Forget Peru: This Queensland farm offers an incredibly rare experience

Lucy the staffy isn’t supposed to come along for the ride. But as Dan Owbridge and Sue Minto prepare to launch canoes from their riverfront property, their hound materialises after escaping home confinement. There’s nothing for it but for Owbridge to allow Lucy to perch up front, tail wagging and tongue flapping, as his vessel’s surprise figurehead.

Figureheads are supposed to bring good luck. We’re not paddling for long, though, before Lucy capsizes Owbridge’s canoe. I’m paddling with Minto, and we’re busy keeping a straight line while ducking beneath a low concrete bridge, when we spy Lucy taking a flying leap out of Owbridge’s canoe to say hi to another dog frolicking with its family on a “beach”.

Owbridge flips into the water (not a great look when you’re not only the boss but you made the canoe too). Unexpected entertainment aside, this is a stunning stretch of river that’s home to lungfish (a South-East Queensland native species) and platypus. Koalas are sometimes snuggled into the eucalypts lining the banks. It’s also a twitcher’s delight. During our paddle, we tick off jewel-like rainbow bee-eaters, soaring sea eagles, a whistling kite, countless ducks, cormorants, swallows and white cockatoos.

Debris still dangles from high branches after the river’s most recent floods (five times over 2022). The waterway’s source can be traced to a mountain range 140 kilometres north-west of Brisbane above Wivenhoe Dam, which operates as both water storage and flood mitigation. One Tree Canoe is located below the dam. Our eight-kilometre expedition includes six obstacles, including Class 1 rapids (the easiest grade) and partially submerged logs. Before hauling ourselves out at Savages Crossing where a pre-parked vehicle awaits, Owbridge – who knows this waterway like the back of his hand - ends up in the drink again when the dog shifts her weight. This time, his favourite hat is lost to the river. Thanks a lot, Lucy.

They say you should never work with animals – or children for that matter - but The Llama Farm’s Shane Hancock happily does both. The deputy principal fell for llamas while looking after a herd at a summer camp in Maine. Two decades later, he established his own herd on a scenic 32-hectare property that’s a few twists and turns of the Brisbane River from One Tree Canoe (or a half-hour drive).

Today, about 60 llamas – along with a menagerie that includes camels, donkeys and peacocks - call the off-grid farm home. On weekends, visitors can walk a llama on a leash down towards the river that winds along the property’s back boundary.

Before the walk there’s an educational talk. We learn how to tell the difference between llamas and alpacas (llama ears are curved like bananas; they can also wag their tails vertically as well as sideways). I’m paired with the farm’s biggest stud, Ringo, and off we saunter through the paddock to feed the camels before continuing to the water. True to the farm’s motto – “life is calmer with a llama” – it’s a zen-like experience.