Looking for ~5km walk to bush camping? 5yr old kid

[colebags]

Hi there,

I am new to Brisbane, looking to introduce my almost 6yr old daughter to the joys of overnight hiking. I have looked here and on NP websites to try to find a bush campsite ~5kms from a car park, within 2 hours of Brisbane, nothing seems to quite work. Am I best going to O'Reillys and doing 2 x day walks? Sort of defeats the purpose. Bithongabel would be superb, but day 1 is probably a bit far at 13km. A swimming location would be a huge bonus!

Any help most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Marcus

[cams]

Lower Portals at Barney? NP's website says 7.4KM return.

[Gadgetgeek]

Lower portals isn't a very level track, but it is nice. Watch your weather though, as that river funnels in from a pretty wide area. A lot of schools do camps in that area, but that also leaves people complacent from time to time, and they do get in strife. It should be alright with a full day to walk nice and slow though.

There is lots of good stuff around Mt. Allen and Conondale, but thats a drive for you.

[colebags]

Hi cams and Gadgetgeek, just returned from lower portals, we loved it, an up and down track with lots of "obstacles", but never more than 200m up before it changed again, so the variety kept us entertained. The campsite was lovely, the creek amazing for kids rockhopping, and a really lovely moment in my daughter's life. Also loved my first foray into the bushwalk.com chat forum, really grateful for your input.

Thanks.

[Gadgetgeek]

Great to hear, There are a lot of walking tracks and places to go around the sunshine coast, the fact that info about public and privately held camping areas is a bit scattered doesn't help one make decisions though.

Just stayed at neurum creek bush retreat for a weekend, pretty nice campground including fire-pits, but with some cool stuff to see just up the track, including some day hikes. There were campsites in the park as well but I don't know much about them. Lots of kids at the campground, and it seemed like it sort of catered for that sort of group. the national park track was a pretty good drive, but you'd want a little bit of clearance and ideally 4 wheel drive to do it, could be done carefully without, but a very rocky track, and steep.

[colebags]

Great, thanks, will pencil it in for next outing.