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April 4th 2013

Published: April 11th 2013

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SteveRTW

Kangaroo

Glass House Mountains

Arrived in Brisbane to blazing hot sunshine and after a refreshing dip in my hostel pool visited an ex-Gatwick colleague, catching-up over a curry and a couple of beers. Headed north through the jagged Glass House mountains, surreally jutting out from the otherwise flat, green landscape. Bravely (?) saw off a large green snake on one of the hikes (disappointingly non-venomous), and encountered a docile kangaroo before climbing to a hilltop lookout. Next day went to the popular Australia Zoo - fed a carrot to an elephant (!), saw a couple of intimidating tigers and watched some "Steve Irwin" style crocodile entertainment.

Drove up to Fraser Island and joined a "Cool Dingo" tour - speedily bumping over sandy forest tracks to some fun music and learning lots about the local ecology from our insouciant guide. Played frisbee on sandy beaches, paddle-boarded and swam in the lakes, floated down a stream at Eli Creek and splashed around at the natural jacuzzi " Champagne Pools", ducking under the waves crashing over the rocks.

Briefly stopped off at the chilled-out Sunshine Coast before heading into the ancient world-heritage rainforests of Lamington national park, watching clouds roll up the valley and spotting a

Glass House Mountains

View from Mt Ngungun

wallaby with baby-in-pouch in the dusk. Finally headed into the pitch-black woods with a torch at Natural Bridge, discovering pinpricks of light from the glow-worms lining the track and illuminating a cave by a gushing waterfall...

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