Leaving the Australia Zoo behind us, we headed off to the glasshouse mountains, which are really close by. They’re a series of hills sticking out of a fairly flat landscape all around. Like Mt. Warning, they are the remains of the plug of a volcano.

The hike to this one was quite ‘fun’. As per usual read the sign about the walk being ‘difficult’ and ‘steep’ and ‘only for experienced hikers’.. So off we set, aiming to do the 3 hour walk up Mt. Beerwah (and down again) in about an hour. We passed a sign which said ‘only experienced climbers past this point’… and wandered another few hundred meters along until we hit a patch of rock. Which was pretty sheer, and with few holds on it. However, after asking a couple of ozzies which way to go, and being told ‘just follow the yellow markers’, off up and away we went.

And it was probably the most enjoyable hike I’ve done in a while – at least a short one, but you would want a reasonable head for heights I think.

So after a quick run up and down Mt. Beerwah, it was time to hit noosa. The hip (and expensive) part of the gold coast. There was a nice national park that we wanted to hit before heading north. Our night in Noosa was lovely, in no small part due to the rather large tub of Copenhagen Ice-Cream we shared. Well, as much as two ice-cream lovers can at any rate.

The only tiny stressful part to the day – is finding a place to park for the night .. for some reason ozzies find it necessary to put up signs saying ‘no camping’ along beach fronts.. etc… quite inconvenient. However, there’s a park in the middle of Noosa – which was perfect for our needs (just in case anyone else is driving through)

So the next morning, had a quick walk around the park – (well, I walked, Mhairi did most of the available shorter walks!) Lots of surfers out.

Then, left noosa (After another ice-cream) and off to Rainbow beach, for a 4wd tour of Fraser island. Self guided.

So on Northwards to the Australia Zoo.. found an excellent pull off the next side road down (and then turned into a forest) to park our van in overnight.. love it when we find cool places easily.

Anyway – Australia Zoo – home of the crocodile hunter… and I must say, it’s a really well laid out park actually.. we saw lots of the amazing native creatures.. including the crocs. I’ll put up a selection of a few of them. They had mini-shows / presentations throughout the day, so it kept us really interested – I’m not usually a zoo person. Anyway, running outa time in the cafe, so just going to put the pics up now. But do go, it’s a great place.

A saltwater croc – in the CROCOSEUM! (he showed us how they sink down beneath the water and just watch their victims.. can hold their breath for 3 hours. You need to stay 1/2 the length of a croc away from the water)

Koala..

A kookaburra. These guys rock, their call is basically gut-laughter

There are lots of lizards in this pic.

And just a couple of big ones

These brightly coloured birds are from S.America.. Lorikeets. The bird show was great – 2 helpers were flying them around the arena… amongst the crowd.

I thought this sign was pretty cool. doubt I will see another one ever..

Then there were turtles..

and finally A Burmese Python wrapped around our necks.

Had a really relaxing day around Brisbane.

Still managed to see quite a lot of downtown.. it’s a funny place Brisbane. There’s a beach in the centre of town (man made). There’s lots of funky art work all around the place too.

Walked around kangaroo point where there’s about 200m of a rockface free to climb.. perfect. Except that I didn’t bring a rope + rack. Hmmm, don’t regret it, but wish I’d had a shrink wrapped – de-hydrated fold-away-takes-no-space-and-is-really-light 50m rope. Someday hopefully.

Then on Friday I met up with some friends of my parents – Julie and Duncan Stuart. Many of their clan (and there are lots of them) have passed through Dublin at one point or another… so it was good to see them on home turf.

Had a really yum and interesting lunch with them.. there’s some fruit here.. the bigger one is ‘Custard Apple’ The slice + thing that looks like a cucumber is ‘Wosteria Delicia’ – or something – will get the correct spelling sometime. Both delicious and quite different.

Anyway, good times. Then we set off up towards the Australian Zoo – home of the Crocodile Hunter..

After Springbrook we went to Lamington National Park – did a lovely 13km walk in the morning.. I’m still getting used to the not unbelieveably fast – but continuous speed – we seem to walk at!! good though – do get to see a lot. No pics this time..

Then on up to Brisbane. My brother Matt lived here for a year, and he put me in touch with some friends of his.. they’ve been great, super hospitable… and yum bbq salmon last night. I found it odd that we were sitting outside in summer clothing, having a bbq, while we’re in their midwinter…

L to R Miranda (Deans wife) & Emelia, Dean, Mhairi and me.

Finally… yes… it’s true.. you can…

So at 4am we hiked (at speed!) up Mt. Warning. It’s wonderful having a strong, fit, fast, tireless woman to look after me :) Mhairi carried the down jackets + water and some food and I carried… me. Mind you, I’d probably have been left far behind otherwise.

Unfortunately it was the first time in aaaages that there was a cloudy morning. Great views from the top. There was an amazing contrast at the summit. We found, hiddled in sleeping bags, two girls from the West Coast who had bivvied up there overnight. There were also 4 people from Surfers Paradise who’d hiked up that morning also (you can see Surfers in the background of this pic)

One of the girls from Surfers lit up a cigarette and called her mother on her mobile to say she was at the top. It was a wonderful contrast.

So at 7am, back down at the car, we drove to Springbrook national park. Beautiful. I’ve forgotten which park it was in previous to this – but Mhairi went off for a run, and I walked along afterwards, and on my way back from whichever falls we were at… say this guy accross the path

So I did what any tough guy would do. And waited. Trembling. Until it had slowly passed across the path. At which point I ran up the path as fast as I could. Turned around, walked back as close as I dared, and took the picture.

Upon getting back to the Information place I told them of my NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, and was informed that it was harmless. Dang. (ok, actually I just asked if it was deadly). Either way, it made for a more exciting walk than usual.

We also passed natural arch park.. it would have been great to get back to it at night to see the glow-worms + bats, but there was just too much else to do too…

Then it was onto another far more impressive set of falls (sorry, I forget the name of them). I was a wee bit tired by this stage, and felt a little book reading + pcard writing was in order. Mhairi went for her usual 12km run of the day, and ran down to the bottom – off to some pools, and back up again. Taking this pic en route (in fact most of these pics have been hers)