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!!