Advertisement
Published: February 2nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
The car ride up to Brisbane was not as scenic as the highway jogged away from the coast as did the mountain range. Unbeknownst to me the Zoo was about an hour away from the city. In taking the next days drive into consideration we opted to get as close to the Zoo as possible. Adding an additional two hours to the next days trip was highly undesirable. All of what we saw of Brisbane was from the highway.
As we got closer to the Zoo we stopped in a small town and found an information center. I really wanted to do some more outdoors type activities and requested that we visit the rainforest areas. The woman working the counter was very helpful and provided us with maps and ideas for activities available in the area we would stay for the night. We ended up booking a room at the Montville Holiday Apartments.
The plan was to go check into the hotel and then drive to a hiking trail that was recommended to us by the woman at the information center. The drive was spectacular as we climbed steep into the mountains that were flanked by diverse rainforest vegetation.
Views of the ocean some thirty miles away were present on three sides. There were some unique rock formations that protruded over a thousand feet in to the air scattered through out the landscape. We took a scenic drive route that allowed us to take photographs of these massive rock formations. Well worth the 10 minute detour.
The Montville Holiday Apartments sat on the crest of the mountain and overlooked the forest. It was better than I had imagined since there were two bedrooms as well as a living room and kitchen. I wish that we had bypassed the Surfers Paradise trip and stayed here. We jumped back in the car and made our way to the rainforest hiking trail. The tail head was further down the road located much lower in the valley.
The hike was an easy twenty minute trek down to a swimming hole which contained a small waterfall. I arrived about five minutes before Elyse and her parents. I immediately jumped into the water and was surprised at the warmth of the water. There were about a dozen other people there relaxing in the late afternoon. When Elyse arrived she and I both swam
and took some pictures near the waterfall. Some guys climbed twenty five feet atop of the cliffs above the swimming hole and jumped off into the water. Elyse reminded me that I wouldn’t be climbing up the cliff and jumping off since we had no medical insurance(our coverage only applies in China). I took that under advisement and decided that it was good advice.
We traveled back up the hillside towards the parking lot. I was told that often times large dragon lizards, which were amongst the largest in the world, would hang out near the picnic area. I went around the area looking for one of the creatures. I stepped on a stick and it brushed my leg. I jumped up thinking that I was being attacked by some giant bug or animal. At that point I thought to myself why am I looking for a giant lizard that would likely terrify me if I had come across one. I gave up on the mission and headed back to the group. We did however see a wild turkey which satisfied my need to see some wild animals.
For dinner we saw an English Pub that had yet
another spectacular view. I liked the place since it was a cook your own steak joint. John and I both ordered the steak and headed for the grill. It was good since I missed grilling my own food on account that we do not own a BBQ in China. We finished dinner and went back to the apartment to get some much needed rest. We would need our energy since it would be a long day at the Zoo and drive back south.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.307s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 18; qc: 80; dbt: 0.1697s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb