Montville is a lovely town on the Blackwall Range in hills behind the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Here you can visit art galleries, pottery shops, craft shops and lolly shops, it is only an hour or so from Brisbane and very popular with day trippers like me and my friend Shannon. We left the clouds and rain behind, hopped in the car and headed north to ‘play ladies’ which usually involves lunch somewhere nice, a glass or two of wine and time spent browsing shops and galleries.
The Poet’s Cafe is a well known cafe on the main street of Montville, the building overlooks rainforest and you can choose to sit indoors or on the balcony and admire the view. It is certainly not the cheapest cafe, a gourmet chicken panini will set you back roughly $22 and a glass of Pinot Gris was about $11, however the surroundings are worth taking the time out to sit and relax even if you only want a coffee. Underneath the cafe is the Main Street Gallery, the work of local artists can be viewed and purchased from the gallery, there were a few pieces of interest to me such as the work of Christopher Pope and a couple of less interesting works of art but I’m sure someone else will love them.
There are several stores that any sweet tooth will love, Candy Addictions sells rock candy made on the premises, one of the Gelaterias produces all natural Banoffee Gelato which is divine and across the road is a Chocolate Shop. We didn’t venture into the chocolate shop, our senses were overloaded after the rock candy and gelato, instead we went looking at Venetian glass, candles and leadlight lamps. One of the more amusing sights was a sign outside a travel shop, telling any visitors to the store that if children were unattended they would be given espresso and a free kitten.
The countryside around Montville is beautiful, gum trees, stately homes and rolling hills, not to mention views of the Sunshine Coast. Kondalilla Falls is the sight to see after eating too much lunch or sweets, the 3-4 kilometre walk taking you down hill through rainforest and across a strong flowing creek. The rockpools near the falls are extremely popular with people of all ages, locals and tourists and on a hot day the feeling of jumping into cool, fresh water must be exhilarating. Shannon and I didn’t pack for swimming, we played the tourist and took photos before heading back up the hill, through the rainforest until we reached the picnic grounds where bush turkeys were scavenging for leftovers.
There was still plenty to see in the region surrounding Montville and a local photographer does weekend workshops so it won’t be the last time I go to Montville. The drive home seemed to take much longer, traffic was heavy and the closer we got to Brisbane the wetter the weather got, at times I could barely see the lanes of the road, vastly different to the sunny day we had spent walking around Montville. Perhaps we’ll go to Maleny or maybe the Glasshouse Mountains for our next ‘ladies day’.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Two Black Dogs 