Summer Land Camels, Buy from the Bush Qld Festival.

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The arrival of spring inspires us to break out from winter’s hibernation and embrace the fresh outdoors. A road trip naturally satisfies that spontaneous travel urge. We escaped the hustle and bustle of the city, and made the most of this weekend and explored some natural beauties hidden within our Sunshine State.  We took the 50 minute drive southwest of Brisbane to one of Queensland’s hidden gems, Ispwich. With deep provincial roots and an interesting history and a growing culinary scene, Ipswich has become home to many cool new cafes, restaurants and bars that can't afford to set up in Brisbane. Even a quick wander around the heart of Ipswich will give you a chance to discover a few places you will want to return to. We took a walk to the top of town, past the wares in vintage stores, marveled at the restored heritage buildings on Brisbane Street and stopped in at the Old Flour Mill, Rafter and Rose for breakfast.

Rafter and Rose, in the character-filled Top of Town precinct of Ipswich, is a delightful indoor café plus an open shady laneway decorated with flowering pot plants. Rafter and Rose are absolutely no secret. Actually, it happens to be one of the most popular cafes and breakfast spots in Ipswich. Head through the laneway entrance via the nineteenth century French cast iron gates and enjoy yourself. Rafter and Rose offer delicious coffee, a variety of breakfast and lunch dishes and the most amazing homemade baked treats. Baked goods are constantly changing from cheesecake to croissants to the best doughnuts ever. 

The tiny sign outside doesn't showcase just how good this place is. The breakfast menu is substantial; the coffee good and hot, and service was friendly. We loved it so much that we will be back with our pup (Shari) on the next visit. The interiors are super instagrammable, but who has time for that when the food is so lovely?

From breakfast we headed to the tiny town of Harrisville, which boasts two pretty useful pubs – The Royal Hotel and The Commercial Hotel, and a sprinkling of shops, including an art gallery called the Gardener Art Studio, housed in a private home that was formerly the Royal Bank. It's camels galore for the Summer Land Camels, Buy from the Bush Qld Festival. Many people make the drive out to Harrisville for the inaugural ‘Buy From the Bush’ Queensland Festival at Summer Land Camels. Buy from the Bush started in mid-2018 to help promote regional makers and creative’s and has since blossomed into an online community of bush businesses and side hustles. The property is picturesque and as we drove up the long driveway towards the decorative gates, we were treated to gorgeous views of mist-covered mountains off in the distance.

Arriving early gave you the opportunity to feed and pet the camels. People brought paper bags filled with feed and made a beeline towards the adult camels and the young ones. The friendly camels reach their heads over the top of the fence and gently take the feed from your hand.  The young camels, which aren’t yet tall enough to reach over the top, make do by sticking their heads through the large space in the railings. Taking a tour, you learn that Summer Land Camels is a chemical and GMO-free farm, see how and where the camels are milked. You check out the lab, where the wonderful products are created and learn about the health benefits of camel milk. There were camel rides all day, we visited the onsite cafe and retail store stocking camel milk cheeses, gelatos, chocolates, cakes and their famous camel-cino. We took a stroll around the boutique country markets with a great range of local stalls with beautiful handmade gifts. We ate fantastic food, visited the bar for refreshments and enjoyed the stunning views from this country property.

Shout outs

HanaDina Creations

HanaDina Creations is your one stop shop for everything pretty! Has the perfect accessory to finish off any outfit. A special gift box for every occasion.

HanaDina Creations

Scenic Rim Brewery

Scenic Rim Brewery & Cafe is a small family owned brewery located in the picturesque town of Mount Alford. We picked up a Shazza, Digga’s Pale Ale, Beauy & Blue Spiced Pumpkin Ale and a Ranga Ginger Extra Dry

Scenic Rim Brewery

With small town charm in large quantities, the Scenic Rim is rich in history, culture, art and heritage-listed buildings. From picturesque farms, classic country hotels with world-class hospitality, country festivals featuring local produce, you’ll be spoilt for a choice of things to do in this western pocket of the Scenic Rim.  Other things to consider:

Kooroomba Lavender Farm

Kooroomba Lavender Farm is rather famous, extremely photogenic and a popular tourist attraction. Walk through the six hectares of vivid purple fields before enjoying a meal or wine at the accompanying vineyard and restaurant.

Towri Sheep Cheese

A visit to the award-winning Towri Sheep Cheeses is set on 300 acres with a purpose-built dairy and homestead. Don’t just look around but get involved, by taking part in the cheese-making workshop for the day.

Indulge in a luxury stay

While touring the Scenic Rim, there’s still plenty of indulgence to be had. After a day exploring the region’s attractions, rest your head at one of its more memorable establishments, like opulent Spicers Peak Lodge, the award-winning Binna Burra Lodge, Spicers Hidden Vale, and the homesteads of Mount Barney Lodge.

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Laidley Spring Festival

The Scenic Rim has picturesque roads, beautiful landscapes and country roads ready for exploration with plenty of scenic lookouts and cafes.

The Prince Consort - Four Legged Pub Crawl

Make no bones about it; there are plenty of places outside the four fences of home where city dogs can let their fur down. You know the drill, you face your dog’s accusatory glare as you leave and as soon as you get to the venue you see other people with their dogs. Then you start feeling guilty for leaving your furry pal behind. With an increasing number of cafes putting out a welcome bowl of water, bars where you can have a beer with your 4-legged best friend and a drive-in theatre for dogs to catch the latest movies, there’s even less reason to leave the pooch at home. Throughout August at The Prince Consort in Fortitude Valley, it's was Pawgust time. 

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The Wickham Street pub dedicated the entire month to pairing pints with pooches. Some of the special events on the agenda were a Paws and Pints session on Sunday, August 14, a fundraising brunch on Saturday, August 20 and the event we stumbled across at the last minute “Four Legged Pub Crawl”. Forget regular old pub crawls in Brisbane this one takes you hopping between three Fortitude Valley bars with your cute pooch. The Prince Consort's Four-Legged Pub Crawl was on Sunday, August 28 and took us hopping between three Fortitude Valley bars with our cute pup. Unsurprisingly, it finished off at the 230 Wickham Street venue itself, which is celebrating Pawgust all across the month. The walk started from the Triffid from there we walked up to Stone & Wood's Brisbane brewery, and then a little further over to The The Prince Consort.

Few dogs and owners meet at the first leg of the crawl, The Triffid. This World War II aircraft hangar turned music industry hub is one of the coolest hangouts that Brisbane has to offer The Triffid has carved out a legacy as one of the most beloved live music venues in Brisbane, but it’s also pup friendly. Bring your pup down for a couple refreshing afternoon pints, and send them on their merry way when the mosh pit comes a-calling. If you want a cool, relaxing Sunday afternoon with great live music and a late lunch this is the place to go. Atmosphere is relaxing; staffs were helpful and loved the pups. From midday to 7pm, dogs are welcomed in the outside areas (deck and beer garden)

From the Triffid we moved on to 99 Bridge Street and stopped at Stone & Wood's Brisbane brewery. Synonymous with sunny days and good times, Stone & Wood Brisbane has developed a reputation as one of the most lovable craft breweries. Stone and Wood are synonymous with Byron Bay, and while in Byron we visited their brewery with our pup. The Brisbane Brewery is tucked away in the heritage-listed Trails Ltd Ice and Cold Stores taking over a heritage-listed former warehouse and giving it an industrial fit-out. The venue features plenty of exposed brickwork, steel beams and polished concrete, but still has an open, airy feel, in part thanks to the roller doors that open to let in plenty of natural light. You’ll find 24 taps pouring Stone & Wood’s core range of beers, limited releases, and small-batch brews exclusive to Brisbane. To one side, there's the bar with the working brewery behind, and to the other, a canteen window where you can order food. At the rear is a merchandise wall. The staffs were fantastic, the food was amazing but as you would expect the beer was outstanding! Great experience in a repurposed building Oozing with character, will be back for sure. After awhile we hit the road again following Wickham street to our final destination The Prince Consort.

We entered through the ground floor and into an unassuming, typical English gastro pub that’s a little brighter and whiter than what you’d usually expect, but with the typical pub atmosphere and hospitality we all know and love. We headed outside into The Garden Bar to find a lush, open air beer garden, the perfect spot to soak up Brisbane’s weather with a beer or two. The Prince Consort is a massive, multi-level, heritage-listed hotel (circa 1888) featuring 8 unique, bespoke bars for drinking and dining, all under one roof. Most recently known as the Elephant Hotel, the landmark building has reverted to its original name and has been transformed to its former glory. We had a fantastic woodfire pizza and the woodfired salad.

The event was raising money for Animal Welfare League Queensland. The Animal Welfare League of Qld takes care of approximately 10,000 strayed and abandoned animals annually from South East Queensland. The AWL receives no Government funding for welfare work, relying predominantly on the community for support. Keeping track of the pooch-friendly events around Brisbane almost requires a separate calendar. We look forward to next August.

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