorious | Must do BrisbaneAnd this details the DÁguilar National Park which is awesome given it's proximity to Brisbane.
D'Aguilar National Park - About D'Aguilar National Park (Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing)Here's the map of our trip today, from the Sunshine Coast (under that annoying little panel in the top right, via Caboolture, Kilcoy, Somerset Dam, Mt Glorious and Samford (the one way road is now opened to two way traffic), then on to Strathpine and back up the Bruce Highway to home. Lunch at the very nice Samford Tavern where we've been afew times before with our friends who live just a short walk away. (and own a few Goodyear stores).
We left home about 9.30 and were home by 2.30. Great day for the first day of winter.
