Petersontravels

We hiked a few more trails in Lamington Natonal Park, all of them near the lodge, as accessing any other hikes in the park means driving for more than an hour, and the road down is crazy!  The first hike was to a tower in the middle of the rainforest.  Some of the trees in Lamington are amazing, like this tree in the middle that is completely covered in vines.

This is called “Mick’s Tower”.  It doesn’t really feel all that safe, as there aren’t stairs to the top, just somewhat slippery ladders.

The top does give you a treetop view, but you can’t really see much more than other treetops.  I was hoping for a better view of the surrounding area.

The best views on the hike are actually at ground level, with some very cool trees you can walk thru.

The hike also includes a suspension bridge.  It was nice to be on a hike with so view people.  The day prior we had loud kids literally screaming during nearly all of the hike, so it was nice to have some peace and quiet.

The main goal of this hike was the “Wishing Tree”, which is impressive.

Particularly from the other side of the tree!  It’s hard to believe the tree is still alive!

We did a little side trail into “Hidden Gully”, which is a gorgeous spot with a creek running through it.

On the walk back to our Villa we walked by the spa, and while we didn’t swim here the infinity pool has a great view!

That afternoon we had one more hike to “Python Rock Lookout”.  The sunlight along this section of the trail made for a couple of excellent photos.

The vines around this tree look like they were purposely wrapped in a pattern.

The views at the lookout are stunning.

Once again we had the trail to ourselves, which is hard to believe given the views here.

You even get a view of Moran Falls, which we hiked to the day prior.

One last view from Python Rock Lookout.

Lovely sunset on our last night in Lamington.  This shot was from our balcony.

On the way back towards Brisbane we stopped at “Kamarun Lookout”.  You can see the Brisbane skyline way in the distance.  The weather was perfect!

Mount Lindsay dominates the mountain range views.  I’ve seen it for days and a local at the lookout let me know the name.

This is a rare portion of the road that was actually straight.  This is a two-way road, with a lot of sections that are one-way, so you are constantly hoping you don’t run into another car on the one-way sections.  Reminded us of crossing one-way bridges in Iceland.

One last tidbit from O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat.  I’m very curious to know the reason they felt they had to put this sign above the toilet.

On the way to our final hotel at the Brisbane Airport we stopped at the top of Mount Gravatt, as I had read you could see Koala’s in the wild here.  First up, another Laughing Kookaburra.  They never seem to laugh when I’m around!

We did spot one Koala in a tree.  We could barely see him.

The view of Brisbane from Mount Gravatt is excellent.

Our flight left the next morning at 1030, and I was able to get one last aerial view of Brisbane.

Looking south down the coast is Surfers Paradise along an area called the Gold Coast.  I visited Surfers Paradise back in 1987, and it was so much smaller, just a beach town.  Now it’s filled with skyscrapers.

We passed numerous islands as we flew east.  This section of reef extends north from “New Caledonia”.  Really beautiful view from the plane!

Since we crossed the dateline, our flight that took off at 1030 on Tuesday actually landed at 0600 on the same day.  Here we are on final approach to SFO passing over the San Mateo Bridge, with Mount Diablo in the background.

Coming up next, we put together our list of things we learned about Austraila!  Thanks as always for reading!

We are winding down the trip with one more National Park, this one called Lamington, which was founded in 1915.  The park, which sits in the McPherson Range, is a sub-tropical rainforest that sits mostly at 3,000 feet above sea level, so the temperatures are thankfully much cooler than we experienced in Daintree National Park.

At the very end of the road into the park sits “O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat”, a privately owned 4th generation family operated lodge that has been here since 1926.  We stayed in one of their Villas, which have an amazing view!

Upon arrival we had a welcome talk about the history of the lodge, complete with sparkling wine, made by the O’Reillys themselves.  Since it was dumping rain we also watched a documentary at the lodge that discussed a 1937 “Airlines of Australia” plane crash on the property, which we would hear more about during our stay.  That night, we had a visitor  on a tree next to our balcony,  this Mountain Brushtail Possum.

He even jumped on our balcony, clearly looking for food.  You are reminded to keep the doors closed to prevent these guys from coming in.

The next morning we walked up for breakfast, and got a better look at this mock-up of the Stinson airplane that crashed into the rainforest.  The plane, carrying two pilots and five passengers from Brisbane to Sydney, crashed during bad weather.  The McPherson Range is known to have unpredictable winds and heavy downdrafts.  Upon crashing, both pilots and two of the five passengers were killed.  One survivor went off the find help, while two stayed at the crash site and hoped for a rescue.

Back in 1937 there were no flight-plans and the plane didn’t have a radio, so nobody knew which route they took or where they crashed.  Everybody thought they flew over the ocean, and nobody was looking in the McPherson Range.  After a 8 days they plane had not been found.

Enter Bernard O’Reilly (note the last name) an accomplished bushman living in Lamington, who deduced that the plane must have flown over the McPherson Range.  He set off on a hike into the rainforest, and trekked for a full day before seeing a burned tree across a valley.  Thinking this was from the plane crash, he hiked all day the next day and found the crash site, and the survivors.

After giving them the rest of his food and some hot tea, he hiked 16 miles back home for help.  This story was huge news in Australia, prompting documentaries (which we watched) and movies!  This statue near the Stinson mock-up memorializes the moment Bernard helped out the survivors.  Unfortunately, the third survivor who went for help died on the way.

We took a hike that day to Morans Falls.  On the trail were several trees that show how much the vines make up the foliage in the rainforest, with estimates that vines are approximately 60-70% of the plants here!

The vines take on some interesting shapes.  Look at the size of that vine!

It had been raining heavily, so Morans Falls was in excellent form!

We exchanged photo duties with some other hikers.

This is Moran Creek above the falls.  Such a beautiful spot in the wilderness!

Right above the falls is this stunning view into the valley below.  It’s like something out of Jurassic Park!

The falls deserved a video on our way back, when there were no screaming children to ruin the vibe (there have been a LOT of screaming children in this park).

Near the lodge is a boardwalk hike that is great for anybody.  This unusual vine, called the Wonga Vine, is on the side of the trail.  It wrapped around a small tree on it’s way up into the canopy, and ended up killing the tree.

Just off the boardwalk is a Tree-Top Walkway, with multiple suspension bridges that cover 180 meters of walking path.

It allows you to get up into the canopy to see the trees at a different perspective.

We hit the bar at the lodge and discovered a new beer that we LOVED, Burleigh Brewing’s Japan Black!  Excellent beer!  We have no idea how the Japanese are involved, but it’s a great brew.  We also got a nice shot of the sun slanting through the clouds from the bar.

Coming up next, we do a couple more hikes in Lamington, and make our way back to Brisbane, visiting Mount Gravatt for a birds-eye view of the city.