12 Jan, 2016: Exploring the Glasshouse Mountains and the Rainforest
Today
Wanderoos packed a picnic lunch and drove our Swedish visitors Julia and Eskil
up the Blackall Range to the historic township of Maleny, in the Sunshine Coast
hinterland. The views over the Glasshouse Mountains didn't disappoint.
We parked in the Mary Cairncross Reserve and took the hour-long walk through the Conservation Park's rainforest. Trees, figs and strangler vines are always spectacular with their ropey loops and crisscrossing "clamps".
The hollow sound when knocking on the flanged buttress roots of trees such as red oak never fails to satisfy!
There's so much to see in a rainforest, up in the canopy, in the cramped dark spaces between trees, and in the undergrowth - ferns, fungi, purple cassowary plum fruit underfoot. Some bird calls were piercing, others quiet chirruping - all were quick and hard to spot.
We came to a less dense glade, with palms and a stream. A colony of flying foxes had made their home nearby.
Walk concluded, we took out our picnic under the bright red flowers of an umbrella tree. A bush turkey hung around for scraps, but we were (mostly!) good tourists and didn't leave much....
The glimpse of a red-legged pademelon (rainforest wallaby) capped off our day's experience!
