Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Korean In Laws Visit Australia Part 6
Korean In Laws Visit Australia Part 6
No rest for the wicked! Today we spent 3 hours in the car driving down to Lamington National Park and Oreillys Rainforest Retreat. On the way we stopped off at Yatala Pies, a famous pie shop on the side of the highway that has been serving the best pies in Brisbane for over 130 years!
We then jumped back in the car and continued the drive south towards Lamington National Park. On the way we stopped at Oreillys Vineyard which has a large picnic area and FREE wine tasting if you are a guest at Oreillys Rainforest Retreat (which we were). At the back of the vineyard is a creek full of turtles and eels.
Theres a turtle!
Dont ask me what they were laughing about, but yet again they almost wet their pants about something.
After stretching our legs and the vineyard, we jumped back in the car for the tortuous trip up the mountain. Im not exaggerating that either. If you ask your phone to plot the rout for you, it will literally look like a child scribbled on the screen it is so twisty and turny. To make it even worse, a lot of the road is only wide enough for a single car and practically every corner is a blind corner. Its a good thing we went up on a week day. On the weekend it would have been hell.
Interestingly, the Oreilly boys originally wanted to start a dairy farm.... on top of a mountain.... in the middle of a rainforest.... miles from the nearest town.... typical Irish. A few years after starting this crazy endeavour, the government decided to turn all the land around them into a national park. Soon after tourists started visiting and needed somewhere to stay and a warm meal. And so, the Oreillys guest house was born.
We arrived and checked in to find that there had been a mix up with our booking and we had been upgraded to a 3 bedroom villa! Happy days!
While dad and I took all our luggage down to the villa, Jihyeons mum fed the birds.
The 3 bedroom villa was really nice. I think it normally goes for around $600 or $700 per night! It had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a garage, a spar, a full sized kitchen/dining/living area and a huge balcony overlooking the rainforest and the valley below.
The birds were super friendly here too.
A storm rolled in around 4pm, so we stayed in and watched the lightning crack over the valley all evening.
The next morning the skies were blue again and no sign of a storm anywhere. We had breakfast on the balcony before heading off to spend the day exploring the rainforest.
Jihyeons parents admiring the huge trees and their root systems.
First stop was the tree top walk which allows you to walk through the rainforest canopy, giving you and up close look at the orchids and ferns that grow in the tree tops.
The tree top walk recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Its 180 meters long and made up of 9 suspension bridges, most of which are 15 meters above the ground. How much does it cost? Nothing! Its FREE!
There is a limit to how many people can walk on each section of the bridges. I cant remember exactly, but I think it was 6 people at a time.
Part way along the walk is a strangler fig tree with ladders going up it to two observation decks, the highest being 30 meters above the ground.
The view from the top lookout, 30 meters above the ground.
What are you so happy about?
My mother in-law wasnt brave enough to scale the tree.
Back down we go.
Jumpy jumpy jumpy, make the bridge shake!
In amongst regrowth rainforest and large boulders are some botanical gardens planted by Mick OReilly, one of the original pioneers.
Smile.
Group photo.
More gardens.
Flowers!
Once out of the gardens, we headed back to the guest house to do a different walk. The Wishing Tree and Micks Tower (2.4km).
Micks tower is a steel tower in the middle of the rainforest 18 meters high which you can climb and get a closer look at the rainforest canopy. Again, Jihyeons mum was too scared to come up.
We kept walking along the track to the wishing tree. Here is a huge old stump covered in moss that the walking track passes through.
And here is a hollow tree along the walking trail. Jihyeons parents were amazed to see it. They dont have stuff like this in Korea.
Another hollow tree. Slightly less amazing the 2nd time around.
Jump jump jump!
Through the jungle on an almost invisible walking track.
Finally, we reached the wishing tree. Time for another group photo.
Past glow worm gully.
It looks like a wallaby, but its actually called a Pademelon. Pademelons, wallabies and kangaroos are very alike in body structure, and the names mainly refer to the three different size groups. Originally wallabies were divided into small and large wallabies, but a more suitable name was needed to differentiate between them.
link download
