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On the Sunday and Monday before the conference, Bradley (a local I've known for probably 20 years(!)) took me, and two others (Daryl and Jessica) to an overnight expedition at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat. It made me think of something from The Simpsons when Homer tries to make his own backyard amusement park for kids. In other words, really sketchy.

We stopped in Canungra for lunch (at the Bean In Cafe) which was decent, especially since it was kind of the last town before going into Lamingtton National Park. We also stopped at the IGA a block away to pick up some snacks and supplies, since we didn't really know what to expect.

We headed out of town and got to the road to O'Reilly's. The sign said it was like 2 miles away and accurately reported it would take around 40 minutes to get there. Bradley drove and I'm glad he was. It was a steep, twisty, windy road, with lots of blind switchbacks. Nominally it was 2 lanes (one in each direction) but pretty tight. There were times when it was only 1 lane for both directions. We had a close-call on the way down the next day, where as we approach a blind turn, a pickup- truck or SUV comes around the bend fast, straddling "both" lanes. Bradley hit the brakes and swerved as the truck did the same, with both of us swerving away from each other. Ooof!

We got to the top and to O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat.

The place is really nice with lots of trails and vistas and more. We only had the late afternoon and morning to explore a little. Also, the places where we stayed were amazing. It could have easily accommodated twice the number of people (we all had our own bedrooms). The porch deck was great for breakfast and the views were amazing. Also, the exchange rate of USD to AUD was pretty favorable.

We went on the Booyong Walk and Treetop Walk that day, and went to the Morans Falls Lookout the next day after a breakfast of some stuff we brought from the IGA, joined by some of our parrot-friends.

I took some pictures of a pretty spectacular sunset behind the mountains.

We had dinner at the restaurant. While there was a Prix fixe menu, none of us felt like having that much. Two of us got single entrees, and two shared a platter (that was enough for more than two). It was all quite good.

That night back at the suite where Bradley and I stayed, we started a fire in the wood burning stove (the wood had already been arranged to make starting a fire easy). It got dark. I wanted to take some pictures of the stars since there was so little light pollution in the area but I discovered there was a high haze in the sky, so there were no stars to see, no pictures to take. Still, the sunset was amazing. We all called it a night relatively early.

After breakfast and the morning hike, we had more twisty, turny roads to get back to bigger roads, we were back in Brisbane within a couple hours. It was quite an amazing retreat.

Sunday October 13 - Monday October 14, 2024

001-DSC_9402-header: The Booyong and Treetop Walks 001-DSC_9402-headertext:

The Booyong Walk is a boardwalk that goes through the rainforest. It's not long but there are lots of cool and weird trees there. The black booyong trees have weird, big, ribbon-like roots. Strangler fig vines are all around the area, with some trees being entwined in them and others are completely obscurred. The strangler fig is a Ficus, also known as a banyan tree. It's a short walk to where the trail branches off to the Treetop Walk.

The Treetop Walk is fucking amazing. The boardwalk transitions to a suspended boardwalk (it's quite secure) that is pretty high up in the trees, about 16m. There's one point where there's a ladder secured to a tree that goes up to a 2nd level platform which is at 24m up. And above that is another ladder with a platform at 30m up. You're not above the tree the ladder is attached to, but you're above many of the trees in the forest.

The ladders have safety cages around them which regardless of the effectiveness, they do make it less nervewracking. It is size-constrained, and while I'm not huge, I was carrying a backpack with my camera on my back which forced me to be closer to the rungs of the ladder. That forced my shins to be rubbing against the high friction material on the ladder rungs (which is great to have), but they did draw a little blood. At the middle platform, Bradley, who had been to the top, offered to take my backpack down, which was generous and welcomed.

The downside is that I couldn't take pictures at the top. Oh well, next time.

001-DSC_9401: The start of the Booyong Walk. 001a-DSC_9402: The Booyong Walk at ground level is the first part of the hike. 002-Booyong_Tree_Panorama1: The Booyong Trees are freaky with their ribbon-like roots. Also note the vines around vines. 003-DSC_9406: Booyong tree fun facts! 004-DSC_9407: Looking up at a tall Black Booyong tree. 005-DSC_9408: The vines growing around a tree have taken over becoming the outside of it. 006-Booyong_Tree_Panorama2: Twisty Strangler Fig vines strangling other vines in bright sunlight. 008-DSC_9411: A Strangler vine going all H.R. Giger Tree/Face Hugger. B&W felt appropriate. 009-DSC_9412: The Treetop walk starting to go a bit higher up. Max 6 people per span. 010-DSC_9413: Daryl on the boardwalk. It is quite well secured. 011-DSC_9414: Jessica behind Bradley on the higher parts of the Treetop Walk. 012-DSC_9415: Frank on the Treetop Walk. 013-DSC_9416: The suspension bridge boardwalk, 16 meters up, and has a viewing deck 30m high. 014-strangler-fig_Panorama1: Panoramic shot of a Strangler Figs strangling a tree. 015-DSC_9425: A pretty flower at O'Reilly's. I don't know what it is. 016-DSC_9430: Strangler Fig vines sure do move fast, making friends with Frank. 017-DSC_9433: It looks like some ancient mechanical droid in a post-apocalyptic movie (and needs googley eyes). 018-DSC_9434: I was told that this is a wattle (maybe a corkwood wattle or irish wattle). 019-DSC_9436: The mountains in the distance looked like they were a backdrop. 020-DSC_9439: Hazy hills of Lamington National Park (and shitty lens sensor artifacts). 021-DSC_9440: Bradley spotted parrots (crimson rosella) by the benches in the common area. 022-DSC_9444: An Australian king parrot perched on our railing. 023-DSC_9445: Daryl takes a picture of a new friend (crimson rosella parrot). 024-DSC_9446: An Australian king parrot taking flight off of a branch. 025-DSC_9448-header: Sunset in the Rainforest 025-DSC_9448-headertext:

The sunset from the deck was quite beautiful. An orange sky, some silhouetting of the forest in the foreground, a few groupings of trees, and all the different layers. The solitary point peak in some of the pictures might be Mount Lindesay that's right on the border of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). Or it could be Mount Doom or Mount Thunder. 025-DSC_9448: I like the silhouetted trees. 026-DSC_9449: The shadows from the setting sun on the mountains looks cool. 027-DSC_9451: Mt. Doom in the background (I think it's Mount Lindesay). 028-DSC_9453: 029-DSC_9455: One of my favorites of the sunset pictures. 030-DSC_9456: A longer shot with around 7 different layers and a brighter glow. 031-DSC_9459: Another multi-layered sunset picture. 032-DSC_9469: Trees and some sunset colors, with the peak of Mount Lindesay in the center. 033-DSC_9464: At dusk, from our porch, I saw a wallaby, just wallabying around. 034-DSC_9467: Yeah, they are pretty cute. This is what I imagine Australia is like. 035-DSC_9470: Bradley enjoyng the fire in the wood burning stove at O'Reilly's. 036-DSC_9471: We had a good fire going in the stove. 037-DSC_9474-header: Morning Wallaby, Breakfast, and Parrots 037-DSC_9474-headertext:

The next morning we got up. There were wallabies wandering around the open grassy common areas by the edge of the woods. There were also red birds around there hanging out, specifically Australian king parrots (yes, I looked it up and found this site to be a good guide on Australian parrots). The birds were happy to hang out on or on top of people. They were also curious about what was inside, but we kept the door closed when we saw them looking in that direction curiously.

There was also a crimson rosella that slipped into another picture and it looks like I just edited it in but I didn't.

We had more than enough food for breakfast from the IGA, so we had fruit and other things. It turns out the birds like fruit or maybe any food too. I did not feed them, but they did get fed. Clearly, this was kind of a routine for them.

037-DSC_9474: A wallaby scoping out the area. 038-DSC_9475: Another quintessential Australian moment: a Wallaby lookout. 039-DSC_9476: A wing-ed friend brings Bradley a message of the news of the day. 040-DSC_9477: There were a lot of parrots around our deck. 041-DSC_9478: I wondered where they could be coming from. 042-DSC_9479: Next door, I saw Daryl and Jessica on their deck, the center of bird-activity. 043-DSC_9480: Daryl, in the morning, before she's had time to get the birds out of her head. 044-DSC_9482: These birds are Australian king parrots. 045-DSC_9483: Notice how it's holding whatever it's eating (a banana?) in its claw. 046-DSC_9486: "There's a bird on my head now, isn't there?" 047-DSC_9487: Jessica going with the flow. The parrot enjoying the perch. 048-DSC_9490: The parrots seemed used to finding food on the porch table. 049-DSC_9491: We had a happy breakfast. The bananas were slightly different than US ones. 050-DSC_9492: Fresh fruit for breakfast! 051-DSC_9493: "That bird's still up there, right?" 052-DSC_9494: "Awwk! There's a human under my perch, isn't there? Raaawk!" 053-DSC_9495: This was where we stayed (there were 3 suites, we had 2 of them). 054-DSC_9496: I didn't notice the crimson rosella parrot when I took the picture. 055-DSC_9497-header: Morans Falls Lookout Hike 055-DSC_9497-headertext:

After breakfast, we walked on a trail to Moran Falls in Lamington National Park. Aside: The O'Reilly family settled in this area to farm in 1912. In 1915, Lamington National Park was established around their land. They started the retreat in 1926. So they are surrounded by national park.

Anyway, we went through the rainforest, seeing various twisty trees, and assorted animals including a black skink (technically called a "land mullet", probably because of it's fish-like head. Really, it looks like a snake with arms and legs. The view of the falls was great. It probably took us 20-25 minutes to get to the overlook and we probably spent 15 minutes there. We had someone who was walking by take a group picture of us. We turned back, got back to the suites and were out just at 11am, the checkout time, as cleaning people arrived to clean.

055-DSC_9497: We were heading to Morans Falls Lookout. 056-DSC_9498: Cool tree bark. 057-DSC_9499: Things grow in weird places. 058-DSC_9500: 059-DSC_9501: This plant is slowly flipping off all animals (it's a rude-odendron). 060-DSC_9502: Information on Morans Falls! 061-DSC_9503: We headed to the left. 062-morans_falls_trail_Panorama1: More rainforest trails. Looks like a movie set. 064-strangler-fig_Panorama2: A strangler fig strangling a Booyong tree. 065-DSC_9510: Freaky fingery fungus growing on a trunk. 066-DSC_9514: A skink! This one is a Land Mullet. 067-DSC_9515: More skinking. 068-DSC_9516: I'm assuming this is some kind of slipknot tree, unless it's a half-hitch... 069-DSC_9517: A more advanced phase of strangulation. Not sure what the fallen branch is from. 071-waterfall_Panorama1: Moran's Falls from the lookout. 072-Lamington_Panorama1: The Lamington National Park rainforest near Moran's Falls. 073-DSC_9533: This might be Mount Lindesay, which is bisected by the Queensland/NSW border. 074-DSC_9534: My picture of Bradley taking a picture of Daryl taking a picture of the sign. 075-DSC_9535: Bradley, Jessica, Frank, and Daryl with Morans Falls in the background. 076-DSC_9538: One more picture of a skink as we walked back. 077-DSC_9539: The Stinging Nettle (or Stinging Tree) wants to fuck you up (species unknown). species. 078-DSC_9540: The tree has stingers on the top and bottom of leaves and on the branches. Bottom: