After nearly a week on a small island, it was time again to stretch our legs and go for some hikes. What can be better than visiting some of the smaller national parks in Queensland, not so well known by tourists from overseas, instead of staying close to the coast? Well, if you want to go for hiking, these parks are really nice.
First stop after the days on Lady Elliot Island was in the Bunya Mountains NP, named after the Bunya pines.
It was rather cold up there in the mountains on nearly 1.100 metres; couple of days earlier they had even some snow in the morning. Somehow would have been nice, but on the other hand it was cold enough for us.
The forest as such was a surprise in this region, but the wildlife even more. We never expected to see so many wallabies, but especially birds like parrots up here in the mountains.
Next stop for us was in the Crows Nest NP. Not a huge park, but a very nice one, not many people here, but therefore some Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies, that were not so shy as in other regions.
And the landscape was also not too bad at all… 🙂
From here we continued to the D’Agiular NP, an amazing piece of rain forest, once again in the middle of the mountains, and once again we wondered a bit how this vegetation fits to the cold climate around us. But a beautiful piece of land, we were even completely alone out there.
On the way to D’Agiular NP we saw some animals we really would have never expected in Australia. Not sure were they came from, if they escaped from somewhere or whatever, but really a surprise…
From here we continued further to the Conondale NP, once again a surprise. After few river crossings we came to another beautiful hike and by that to some cascades and a waterfall.
Camping alone, close to the creek in such a beautiful environment, absolutely nice place to sit in the evening by the fire and relax.
In many ways a week that we would not have expected like this, lot of things and animals that somehow look strange in this landscape, but beautiful. So much nature and that so close to a large city (Brisbane is not too far anymore). Heading back now to the coast, looking forward for some diving and snorkelling on the weekend, before we head further to the South, getting step by step closer to Sydney.
