We had started talking about it months prior. Myself and my good mates Andy and Matt. We often go hiking and photographing together, but we really wanted to go somewhere new. Don't get me wrong, there are so many amazing places right on our doorstep, but there is something exciting about getting out where you have never been before.

We ummed and ahhhed about different locations and ended up settling on the Bunya Mountains in Qld. Far enough away that none of us had ever been there, but close enough that we could still have a worthwhile time with only 2 nights away. My other good mate, Robin, was also keen to come along, so we locked it in!

Early on a Friday morning Andy and I started packing the Adventure Rig before the sun came up, and then we headed to pick up Matt. We repacked the Adventure Rig and then it was off to pick up Robin! When we arrived at Robin's place we, you guessed it, repacked the Adventre Rig once again...

The Adventure Rig just before unpacking at the destination.

Next on the agenda was, of course, coffee. You can’t start before sunrise and NOT have a coffee. It’s science. We stopped in at Blackwood Cafe, fueled up on the good stuff and finally we were off! Now my Adventure Rig isn't the largest of cars. In fact, it is probably the smallest... Not really, but it is very small for a 4x4 SUV wagon. If you aren't familiar with it through my Instagram, it is a Daihatsu Terios. A 4 door, 5 seat mini 4x4 SUV. It probably isn't really designed for 4 fully grown men and all of their camping gear, but with roof racks and basket we were ok!

We arrived at our campsite in the Bunyas late morning. Set up camp, had a beer and decided to go for a short hike to scout locations. After all, landscape photography was the main purpose of the trip! We went to Mt Kiangarow first. this is the highest peak in the Bunyas at 1135m above sea level. Our campsite was approx 1100m, haha, so the hike was not a steep climb at all. We decided that Mt Kiangarow didn't offer much in the way of landscape photography compositions, but it was definitely worth the walk. Next we headed to the look out called Ghinghion Lookout. This was a bit further walk, and much more promising! It looked mostly south, so the sun would be rising to the left. There were hills and mountains visible. We thought this might be the place for sunrise. After this stop we headed back to camp and got stuck into some warm coffee as the evening started to cool off. After we'd had dinner and a beer or two, I decided it might be a good idea to try some astro photography at the lookout. It was perfect weather for it. clear skies, new moon, high in the mountains! However.... we weren't to know this during the day, but directly out from Ghinghion Lookout point was the town of Dalby. Only about 50km away, so there was quite a lot of light pollution low on the horizon. We could still get plenty of stars, but it wasn't amazing. After this we headed back to camp and got ready for a sleep. We were having to rise early on Saturday morning.

0330 came and we all got up, smashed out a coffee and some breakfast and set off for our big hike. We were planning on doing roughly 19km in total, and wanted to be at the lookout again for sunrise. We made it to the lookout with enough time to set up tripods and get ready. Now it wasn't the best sunrise any of us had ever seen, but any sunrise is a good sunrise in my books. It is my favourite part of the day, and a privilege to watch the sun rise over our beautiful world!! We hung out for roughly half an hour, tried to get some good shots, and then carried on. The next couple of hours involved hiking and occassionally stopping for the odd photo, eventually reaching the picnic ground that denotes the end of that track (ie. the half way point).

We stopped for some lunch, had a rest for 20 minutes or so, and talked about how to tackle the return journey. Matt took a shorter route back to camp to try and see some new things, while Andy, Robin and I took the same longer route back, albeit with a few variations to the trail. The nice thing about starting early is that even with a long hike you are usually back at camp quite early. I think it was roughly 1400 or 1430 that we made it back. Boots off, snack time and another beer, or two, to relax. And this was sadly the end of our hiking. Although I shouldn't be too sad. We did 19km in one day, a short 3.5km the day before and only had 2 nights. If anything, it stirred up an urge to go back for 4-5 nights one day! There are so many hiking tracks and so much wildlife.

On our final night in Bunya National Park we had a few beers, Robin cooked up his signature Campfire Quesadillas and we relaxed. Andy and I decided to partake in a spot of astro photography around the campsite, which actually worked out quite well as the night was crystal clear again and we didn't have any light pollution! I ended up getting a shot that actually won me a competition! Sunday morning we got up fairly early, had breakfast and packed down the camp. After a stop in Crows Nest for an icy cold pot of XXXX Gold, we finished our journey home. Tired, smelly and quite happy!

Bunya with the boys.