The second excursion we took with my sister, Rea, and brother-in-law, Richard, as to Lamington National Park south of Brisbane. The hour and half drive was mostly through Brisbane's southern 'burbs, but then abruptly morphed into rolling hills and horse country, and just as abruptly pointed us uphill on a chain of very tight S-curves on a road that never quite made it to two full lanes. Fortunately, we didn't run into the big bus we saw at the top!
We had rented an off-the-grid cabin from an architect whose office was just meters from our apartment. In felt in some ways like our eastern Washington cabin - it sat perched on a ridge with nice views to the mountains to the south (in New South Wales) and the hills to the east as they dropped down to the Gold Coast. And like our cabin, we had a bit of work to do to get it functional when we arrived: lighting the propane refrigerator, a bit of a pain, and figuring out the lights that ran off batteries charged by the sun. Although without the commanding view we have at our cabin, it still had a bit of the same isolated feeling.
In many ways, the area looked like home - very green and mountainous... as long as you don't look at the details - the flora and fauna are, of course, VERY different!
One of the fun activities was enticing the local bird life to come pick bits of fruit off the railing of our little deck. We tested all sorts of "bait," from orange peel, to bits of banana, to lettuce ("yuck" was the response to that!). The healthy stands of trees that pretty much surrounded the cabin offered lots of food and perches for all sorts of birds, including these Regent Bowerbirds (we think a female and an adolescent, the impatient looking one in back):
The most popular destination up in the national park is a resort called O'Reilly's. This place reminded all of us of northern Wisconsin resorts, isolated, self-contained, lots of guided and self-guided activities, and, to make the comparison complete, a pricey restaurant. But the well-maintained bush walks suited us just fine, largely through eucalyptus forests where we heard all kinds of birds (including, infuriatingly, the Eastern Whipbird and the Catbird, both whose calls sounds exactly like their names, but the owners stay quite hidden in the dense canopy or underbrush. We did see the Whipbirds late one afternoon as they came down from the canopy to graze on the forest floor.)
O'Reilly's had a "tree-top walk," a boardwalk that rose about half-way up the tallest trees, giving you a sense of being in the canopy, itself. On that walk, we found one the many natural "sculptures" created by some kind of tree or tree vine:
We had rented an off-the-grid cabin from an architect whose office was just meters from our apartment. In felt in some ways like our eastern Washington cabin - it sat perched on a ridge with nice views to the mountains to the south (in New South Wales) and the hills to the east as they dropped down to the Gold Coast. And like our cabin, we had a bit of work to do to get it functional when we arrived: lighting the propane refrigerator, a bit of a pain, and figuring out the lights that ran off batteries charged by the sun. Although without the commanding view we have at our cabin, it still had a bit of the same isolated feeling.
In many ways, the area looked like home - very green and mountainous... as long as you don't look at the details - the flora and fauna are, of course, VERY different!
We took several hikes, including one that passed through a forest and opened up into a beautiful farm and a fine vista. Here's Rea and Richard on the trail:
One of the fun activities was enticing the local bird life to come pick bits of fruit off the railing of our little deck. We tested all sorts of "bait," from orange peel, to bits of banana, to lettuce ("yuck" was the response to that!). The healthy stands of trees that pretty much surrounded the cabin offered lots of food and perches for all sorts of birds, including these Regent Bowerbirds (we think a female and an adolescent, the impatient looking one in back):
We also had a couple of pademelons, a type of small wallaby, bounce around through the yard, stopping to graze now and then, seemingly undisturbed by our presence. And on the road on the way home, we spotted a small mob of larger wallabies, including this one with a little joey's head sticking out of mom's pouch:
O'Reilly's had a "tree-top walk," a boardwalk that rose about half-way up the tallest trees, giving you a sense of being in the canopy, itself. On that walk, we found one the many natural "sculptures" created by some kind of tree or tree vine:
One final similarity to our eastern Washington cabin was the relative lack of light pollution and, so, the explosion of stars we saw each night, including the Milky Way and a vivid Southern Cross. We (at least those of us who were awake) enjoyed some splendid sunrises like this one:
All in all, a very relaxing and fulfilling - in a Mother Nature sort of way - four days in Lamington National Park.
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