Through Dayboro I rolled.
By paddocks unnumbered, I drove my way here to the cottages beyond the Brisbane City to take back the free time my work life has stolen. For my will for relaxing is as strong as yours and my husband is great.
You have no power over me!
… Well … ok, you had the power to make me book an overnight stay at the beautiful Dayboro Cottages. But other than that …
You have no power over me!
The township of Dayboro, Queensland, is located just over 10 hours by motor car from Sydney Harbour – or an incalculable drive from the Eiffel Tower in France (Google maps wouldn’t even bother). In our opinion, still worth the petrol if you can sort out your sea-going tyres.
If you’ve decided to visit Dayboro but want to start from a more sensible location – it’s about 56 minutes from Brisbane City.
Before you head on to the Dayboro Cottages for a glorious country retreat, stock up on provisions at the local IGA or butcher in town. Note that it is against the law to leave the main street without grabbing a sweet treat at the Dayboro Bakery!
We purchased an apricot Danish and a vanilla slice so we wouldn’t go to prison – so tasty and law abiding! My husband and I are both getting older, so had the obligatory “we could have shared this” conversation as we both guarded and enjoyed our own sweet treats.
There are 5 cottages on the property to choose from, in 3 different styles:
We enjoyed an overnight stay in one of the Valley View Chalets, named ‘Montana’, which is the first cottage as you come into the property. You can call the chalet ‘Hannah Montana’ if you like, and they don’t even kick you out.
All cottages are fully self-contained with kitchen and laundry facilities – and even include cling wrap! I assume that’s for if you want to wrap up a llama to take home.
Why am I talking about llama’s all of a sudden? Have I gone insane? No!
In past years, the Dayboro Cottages have had llamas on-site and offered visiting humans a chance to take a llama for a walk. Due to recent tough weather conditions, they’ve had to re-home their llamas and sadly no longer have any of their own for you to pat – although the llamas do still lure you in on the website.
Never fear though, the neighbours have a few alpacas and a llama on the property – we SAW them! They don’t belong to the Cottages, but you can still enjoy staring at them through the kitchen window as they live their best lives in an area off to the side.
All cottages are allocated one carport space each, which I know is the first thing you wanted confirmed. The ‘Montana’ cottage has direct access from the carport to the front door so you can just roll right in!
The carport has a wooden floor, and there was a moment when I thought I was driving onto the verandah – but it was all good, and my little Suzuki enjoyed his own covered car space.
Checking in to your cottage is a no-contact breeze. You’re sent a text message in the morning like a secret agent, giving you some directions and reminding you of your check in and out times. You can check in from 2 pm onwards unless otherwise arranged, or you can give them a cool $25 to get in at 12 (if your cottage is clean and ready). Tap your entry code into the key box on the door of the cottage, and you’re ready to relax! Well … go inside first, there’s some seating in there.
There’s a sign on the back of the front door, reminding you that the local wildlife are snoops and really want to live indoors if they can. Make sure to keep your front door locked, as chicken-riding snakes or wandering animals might come in and join you on your special weekend.
We’d only been in the cottage for about 10 minutes before we realised we should have booked more than one night away.
The cottage is a cosy one-room haven with an amazing view and a good sized bathroom with shower, toilet and sink (don’t confuse them).
Some nice live plants are dotted around for your oxygenation too, which I really liked for some reason. It gave things a homier touch, and isn’t common to see in a lot of places we’ve stayed.
The king sized bed is comfy, and sports blue sheets and a floral comforter – all very clean and tidy.
A washer and dryer hide in a cupboard as you come through the front door (potentially nervous about that chicken-riding snake from earlier) – which is a nice feature for a cottage, and not something we come across a lot in cottage-style accommodation.
The small couch in the living area gives you somewhere else to chill out when you’re sick of bed, small dining table for two, or verandah – though could you ever get sick of verandah?
Speaking of the verandah – there’s an egg shaped chair out there. I spent too much time wondering on the design and why there was a hole in the bottom. Probably aliens. It’s usually aliens.
The highlight is most definitely the view – gorgeous. Looking out onto the Dayboro valley – a telecom tower to rest your eyes on if you get sick of the natural views. Its also a reminder that your phone works perfectly well here, so you can sneak back on-grid if you need an internet fix.
Picture it – you’re sitting on the verandah on one of the human or alien chairs, and feel the warm breeze blowing through the trees and into your eyes, making you grimace in a nice way. A cow bellows in the distance, voicing his best dinosaur impression as the birds loop in the air currents and dart glances towards your table looking for left-over bits of apricot danish. That cow is really shouting now – he must also want danish. Sadly, it’s not his natural food.
And scene.
I enjoyed that the outside verandah isn’t too buggy. Sometimes nature gets all over a nice verandah – but the ants seemed to keep to their own section of side wall. We were lucky that there were no flies, wasps or kookaburras trying to get their feet into our coffee either. You can hear a bit of road noise, but mostly it’s fabulous bird song and that one cow that won’t shut up.
Let’s jump back inside for a minute. The kitchen is fully equipped – all the cooking utensils you could probably need plus some oil and salt/pepper and that cling wrap that I’ve already mentioned. No little biscuits or hot chocolate sachets though – which I would have handed over the cling wrap for in a heartbeat.
I was pleased to see that they trust you with a full sized kitchen sponge (or scourer). We find a lot of accommodation options now will cut your sponge into quarters and give you one corner to wash your plates with. Not here, Jeremy. Full sponge.
Full. Sponge.
The shower is small, but large enough for all your bathing needs, and has decent water pressure. Be careful not to lean against the tap and turn the shower off while you’re in there though – I’ve heard that can happen.
Anyway – did I tell you that we saw alpacas?!!
We heard trampling in the underbrush around our cottage and thought it was just a Don Burke (bush turkey) scratching around – then saw a human lady walking a few alpacas (or maybe llamas) into a side gate area which was just next to our cottage.
Such fun! Much alpacca!
We had a wonderful time at the Dayboro Cottages and would definitely recommend to family and friends (that’s YOU!).
A night or two at the Cottages would make a wonderful gift; act as a fountain of youth; be a great setting for that book you’re writing; and probably make you smarter, funnier and ready to tackle whatever the world throws at you.
Treat yourself x
While we were in Dayboro, we dropped in to the Dayboro Art Gallery and treated our eyes to some local art!
The Gallery is open 7 days a week, and staffed by local artists and volunteers. The art displays are on rotation, so there’s always something new and exciting to see.
Our eyes loved one of the pieces so much, that we took it home.
We chose a piece by artist Trevor Ryan called “Township”. The colours, framing and depiction of a small country town really spoke to us. Only in our minds and hearts, but it was enough to convince us to take it home.
