Magical Maleny

Oh my goodness - we've been so busy that I haven't had time to write a post until now.

We were heading towards Brisbane to catch up with relatives so we entered an orange covid zone to get there. This meant we were back to wearing masks and it would delay our trip home a bit but hey, relos are worth it!

We decided to spend a few days in Maleny, a spectacular town located on the hills above the Glasshouse Mountains. On the way we thought we'd explore a few of those mountains. We climbed up or around a couple of them. The views of the other Glasshouse Mountains were spectacular!

On the summit of one of the mountains, flying ants swarmed around some shrubs. As John admired the view, they swarmed around him! A couple of butterflies were madly chasing each other around the summit and I grabbed this pic as they flew past John.

From Maleny, we could see out over the whole Glasshouse Mountains region. It was spectacular.

We went for lots of amazing walks in stunning rainforests here. On one walk we came across this red-bellied black snake. It wasn't large but it's highly venomous. It was in the middle of our path and we couldn't get past it. We tried stomping on the ground but it wouldn't move. Then John tried putting his hand between the sun and the snake to cast a shadow on it. The snake immediately whipped around and raised its head at him, ready to strike! It eventually moved not far off the track and we sprinted past it. Phew!

There were more spectacular huge strangler fig trees.....

........ and more twisted, gnarled roots.

One thing we have to keep a sharp lookout for is Stinging Trees and their leaves. These huge leaves have hairs that sting for months, even years, if you touch them!

The town of Maleny is spread out over the tops of rolling green hills with views that go on forever. So many houses in Maleny have spectacular views. It was a really pretty, very liveable town with many national parks nearby. It even had a great Vietnamese restaurant, something we hadn't found on the whole trip. We loved it!

We stayed in a gorgeous cabin. It was really cold here at night so we would light the Coonara fire. It was so warm and cosy. One day I even did some crafting on our little verandah in the sunshine.

The owner had told us about a resident possum and while I was creating, she peeped out at me, curious about what I was doing. She was so adorable!

After that we heard her a few times in the night. We watched one night as she walked along the rail of our balcony.

While I was taking photos from the door of our cabin we realised that she was far more alert and active than she usually was during the day as, of course, she's nocturnal. We watched as she hopped down on the floor and investigated John's bike. She then came straight at me in a rush - she was trying to get in the door! I quickly shut the door then, a few minutes later, opened it again. Again she rushed at the door. I shut it and we heard her clawing at the door! Our cute little possum had mutated into a deranged killer! Haha.

One of the most special walks we did was at Mary Cairncross Reserve (thanks for the tip Bee!). The rainforest here was alive with birds. We saw a male whipbird for the first time. He was right beside us and made his unique whip-crack call.

The ancient vines here were amazing.

This one is over 600 years old!

We also saw our first pademelons, cute, tiny, kangaroo-like animals.

There were even heaps of amazing wildlife right in the centre of the town. Thousands of fruit bats squabbled in the trees along the river that runs through the town.

Most amazing of all though was that in the same river we saw heaps of platypus! While trucks and motorbikes roared past, the platypus just did their thing in broad daylight. It was fantastic!

We really loved Maleny and hope we can get back there again one day.

Til next time,

Heather and John

Sunrises and Sunsets

It was just a hop, skip and jump from Fraser Island to Rainbow Beach. On the way we had our first experience in car washes that specialise in washing the sand from underneath the car. Jets of water stream out from under a grid and wash the car from underneath. Cool!

We unpacked our bags into our small but gorgeous room and met "Mrs Sparkle", the owner of the accommodation with an obsession with cleaning and talking. She was lovely but stand still long enough and you'd get a polish, a bleach and a one-way conversation at the same time!

John has stayed in Rainbow Beach as a kid and knew that there was a great sandblow there. The Carlo Sandlblow lies a kilometre or so behind the town. It was really cool and the views were great, especially at sunset.

Behind us, a paraglider flew gracefully against the colours of the eastern sky.

We decided to get up early the next morning to check out the sunrise over the beach. It was amazing!

Rainbow Beach is called this because it has a huge variety of coloured sands in the cliffs that line the long beach.

As the rising sun hit the cliffs they seemed to glow.

There were often many different colours in the one section of cliff.

We spent quite a bit of time here catching up on things as we had good internet and the best office! It was just a small patio but it was beautifully surrounded by garden.

That night the Tiges were playing. It was a must-win game if we were to have any chance of making the finals so we went to a pub to watch it. Unfortunately, they had three large TVs side by side, all playing different sports. To top it off, right beside where we were sitting was a guy singing and playing his guitar! We left after quarter time and raced back to watch it on John's computer. Sadly, we got thrashed. We are out of this year's competition. We decided we needed some cheering up so we went to the local sports club where we had been told a singer would be performing. It was a classic place. About a dozen very drunk people were listening to the most talented singer we'd heard for ages. We quickly got talking to a couple of ladies who were good value. It was a fun end to the night.

It was time to move on which was a bit sad as I really liked Rainbow Beach. 

To get to our next destination we decided to do one last drive along the beach - part of the Great Beach Drive. There is one part that can only be passed at low tide. We had to be on the beach at 6am to make it, so we saw yet another spectacular sunrise.

Our first destination was Double Island Point. The two hills looked stunning against the dawn light.

There was a lovely walk up to a lighthouse here. As we were walking along the track near the cliff just before we reached the lighthouse, we heard a really weird whooshing noise. I thought it was a strange animal, John thought it might be a blowhole. It turns out that we were both kind of right. It was a whale! We found this out a minute or so later when we reached the top and a guy there told us that the whale was almost directly below them and only a few metres off the cliff's edge. We then looked and waited but didn't see it! I was so disappointed. There are also supposed to be dolphins around here but we didn't see them either. Anyway, the views and the lighthouse were cool.

We then drove the 50kms or so along the beach to where we had to turn inland. It was Sunday and there were soooo many cars on the beach! 

At one stage I was just looking out the window and suddenly I saw a whale! It was actually just inside the line of surf, so quite close to shore. We drove backwards along the beach for a bit to watch it. It was travelling surprisingly fast. We soon realised it had a calf too! Wonderful!

We stopped for lunch in Noosa then headed to the nearby town of Boreen Point, on Lake Cootharaba. Oh my goodness - what a place! It's tiny, quiet and so beautiful. Lake Cootharaba contains salt water and is very shallow. On our first walk along the foreshore we saw a leopard ray in the water. Apparently there are many rays here. Like some of the lakes on Fraser Island, tannin and tea-tree oils have tinted the water.

There was a lot of activity around the lake - well a lot considering it's a really small place. People sailed, kayaked, drove boats, fished and rode stand-up paddleboards. Kids and some braver adults swam. The water wasn't really that cold as it's really shallow. 

Our little house was sensational. It was quite old but the view over the lake was outstanding.

The rivers that flow to the lake form one of only two everglades in the world, so we had to check them out. The best way is by a boat trip so we luckily managed to get on one at the last minute. It was a bit underwhelming but pleasant enough. The rivers are known for being like mirrors - they reflect everything above them.

The boat driver who was giving us a bit of info was incredibly Aussie and so laid back that we wondered if he might have smoked something beforehand. I asked him to explain what an everglade was but none of us really understood his answer. It's something to do with rivers and grasses we think!

They gave us some bubbly on the boat and by the time we got off it we were best mates with a younger couple who spent the whole trip telling anyone who would listen about their caravan rental business. Part of the trip included nibblies afterwards at a bar and we had a lovely time meeting people there.

We had an early night so were up early again and saw - you guessed it - another spectacular sunrise!

One day we were in our little house and John saw a snake in the bushes below us. It was massive - perhaps about two metres long and really thick. I googled it and we think it's a Carpet Python. Totally harmless but very impressive! It's mostly obscured by the plants here. It curled up in the sun and just snoozed for a while.

One of the main reasons we came to Boreen Point was because Lonely Planet described the local pub as one of the most atmospheric in the country. On Sundays it does a big smoke-house lunch and has live music so we timed our visit around this. We weren't disappointed. For a tiny town, the crowd there was incredible. There must have been more than 200 people there. They came on motorbikes, in cars and on foot. There were families and friends all meeting up. To cut the story of a long day short, we met two other couples who lived nearby, a dog called Casper, a local war veteran, the owners and most of the kitchen staff. We spent the day with the two local couples and finally staggered home an incredible nine hours after we arrived there! It was great fun!

The original pub was moved to this site. It has 12 foot wide verandahs and 14 foot high ceilings. It's set in a beautiful spot where people can picnic and kids can play on the huge lawns.

The smokehouse was pumping. Nearby were huge old trees that were full of birds in the day and very active possums at night.

Our new friends - Chris, Helen, Mick and Joy.

We had only booked two nights at Boreen Point and it simply wasn't enough. It was the first time on the trip that we had underestimated the time needed. I wanted to stay here for a week and learn how to ride a stand-up paddleboard. I wanted to canoe across the lake and look for stingrays and leopard rays. I wanted to just hang out here. Oh well - next time!

Stay safe.

Heather and John

On Dingo Alert at Fraser Island

Oh my goodness - we've been to Fraser Island! In my mind Fraser Island was all about driving in sand. We had carted a tyre deflator, pump and snatch strap across nearly 10,000 kms mostly for this. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island but there was far more to it that just sand.

To get to Fraser Island we drove through Hervey Bay. It looked like a town going ahead.

Getting onto the ferry at River Heads to cross to Fraser Island was interesting. Everyone had to back onto the ferry.

The reason for backing on was that it's way too narrow to do anything other than drive forward onto the jetty on Fraser island!

We quickly threw our bags into our lovely hotel room and rushed down to the beach to catch the sunset. We were so glad we made the effort. It was one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen.

After months of planning, we finally got to do our first real driving on sand. We brought out the tyre deflater (you have to let tyres down to drive on sand) and tried to look like we knew what we were doing but reading the instructions out loud and still needing to ask for help was a bit of a giveaway!

We drove onto our first sand track and were amazed by how rugged the road was. There were dips, holes and blind crests as well as deep sand. We later realised that the first few hundred metres were among the hardest of all the tracks we drove on! 

Often the track was very narrow or well below ground level. We drove most of the time with the side mirrors closed and managed to avoid too many scratches.

The sandy holes made the car bounce in a fun way and I was reminded of the 70's KFC ad where the family bounced along the road in their very bouncy car. I looked the ad up on YouTube and found it!

It's here if you want to see it. You'll have to copy and paste the link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YtAVIGq1ko

We finally arrived at the eastern beach on the other side of the island. As much as I'm not a fan of the concept of beach driving (what happens to all those crabs?) it was an exhilarating feeling of freedom cruising along the beach.

The sand blows were amazing. Sand finds a weak point to venture inland and encroaches on the bush, killing everything in its path. At the Lake Wabby blow the sand has blocked a creek to form a lake. 

The blow was like a weird Saharan moonscape. It was spectacular!

The 'head' of the blow was encroaching on the lake it had formed. The walk down was so steep!

Even the sign was being swallowed by the sand!

We don't usually stay at resorts when we travel but there weren't many options on the island. It turned out to be fantastic! Our room was in the bush and the food at the restaurant was really good. They also had activities and we went on a kayak tour one day. We explored the mangrove-lined creek nearby. It was so peaceful.

One of the special things about FI is the dingoes. We had read about them and there were signs everywhere warning people how to react to them. They can be quite aggressive and children and even small teenagers are in danger of being attacked. The resort, campgrounds and picnic areas were all fenced with 2 metre high fencing which was often electrified as well. Dingo grids let cars in and kept dingoes out. They had pointy bars and trip wires on them,

We were excited to se our first dingo tracks on the beach on our first morning. Now just to see a dingo!

There was plenty of other wildlife around. This whistling kite let us get quite close.

We saw a few goannas, or lace monitors as they call them.

The eastern side of the island is one long beach that stretches for 100 kms or so and it's the main highway on the island. The tide was fairly high so we were driving through sea water some of the time.

I confess, I got a bit carried away with the amazing natural textures of the island. I took so many photos! 

Paperbark.

Nature's graffiti.

Fraser Island is home to over half of the world's 'perched lakes', lakes that are created by leaf litter holding the fresh rainwater on top of it. Lake McKenzie was the most stunning blue.

At 'central station' spectacular epiphytes grew on trees that were planted for logging earlier in the century. They had a thriving logging industry here for a while. I can't believe they got big logs out of here on bullock trains. The terrain is so rugged and all sand!

Check out the size of these!

At central station a beautiful boardwalk wound through the tropical rainforest that existed in the gorge. The photo below looks like a sandy track winds between the trees but look closer and you'll see a sheen on it. You're looking through water - the sand is the bottom of the creek. The water is so clear that it's hard to see.

An amazing strangler fig.

An enormous satinay tree. They used to log these.

Despite being at places frequented by dingoes, we still hadn't seen any.  We continued to keep our eyes open.

At times, coloured sands would show through the layers.

Walking along the beach near where we stayed one day, we saw lots of dark spots on the sand when the tide was out. We soon realised they were crabs. There were millions of them!

The patterns they made in the sand from digging their holes were amazing.

One night we did a bush tucker tasting. It was cool!

We later did a night walk. it had been raining on and off during the day so we hoped it would hold off during our walk. It didn't. We got cold and wet. The wildlife didn't like it either and mostly stayed tucked up warm and dry and out of sight.

There were a few cane toads around but the one hugely interesting part of the night was learning about the local eels. In a small patch of the creek right next to the resort lives an eel. We saw her quite a few times. Her life story is amazing. It's estimated that she's about 10 years old. She will stay in her small patch of creek - an area of about 10 square metres and only averaging about 15 cms deep - for another 40 years or so. 

This is her patch of creek. Another eel lives above this section and a new young one appeared in an even smaller section above that a month or so ago.

When she reaches about 50 years old she will then make her way to the sea then swim across the sea to New Caledonia! There she will mate, have babies and die. When her babies grow a bit, they will then make the return journey all the way across the ocean back to the very creek their mother came from. 

This story astonishes me. How does an eel that lives a fairly immobile life in a small patch of creek, develop the muscles to suddenly swim that distance? How does she adjust from fresh water to sea water? How does she eat if her usual diet is only found on the creek? How does she navigate? How does she find a mate when he has to have made the same journey at the same time to the same location? How do her babies do all the above things in reverse? And the big question - why? Nature is a mystery sometimes.

The next day we explored more blows. Kirrar Sandblow was really cool.

The constant wind formed amazing textures on the sand.

Eli Creek was lovely to wade up. Again, the water was crystal clear.

One of my favourite sights was the Maheno wreck. This old cruise liner had an amazing past including being a hospital ship inWW2. It now lies wrecked on the long eastern beach. The sea washes through it and the rust colours were spectacular. 

It's a bit of a shock to see what she used to look like in her heyday!

As the tide lowered, the beach became the most beautiful, widest road you would ever see!

We made it as far north as Champagne Pools. These can be wonderful swimming holes (and the only safe place to swim on the east coast) but they were largely full of sand when we were there. It wasn't warm enough for us to swim anyway but it looked beautiful.

We were talking to another couple here and mentioned that we still hadn't seen a dingo. They were only a few minutes behind us and they saw one! We looked where they had seen it but still no luck......

Not all of the perched lakes look crystal clear. Tannins and minerals in the water make some lakes look brown or coloured. Lake Boomanjin, one of the largest perched lakes in the world, had a beautiful range of purples, reds and oranges in its water. 

There were banksias everywhere. Most had finished flowering but I did see a few late bloomers.

Sadly, it was time to leave. We wanted to leave via the ferry off the southern end of the island so it was another beach drive to get there. As we drove all along the beach looking for the ferry landing we noticed one patch of sand that was churned up by vehicles. Then the penny dropped - this was the ferry landing! There was nothing there except beach!

The ferry pulled up and for an incredibly expensive $85 we enjoyed a 10 minute ferry ride back to the mainland.

Fraser Island really was a special place. We will have to come back here again one day, even if it's only to find a dingo!

Cheers,

Heather and John