O'Reilly's - oh really!

Me 80 feet above the forest floor!

Picture the summit of Snowdon, North Wales on a chilly day in early spring. We were at a higher altitude in early spring in the middle of an Australian rain forest - this is O'Reilly's forest retreat founded by a bunch of Irish lads over 100 years ago (ancient history in Australian terms.) You could only get up there on a pony and trap via a precipitous trail - the winding road today is vertiginous to say the least and it required utmost concentration to keep on track especially when Vicky was saying 'Gosh look at that view!' every two minutes. Actually after a while she was telling me not to look (in a worried voice.)

One of the aforementioned Irish lads, Bernard O'Reilly, achieved heroic status in the 1930's by tramping several miles through the rainforest to pinpoint the crash site of a Stinson A airliner caught in a storm on the Brisbane-Sydney route. There were two survivors and the story made national headlines. The plane on the left sits outside the O'Reilly Guesthouse at the top of the mountain and the impression most people must get is that this is the plane that crashed - sadly it's only a replica which was made for an on location feature film about the disaster.

Plenty of unusual birdlife at O'Reilly's including a Regent Bowerbird - which is this cheeky chappie sitting above our picnic table waiting for a morsel - unfortunately for him we are law abiding citizens who took the 'No feeding the birds' sign literally.  Other Aussie birds that we saw were Logrunners, Rufous Fantails, Pied Currawongs, various scrubwrens and a Bush Turkey who pinched my sandwiches - Vicky chased after it and hunted it down and saved the day (she'd already eaten hers so I didn't have that to fall back on.) The Irish had a lot to do with this part of Australia and a family by the name of Lahey were also involved with pioneering round here - this photo below doesn't really do the scenery justice but we were at Romeo Lahey's viewpoint. In case you think that is a bit of an odd Irish first name Bernard O'Reilly's (see above) full name was Alfonso Bernard O'Reilly.

Don't step back!

Yarrabilba and Fruit Bats

Here she is hurtling up to the finish in her third Yarrabilba parkrun (I'm there in the background!) Still early in the morning as you can see by the long shadows. Yarrabilba has been a lovely low key event with friendly folk. Sarah Connor runs a well organised parkrun, it all seems to go smoothly and she exudes supreme self confidence and enthusiasm (although I noticed she grabbed Pat, her husband, as he crossed the line to carry on with the time keeping!)
Next week I think we're doing Southbank which is a city centre parkrun with lots of runners - and apparently has got some steps in it!!

So this is where the idea of hang gliding came from - we got a shock this afternoon at the sheer size of flying foxes at Mount Tamborine. We took a walk around the rain forest park and encountered a vast colony of these big blighters roosting in the gum trees - must have been hundreds of them and they were just beginning to wake up - eeek! They have a wingspan of up to a metre but fortunately do not have any vampiristic tendencies. Australians have a mixed attitude towards them partly because they carry diseases fatal to horses (and potentially to humans.) However flying foxes are a vulnerable species and under threat due to a variety of problems. The conservationists are on the case rest assured and when they come across abandoned youngsters they will look after them as can be seen in the photo below!

Aussie Culture

A few comments on Aussie culture!

Utes are the back country vehicle of choice, particularly if they’ve got a snorkel. Any one from a choice of Toyota Hilux/Nissan Navarra/Mitsubishi L200 is good but VW Amaroks are starting to make headway over here. The snorkel is there for going through flooded river crossings which can happen anywhere at any time. After 3 weeks of no rain we had a downpour last night which didn't last long but would have caused a few flashfloods in places. Utes is short for utility vehicles and are used by farmers, good old boys in the bush, ordinary sensible folk who live outside the city centres and tradesmen who weld aluminium dust proof tool sheds to the back of their utes.

Slick and Green

Within the city limits and where the roads are good (i.e. sealed and not dusty tracks) tradesmen use a strange vehicle that would be unrecognisable to Europeans but they are still described as 'utes' - these are saloon cars chopped in half with a pick up bit at the back - Holden, who are the General Motors subsidiary over here seem to have cornered the market  - here's a picture of one n the showroom!

No kangaroos on our veranda!

This is a Queenslander the archetypical style of wooden house found all over the state. There are examples of this style from the mid 19th century and they are still being built today. The key characteristics are the verandah for those hot summer days, the platform raised above the ground which allows cooling air to pass underneath (also provides protection from termites and other pests  and flooding!) Fly screens are mandatory and the big metal roofs catch the rainwater which is often the only supply of drink apart from the local pub (hotel) - I'll discuss pubs and hotels again another time.

Some Queenslanders are very posh and impressive (the Federation Queenslanders) – others are more basic and we’re staying in one at the moment – it’s still just right for the climate because although it’s getting warmer here it’s still nice and cool – and maybe the snakes won’t come climbing up here as much.

Numinbah Trail Race

Numimbah trail race  http://www.goldcoasttrailruns.com/N2P_Results.html
This was 11.5 miles with two climbs of 1200 feet on rough track (glad I didn't do the 22 or 30 mile alternatives!) Based on a trail race I'd done in July near Melbourne I was not expecting too much in the way of serious participants, but we arrived at a remote wooden cabin in the early morning and I rapidly changed my view. The smell of liniment was probably the first clue and when I went in to collect my number I spotted a table with all the latest Inov8 shoes on it, lots of gnarly looking runners with backpacks and a definite air of quiet concentration before the big effort - not quite as many wisecracks as you might expect in the UK but these were serious sinewy men and women. 

As with most Australian races this was an early start at 7 am - all three groups of runners started the race together and completed the first course together - this was an out and back route over a mountain ridge through eucalyptus forest. The trail consisted of rough track that had been torn from the mountain side, not suitable for anything but the most rugged 4X4 and very rocky - consequently the steep downhills were very hard on the quads! Because we were all running together it wasn't easy to see where I was in my race - we were supposed to have different coloured race numbers, but there were some late entrants with hand written white numbers to complicate matters. Nevertheless I was happy with finishing in just under two hours (in 16th place as I found out later). Only downside was the expense - not sure why this totally off road event should attract a fee of $60 but then I have been doing free to enter parkruns most weekends so I suppose it must even out in the end.

 
Vicky did the Yarrabilba parkrun to get a parkrun pb (32.27) while I did the barcoding. There are also parkruns at Tuggerranong, Mudgeeraba, Toowoomba and Parramatta (which has half a dozen skyscrapers over 20 storeys high!) Perhaps the Aborigines just  told the white settlers the first nonsense word that came into their heads as a bit of a joke. We've been shopping in Jimboomba and we drove through Wonglepong yesterday, and of course Wolloongabba is a suburb of Brisbane where the Gabba footy stadium is situated!

Having a Whale of a Time

Just made it by the skin of our teeth! Got a good deal on a whale watching trip (thanks Liz) and drove up to Surfer's Paradise - yes this is the name of a resort on the Pacific coast! We sneaked on board at the last second and got a senior citizen price with 50% knocked off. We would have been quite happy with a couple of hours on the high seas on a nice day but the skipper knew where to find these humpback whales. Very impressed with the size of them - I took this photo from the bridge of the boat - just as well we were up there - all these folk at the front got drenched with sea spray and whale's not! Got lots of photos and the poor old dolphins who followed us all the way didn't get a look in.

Had some useful beer lately. 4 Pines make some nice stuff and Bees Neez is from one of the pioneering microbreweries in Oz (good honey beer). Thomas Cooper is a long established small brewery from South Australia (over 100 years old) and we've enjoyed their bottle conditioned mild which is very refreshing at 3.5%. The bottle on the right is a special selection which was a little stronger. And what's this just one fron the right? Silures from Celt brewery! In between the XXXX and the Carlton Draught in our local bottle shop we found some Celtic Experience beer from South Wales - not a bad price and it was wonderful!

And here he is - the 'Huntsman Spider' - sitting on the side of the photocopier, I managed to get the camera out just in time. These guys are quite  common little so and so's in Queensland and by gum they can shift. There's Vicky's finger to show you how big this nipper is, as with the python the other day I stayed well clear! They do bite but unlike many other spiders over here, large and small, they don't kill, they just confine you to hospital for a few weeks. No snakes so far but we're still in early spring (i.e. only 27 degrees today.) Shaun showed us a St Andrew's Spider on Sunday just outside our bedroom window - it's web has a pattern just like the Scottish flag! Could this be an omen?

Finally, Vicky got a parkrun PB on Saturday at Yarrabilba and I came second overall - what is the world coming to? Here below is a piccy of some pretty parrotty type things whch I took on Sunday.

The Lost World!

Found it!

Took a trip up into the mountains south of Brisbane - these are highish in places - several peaks over 100 metres, but mostly covered in rain forest with very few trails or tracks. I'd seen The Lost World Plateau on a map and, having read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book of long ago I couldn't resist it. We drove south on a quiet and increasingly narrow road which then became a dirt track at the end of which we found a gate and the entrance to the Lost World! This was the edge of the Lamington National Park and we carried on foot for a while before it got a bit too ragged and rough. The photo shows a high ridge to the left on top of which is the plateau so we'll have to climb up there another time. Meanwhile, within the space of just half a mile, we saw a totally different range of birdlife including our first glimpses of Grey Fantails who seemed to be following us, Eastern Spinebills, a Shining Bronze Cuckoo which sat right in front of us, plus a Richard's Pipit, a Brown Honeyeater and Brown Cuckoo Doves. Lots of ticks in the book today!!

I'd also watched the delightful film 'Up!' on the plane to Oz - it's a kids cartoon feature film that I thought very appealing and it features a lost world on a plateau. Obviously derivative of Conan Doyle's Lost World, it helped pass a pleasant hour or so away somewhere over the Indian Ocean. the hero is a young boy scout who travels courtesy of a flotilla of small balloons to discover a long lost feathered bird that had been thought extinct.

The Bridge to Brisbane 10K was good fun - a great atmosphere with waves of runners starting at intervals - perhaps I shouldn't have gone off with the elite runners because straightaway the 100 or so quickies that I went off with charged up the steepish first K (up the bridge in other words) and I got pulled along rather too quickly - the rest of the race seemed a real struggle and I could feel my hamstring tendon pulling, probably the penalty for not warming up enough - but with a 6.10 am start what can you do? Still I have to be pleased with 42.32 and fourth V60, mind you the first two V60's were class athletes with times just outside 37 minutes. Vicky had an excellent race and finished in the top half of the field of nearly 20,000 runners coming home with a big grin on her face.

Back at Tamborine we just caught the backend of the Beer Festival at Fortitude brewery for a bit of rehdyration - decent ale from a hand pump and a cask conditioned barrel. Following day we spotted a Yellow Billed Spoonbill in the lake down the lane - this has a most peculiar habit of swinging its spoon shaped beak through the water from side to side - haven't seen anything like it! And finally we've run out of lemon cake today - there's a bush outside covered in small tart lemons and Vicky made an excellent cake (no flour!) using ground almonds which was very very tasty - I'll go and pick some more lemons in the morning!!

Aussie Wildlife Update

Well I thought it was a snake! At 10 am it caught my eye under the decking at Shaun and Liz's just as we'd got back from the parkrun. Gleaming in the sunlight a thick round yellow and brown cross section of something rolled around in front of me below the wooden slats. Must have been at least as thick as my wrist and caused us some slight alarms. I rushed inside with the girls but Vicky, being the foolhardy soul she is, decided to keep looking at it ('Otherwise we won't know when it's gone!')
A quick google told us that it was likely to be a Spotted Python which is usually a good 4 to 5 foot long. Thus it was not likely to be one of the splendid variety of venomous snakes that are on the Australian list of deadly creatures - but more about this another time! However when Shaun arrived back home he spotted a leg - so not a snake at all but a Skink, which is a type of lizard - in this case the Eastern Blue Tongued Lizard and not to be confused with the Eastern Bearded Dragon which is a similar size lizard.

Not a Welsh dragon is it!

And so with one of life's funny little coincidences later that evening we found ourselves in a pub called the Bearded Dragon at Tamborine. Tamborine is a bit touristy and my first thought was that this name had mythological connections, but it turns out that Bearded Dragons hang out around here a lot, mostly from tree branches frightening little children. Three breweries round here for us to have a go at so will report in due course! 

This final wildlife report comes with the discovery that unlike the Brisbane suburbs Tamborine is crawling with Wallabies and Kangaroos - here's a snap of an Eastern Grey Kangaroo taken from the driver's side yesterday evening (I did stop!)

Who you looking at?

Improved times for both of us at Bunyaville Parkrun on Saturday with Vicky 67th in 37.06 and me in 3rd again with a record V60 time of 22.43 (however I was beaten by two young whippets who should have done a junior race instead!)