Friday, September 9, 2016

Glasshouse Mountains


On June 20 a group of us visited the Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane in the area of the Sunshine Coast, and hiked to the top of Mount Ngun Ngun.  The Glasshouse Mountains are old volcanic plugs and were named by Captain Cook who fancied a resemblance to the glass furnaces he had known in England.  These mountains are visible from a long ways away and are, most of them, now national parks.  There are eleven of them and the tallest is Mount Beerwah at 556 meters.

On the hike we saw our first Australian native orchid in bloom, a tiny terrestrial "Helmet Orchid," Corybas barbarae and we saw our first Banksia in bloom, the Hairpin Banksia with its distinctive golden-orange bottlebrush flowers.  The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny, the company was great, friends and family, and we would love to go back and do more hiking among these wonderful and delightful peaks.

trailhead


unidentified mushroom


 Mount Tibrogargan


 Hairpin Banksia




 young Grass-tree


Grass-tree flowers


 unidentified tree


 Mount Tibrogargan


 Mount Tunbubudia (?)


Mount Coonowrin and Mount Beerwah


 Wall Skink (?)



 Mount Coonowrin and Mount Beerwah


Eucalyptus


 Helmet Orchid




 wife


Mount Tibrogargan at sunset



2 comments:

Thelma said...

A view of many nice mountains. You were lucky to see an orchid in Australia. It looks like a helmet. LOL. Although it is a beautiful orchid.

Ron said...

Thanks, Thel.