DAY 19 - ESK AND BEYOND.... THE END OF THE TRAIL...

 When originally planning our break away, the plan was to spend a night in Moore and then a couple of nights in Esk so that we could explore both Wivenhoe Dam and Esk and surrounds..   We had such a great time in Moore that it was lunch time before leaving, and as we had to be back in Brisbane the following morning, we decided that rather than spend the money to just stay overnight in the caravan park without any real time to explore, we would just drive through into Brisbane and arrive a night earlier.  

We will leave the exploring of Esk to another day...  

As it was less than 100kms to Brisbane from Moore, we knew we didn't have to rush and we did drive into the Dam although I didn't take any photos of it.  We didn't stop in Esk either but drove straight through to Fernvale where we arrived just as school had finished...

What a very bush little town this turned out to be.  Fernvale is another one of those little towns situated on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.  It is renowned for its lovely cafes and restaurants and gift shops, but it is their bakery that we were heading for.  The bakery has received rave reviews from some many travelers that we decided to add it to our Great Bakery Trail that we have created on our drive through the inland highway..

Apparently the Legendary Old Fernvale Bakery is an award winning bakery and cafe. It has been established for more than three decades and their baking team are the winners of hundreds of national pie, bread and cake awards. They have over 160 different flavours of pies, which is the biggest range, they believe, in Australia. Along with many slices, cakes, breads and great coffee!

Considering it was 3pm when we arrived we were amazed at the range of pies they still had and also surprised at how busy it still was for that time of day.  Pete and Maria facetimed us just as we bought our pies, so as we enjoyed them, we also had fun showing Theo all the traffic (especially the big trucks and buses) that were driving past...

Facetiming with our grandson whilst we have our afternoon tea...

Theo particularly loves seeing the big trucks and buses as they drive by and would always want to see more of them.  Fortunately for us, being on the main highway, there were quite a few we could show him...

The bakery has outdoor eating area which is where we were seated, but they also have restaurant seating to.  It is very well done and I took photos...

AFter saying goodbye to Pete and Maria and the boys it was time for us to hit the toilets before taking off on the last leg of our journey...

As we headed back to the car we thought we would just walk into the restaurant area of the bakery.  It was pretty much closed for the day as it was now 4pm.  Still they were happy for us to have a look and take some photos...

It was after 4pm by the time we got back on the road... Not the best time to be driving into Brisbane touring a van.  We were heading in on peak hour traffic on a Friday afternoon.  

We were parking our van at our good friends Ian and Kathy's for the duration of our time in Brisbane.  Neither of our girls have space to park a van.  As we were only get in late in the afternoon, we decided to stay in our van overnight at Ian and Kathy's as we would need to unpack the van to some degree to head over to Dan and Chloe's to stay.  Also as we weren't expected until the following day, it just seemed easier to leave it as we had arranged previously.

We had a far better run into Brisbane than we expected.  Whilst the traffic was busy, there were no hold ups.  We came in on the Western Freeway and then skirted across until we joined the Ipswich toll road which pretty much took us through to Ian and Kathy's and we were there just after 5pm.

It was lovely to catch up with them again.  We had a lovely dinner,  caught up on our news since parting a week earlier and then finished the evening off playing a game of "5 Crowns"again.

The touring part of our holidays has come to an end.  We have 10 days in Brisbane now just catching up with family and helping Chloe celebrate her 30th Birthday.