Brisbane area Road Trip

We decided that, before heading to Malaysia and our new boat, we wanted to have at least a couple of weeks touring in the campervan which we had just fitted out. We had to hang around the Brisbane area for another week while waiting for an appointment to have our clutch replaced (don't ask!) and were casting about for somewhere interesting to go. We thought we'd exhausted all the tourism opportunities around Brisbane, but, were we ever wrong. After a bit of study, we found a few gems close by that seemed to warrant a visit. So, even though the weather wasn't great, with quite a bit of rain, much-needed in drought-stricken Queensland and cooler temperatures which were very welcome after the heat wave of February and March, it didn't dampen our enthusiasm and we headed out.

First, we visited Lamington National Park. High in the mountains (hills really) you could still see Brisbane way off in the distance, but, it was like we had landed in another world. As we are now in the off-season, the park was mostly deserted of people, but, full of wildlife. Crimson Rosellas flitted in the trees around the van. They are a spectacular sight.

This little bird seemed almost tame and hopped right up to us.

The rather ugly brush turkeys were a little too bold with one jumping right into the open door of our van to have a look.

It was delightful to wake up in the morning to find around fifty wallabies, many with joeys, nibbling on the campground grass all around the van!

Later in the day, we did the 'tree top walk'. This necessitated climbing a ladder, surrounded with a metal cage, high into the treetops. The ascent wasn't as difficult as it sounds.

The view from the treetops, thirty meters up from the ground, was worth the climb.

We did a few more forest walks in the area and encountered waterfalls and forest pools.

Even the trees were interesting with examples of trees being slowly strangled by strangler fig vines and even trees with buttresses!

Next, we headed up to the Noosa 'Everglades'. We hired a canoe and went out for the day into the mangroves. Rain again, but, we saw some wonderful birds, including brilliant purple kingfishers and we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the waterway immensely.

After our canoe trip, we headed back towards Brisbane and rounded out our tour with a scenic drive in the Glass Mountains. The day was cool, but, we did the hike up Mount Ngungun anyway.  It started to rain once we got to the summit, but, the view from the top, across the vineyards, was very nice.