O’Reilly’s has been around since 1926. It’s a great place to stay right in the rainforest and in the middle of Lamington National Park. Beautiful birds were plentiful and we saw quite a lot of a marsupials called Pandymelon. They were out early in the morning and late at night. In fact I saw a momma with a little Joey in the pouch. Tried to get a picture or two but it’s hard to get close enough to see details.
Squirrel gliders are marsupial animals that look a lot like flying squirrels. They have the pouch and they glide from tree to tree. There are plenty of snakes in the forest and fortunately we did not see any. Evidently Australia has 10 of the 10 most deadly snakes! Yikes!!! Funnel web spiders and trap door spiders live here in the rainforest and we saw lots of holes that could have housed these poisonous fellas but we (fortunately) were unable to entice them to come out.
Our hikes were great fun and we had both guided and unguided. We learned about the fig trees which actually grow from the top of a tree sending the roots down to the ground . The fig tree grows and grows and eventually strangles the host tree which dies off.
The treetop walk was very exciting and we all felt like Indiana Jones! Josh climbed to the top of a tree and had a great view of the canopy. Kip and I stayed below!!
It was cold here…and imagine this…rainy!! Hiking through the forest we barely knew it was raining. From the balcony of our room we’d watch the fine rain fall and then see the beautiful rainbows as the sun would peek out.
When it was time to leave, the sun came out and the valley below was beautiful. Our last view of the rainforest, the birds and the marsupials will be a fond memory. With Surfer’s Paradise calling us, we packed our bags and headed to the coast.
That was beautiful! I'm sure your having a great time. Take care and keep us up to date!
ReplyDeleteCathern