One of the many wonderful things about having a friend from London staying with me for six weeks was the opportunity to share some of my favourite places with her. It was Jayne's first visit, so there was much to see. But where to start?
I decide to mix it around, and we combined lots of day trips with some major expeditions.
This post is all about the day trips. All these places are within two hours drive from my home in Brisbane, yet still show the diversity of our wonderful country.
One of the things Jayne was keen to do was to spend a few days where she could explore the rainforest, so we headed south to Lamington National Park behind the Gold Coast hinterland to look at a couple of accommodation options: Binna Burra and O'Reillys.
Lamington is part of the
Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. It includes the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in the world, most of the world's warm temperate rainforest, and nearly all of the Antarctic Beech cool temperate rainforest. These ancient trees are a relic of the great beech forests that covered the super-continent Gondwana, which separated to form the southern land masses: Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand.
The wildlife, particularly the birds, are spectacular. We were lucky enough to spot some pademelons, a type of small wallaby, on a walk at Binna Burra, though I wasn't quick enough to capture a photo.
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| Tree Waratah at Binna Burra |
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| Binna Burra |
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| King Parrot and Crimson Rosella at O'Reillys |
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| Crimson Rosella |
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| Currawong - 'Are you looking at me?' |
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| Rosella |
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| Not so shy! |
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| Wonga pigeon and Australian Brush Turkey |
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| King parrots and rosellas |
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| Beautiful woven nest |
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| A red flowered mistletoe. I often wondered if mistletoe had been introduced into Australia, but there are over 90 native varieties compared to just one in Europe |
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| Buttress roots |
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| Crows nest fern |
Jayne opted to spend a few days based at Binna Burra while I headed home to get a bit ahead with some work. When she was ready to be picked up, we took a slightly different route home via the Numinbah Valley and stopping along the way to visit the Natural Arch.
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| Upper Beechmont looking towards Mount Warning |
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| Numinbah Valley |
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| The Natural Arch, Numinbah Valley, where a flowing creek has eroded the roof of a cave |
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| Numinbah Valley |
Our next trip was still further south along the Coast to Ballina to spend a few days with my brother and explore some of Northern New South Wales beaches and countryside. We were lucky enough en route to come across a small flock of black cockatoos feasting on the coastal casuarinas and banksia.
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| Yellow-tailed black cockatoo |
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| Kite surfers at Byron Bay |
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| The Pass, Byron Bay |
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| A beach wedding at The Pass |
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| Surf school |
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| The iconic Byron Beach Cafe |
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| Bangalow Markets |
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| A stall specialising in Vireyas, tropical rhododendrons |
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| Australian native, Black Bean tree |
I have posted road trips to the beautiful Scenic Rim several times previously (
here and
here), but there is always so much to see. It's great to just get lost on some of the country roads around Boonah and Rathdowney and enjoy the scenery.
Another of our drives took us north of Brisbane to the popular villages of Montville and Maleny. Lots of shopping and not so many photos that day!
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| Glasshouse Mountains |
And finally, on Jayne's final full day we headed to my old stomping ground, the Gold Coast, and lunch at the beach.
Next post, I'll show you some of our longer trips, starting with a visit to a couple of Queensland famous islands.
