Those who have read my previous posts on this subject will know that here in Australia Mothers Day and Fathers Day are both celebrated on a different date than they are in the UK.
Whilst the UK is out of sync with the rest of the world on Mothers Day, for Fathers Day its Australia who are the strange ones. We celebrated Fathers Day yesterday, the first Sunday in September along with just New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
This makes sense really, because most of the rest of the world celebrates Fathers Day in June, which is winter here in Australia. On the other hand, September is the first month of spring which most usually brings with it blue skies and warmer weather.
It certainly did for us here in Brisbane, this is where I enjoyed yesterday’s Father’s Day…
Samsonvale Lake
Samsonvale Lake is a solid but very enjoyable one hour drive from where I live and yet just like last weekend’s outings to Raby Bay after Dark and QPAC, it’s somewhere I had never been before.
I have been to Wivenhoe Dam before, two years ago and interestingly it was also a Fathers Day Out in Rural Queensland Countryside. Samsonvale Lake was different and yet in its way just as impressive as Wivenhoe.
Let’s have a good look around Samsonvale Lake…
Here are some of the lake’s inhabitants…
There was ample parking, plenty of space and a good supply of tables and barbecue facilities around the lake. Even though it was Fathers Day, we had a choice of tables to choose from. We could have had this one…
But this one was already taken…
So we went for this one…
No barbecue for us this time, we decided to go instead for a cheese and French bread style lunch, which was very nice. Mrs Bob found a heart-shaped strawberry…
I thought she was going to give it to me in a loving gesture, but no, she ate it.
I think it was the tranquility of this area that I enjoyed the most though, at times you really did feel as though you were in the middle of nowhere. Well, I suppose we were…
Here is a picture of a rather sun bleached map of the area, just to give you an idea of its size…
Let’s zoom in to where we were, which was towards the right-hand side of the map in a place called Bullocky Rest…
I’m pretty sure we could only see a very small section of the lake from there. Imagine though having this for a view from your own back garden? Whoever lives in this house doesn’t have to imagine it, it IS the view from the back garden…
I’d like to wager that whoever does live there owns a boat.
North Pine Dam
Like Lake Wivenhoe this lake also has a dam, it’s called North Pine Dam, and we were right opposite it…
This lake may only be around one fifth of the size of Wivenhoe, but I enjoyed it every bit as much and had a great Father’s Day out. I was one happy daddy…
1. Great stuff Bob.
2. I live in Fernvale which is an 8 minute drive from Wivenhoe Dam and Wivenhoe is a formidable body of water and a great attraction – craps over Samsonvale in my view.
3. Not sure you are allowed to swim in Samsonvale?
4. I have actually seen (in Western Victoria a few hours away from Melbourne) a bird drop a live snake which subsequently landed quite close to people. Never did find out what type of snake it was, everyone (and that includes me) ran for their lives!
Hi Anthony, and thanks, glad you like my stuff.
Yes, Wivenhoe Dam is hugely impressive and much bigger than Samsonvalle. You are right as well, there is no swimming in this lake.
As for that bird dropping a snake on you, that must’ve been great fun. I assume you mention that because of the video on my previous post…
https://www.bobinoz.com/blog/20520/a-australian-snake-attack-out-of-thin-air/
I think I said in that post that this sort of thing doesn’t really happen, sounds like it does. I think I’ll keep it as it is though, don’t want to scare people too much 🙂
Cheers, Bob