Wednesday, March 9, 2011

09 March 2011 Canungra, Lamington National Park, Queensland

Well we are finally on the road & it feels so good!  Left Maleny yesterday morning heading through Brisbane towards the Gold Coast on the M1.  .  We were feeling  starved for some walking with nature, so decided to give the main part of the Gold Coast a miss & head inland & are very pleased we headed here. Canungra is a little village about the size of Waipu, very tidy & nice with lots of history about 90kms south of Brisbane, 35 kms west of Surfers' Paradise.  But is also at the foot of the Lamington National Park which was the attraction for us.  We are staying in the local showgrounds  for two nights which is very quiet with only about 4 vans here in a very big area.  We have had quite an eventful day, leaving at about 10am to head up the mountain, about 40 minutes of winding, narrow but sealed road.  At times it is only single lane with passing bays & lots of blind bends.  Wonderful views on the way up of huge valleys between the mountain ranges.  It is unusually green, not the typical brown we are used to seeing at this time of year.  Initially it is the typical eucalyptic forest, but higher up turns into rainforest. We headed for a place called O'Reilly's Plateau right on top of the mountain, where there is a rainforest retreat etc.  We had availed ourselves of a map of walks once there, & chose one which went to Moran's waterfall - note the Irish names - the area was originally settled by the Irish who logged the area.  I very bravely led the way telling myself that there would be no snakes as people are walking these tracks continually.  Lovely rainforest trees & vines & gorgeous big birdsnest ferns.  Didn't seem a lot of birds, but we gradually realised that the movement in the small trees were very small  ones who were quite camaflouged & VERY hard to photograph for that reason plus the fact that they never stayed still.  The falls were very nice & the views over the distant mountain range very misty shades of greys - Stu may paint them sometime.  After the walk we headed to the top where the retreat was situated & did a treetop walk in the canopy of the trees.  At one point there is a large tree which grows up beside the bridge, & there is a VERY strong ladder within a cage which can be climbed up into the canopy of the tree to a viewing platform.  As it was about 30ft up I suggested Stu take the camera up, but I suddenly decided to follow - what the heck, you can only die once. That from the girl who doesn't like heights.  I can tell you I didn't look up or down & a little family group waiting at the bottom told me how brave I was.  I thought so too.  Saw & heard a lot more birds up there & managed to get a few photos.  Had intended to do a second walk but time was running out, so headed back down the mountain.  Were lucky enough to see kangaroos beside the road & got a good shot of a young one just posing for us.  Then this evening on Stu's visit to the loo's, he saw a large green frog in there, so came scampering back for the camera.  A few nights ago he nearly stood on a cane toad, so we are being acclimatised quite quickly.  Have only had a sprinkling of rain today & good temperature for walking unlike the first few days in Maleny which nearly killed me.  By afternoon I just flaked.  This evening we are perusing the maps etc again, & searching for the next campground.  We will head for Burleigh Heads at the southern end of the Gold Coast tomorrow & stay for one night, then head down the coast road towards Sydney as Stu has not been that way before. 

No comments:

Post a Comment