Montville, Queensland....Oz.

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Geo: -26.6925, 152.895

Got up to see Maddie and her two friends who had slept over in their swags (very substantial sleeping bags) go off to a Supernova convention in Brisbane, all dressed up as Homestuck characters. It was another early start as they were picked up at 8.30am! Brekkie, then our tour guide (Lynya) started her activity programme which took us inland to the Hinterland/Glass mountain region. Our personal chauffeur (Glen) took us first uphill via windy roads to a quaint little town, Montville where we had a coffee looking out on a spectacular view towards the Sunshine Coast. Visited lots of gift shops, including a dedicated Christmas shop (hardly surprising when we are staying with the biggest lover of everything Christmas!) On the way we saw a bush fire in progress creeping its way up the hillside. We went to a lookout post at Marypalm Cross overlooking the Glass Mountains to see the rim of a dormant volcano. Another coffee and lunch in the cafe opposite followed by a walk through the rainforest directly behind the cafe. We saw lots of bush wallaby's, a brush turkey , more fruit bats and some Rosellas (red and green parrots) - still no Platypus though! At 3pm we moved on to Kondalilla Falls and did a 6km trek (impressive in 31 degree heat) down to a rock pool. Tim was the only one out of the 4 of us brave enough to swim in it. We continued on to the base of the waterfall. Unfortunately, due to lack of recent rainfall it wasn't gushing as much as it could have. On our way home the bush fire we'd seen earlier was being tended to by fire patrols. We were absolutely shattered and well deserving of a glass of wine (or two) followed by a shrimp on the Barbie (actually we had steak and lamb)

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