We left by a small tour bus around 8:30 this morning and headed about 75 miles to the Lamington National Park, deep in the mountains south of Brisbane. As we went further south and further inland, we climbed about 3,000 feet to the top of the Great Dividing Range, a mountain chain that runs north to south through the eastern part of Australia. The Great Dividing Range is about 3500 miles long and acts much like the Alleghenies and Rockies in North America. East of the Range, all water flows to the eastern shore of Australia, and west of the Range, all water flows westward. The portion of the Range that Lamington National Park is located in is actually an ancient lava flow, reportedly about 20 million years old. The terrain reminded us of West Virginia, and the last 15 miles up to the Park was mostly one lane with no guardrails of any kind and very, very steep slopes. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of interesting overlooks:
A little further along the road, we stopped at a small alpaca farm on top of one of the ridges:
We got the the National Park and took a guided tour through the rainforest with our tour guide. The forest is a temperate region rainforest and is largely undisturbed, with trees reaching probably 150 feet or more higher. There were eucalyptus trees, many of them very tall. One of the most interesting trees we saw were the Strangler Fig. These trees start out when a bird digests the seed of a mature tree and deposits the poop in a protected area up in a host tree. Over time, the fig sprouts and sends roots down the and around the host tree until the root tendrils meet the ground. At that point, the fig develops roots and over time, it will completely surround the host tree and eventually kill it by depriving it of sunlight. We have seen these trees on Sanibel island, but there must have been dozens of them at Lamington, many well over 100 feet tall with the host tree being long dead. This strangler fig has completely taken over its host tree and was estimated to be 400 years old:
Part of the walkway we took was suspended in the treetops and was over 100 feet off the ground. This portion of the walkway ran probably 200 yards and there was one section where we could climb another 50 feet up one of the trees to the very top. Nice view, but there were a lot of leaves in the way and it was hard to get any kind of a picture. This is a look at one section of the walkway:
The real highlight of the trip today was feeding the Lorikeets and King's Parrots that inhabited the area around the visitor's center. This was really, really cool. Here's a few pics of Pat with some of her new friends:
This is a Lorikeet:
Here are some pics of Pat and her little friends:
The green birds are the King's Parrots and the blue birds are Lorikeets. We have another 30 or so pictures of the birds, but we're running out of room. We left the Park around 2:45 and headed back down the mountain. Along the way, we ran into these little guys, 'pretty faced wallabies' :
Quite a remarkable day today. Tomorrow is our last day in Brisbane and we'll be taking in some of the sights in and around the city.
Pat's Paragraph......... Brisbane is located on the coast line, with the coast above it called the Sunshine Coast and the coast below is called the Gold Coast. We drove by some of the amusement parks that are in the Gold Coast; Movie World by Warner Brothers, Wet 'n Wild swim park, Dreamworld, Whitewater World and Sea World. Lots and lots of worlds. And for the pub/bar lovers there are many many pubs so they can distribute all the brews they make at the 2 beer breweries and the many vineyards and wineries. Queensland is the name of the state here and is their mining capital too. There is construction in every direction.
We saw between 20 to 30 wallabies coming back this afternoon as they are quiet during the day but move around in the mornings and evenings. They were in small groups and each group is called a 'mob'. One was a mommy with a little baby hanging out of her pouch but we only got a picture of her hopping away, protecting her little one. I wonder if the 'joey' gets motion sickness bouncing along in there?
