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

Dinden National Park

On the first full day in Australia and before other family members arrived, my wife and I decided to do some exploring in the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns.  We drove the Kennedy Highway up into the tablelands and went to the first place I had chosen, the Clohesy River Road, a road that would take up back east into the bush.  Several miles along the road, however, we came to a river that had to be crossed and since we had a rental car and not a four-wheel drive we were forced to turn back.  These photos were taken along that road.  Everything was new and so we stopped often for photos.

 Eucalyptus trees

termite mound

Clohesy River

After returning to the highway we drove further south to the Davies Creek Road, another destination that had looked good on line.  After passing a coffee plantation at the beginning of the road, we spent the rest of the day driving that road to the end, stopping often to explore and take photos, and to swim in the creek.

coffee trees

Eucalyptus windbreak

Great Dividing Range

park entrance

termite mounds

Davies Creek Road

Eucalyptus and Palm

Apostle Mistletoe

Davies Creek

tree fern

views west and north

Davies Creek Falls area

Grass-trees (Black Boys)

Eucalyptus

While in the upper areas of the park we found the park employees engaged in burning huge areas of the park under the watchful eye of the local fire service.  Often the fires were burning right beside the road, but neither campers nor hikers seemed much bothered, though one trail we had intended hiking was closed.  We  stopped a number of times for photos and noticed that the fires soon burned themselves out.

On our way out we stopped once more at the upper camping area.  We could see the smoke of the fires above us but did some exploring and swimming.

unidentified wildflowers and beetle

 Eucalyptus

Elegant Snake-eyed Skink (?)