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