Things that made me laugh
- Sign on the road between Canungra and Lamington National Park Road - Horse Poo for Sale, $2.00/bag. But if you drive a little further there is a sign offering horse manure for free. So, is poo a grade better than manure? Why would you pay if you can get if for free? These are the things you ponder at 5 am while driving.
- 20 some pretty face kangaroos lounging about on what I like to call Pretty Face Bend, looking for all the world like Romans relaxing after a feast, or A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
- A pair of pretty face kangaroos boxing one morning as we came around the bend
- Double-crossing road--said best in the voice of James Cagney--why you dirty double-crossing road.
Scary stuff
- There is a treetop walk off one of the tracks. It is wooden, and creaky, and sways a bit. I had managed to walk it the last time we visited, but was too scared to look down. I told myself I wasn't afraid, and walked it again. Turns out telling yourself you are not afraid does not mean you are actually unafraid.
- A storm rolled in the afternoon of the 11th. We could see it coming so left to get down LNP road before it hit. I did NOT want to drive that road in the rain. It spit a little, but we made it down the mountain to Canungra, and stopped to look at a map for the next day's drive. Looked up, the wind started howling, we could see forked lightening up in the mountains, and the front bearing down. We still had a very winding, narrow road to get up to Aaronlee. The rain was fierce once it hit (we didnt' make it in front of it) and I couldn't figure out the windshield wipers on the rental car! So Steve had to hold it in place as I drove, very slowly, up the Mt Tamborine road. There is a section that is one lane, and a traffic signal cycles automatically every 5 minutes to let traffic through. That was one time I was happy to come to a stop so we could get the wipers working.
- Driving back up the mountain the next day playing dodge rock from all the rock falls resulting from the storm the night before--and hoping no one was coming the other way
Cool Bird Stuff
Bower Birds
Bower birds are amazing. For non-birders - bower birds build elaborate bowers to attract the females. They aren't nests, more of a boudoir. The Satin Bowerbird will decorate their bower with anything they can find in shades of blue--flowers, straws, bottlecaps, etc. The Great Bowerbird will decorate in shades of white, and the shape of the bower is completely different. Incredible to see.
There are always some Satin Bower Bird Bowers around O'Reilly's, and I saw pretty much all of them I think. One afternoon I was sitting at a picnic table located near one of them, and glanced up to see the male bringing in a blue straw and attending to his bower. I managed to sneak over and hang out and get a little video, and yes I will post it much later, after I have access to a PC.
There weren't as many Regent BowerBirds around this time, but finally some of the males showed up. We kept watching one of the females, and finally saw her pick up something and fly into a tree across the road? Nesting material? Food for a baby? Let's go look! And Steve was able to locate the nest. Very cool.
So, like I said, I think bowerbirds are really cool and there is this beautiful book about bowerbirds that I really wanted. It was published in Australia and I couldn't get it in the US. Somehow a discussion about this book came up on the 4WD tour. Conversation went like this:
Me: I really wanted that book.
Glen: How badly do you want the book?
Me: I really want the book.
Glen: I might have a line on the book.
So, it turns out that he had a photo in the book so they had given him one, and he was willing to sell it to me. The transaction is in process.
Lyrebirds, whipbirds, riflebirds
For our birding friends, I'll post Steve's list later when he can read it off to me.
Some notables for me though:
Very excited to see the female Albert's Lyrebird and her chick (a year old or so now, bit of a mama's boy and we got to see her feeding him.
The Riflebird! I got a very good look, got to see the brilliant blue.
Whipbird--Glen had really tamed this bird and it came when he showed up on his walks. Got great looks a them.
Stories people tell you
I had been talking on and off over the three days to a woman named Melissa, who was visiting from Brisbane. One time, she told me a dreamtime story, that goes something like this. There was a beautiful, colorful bird, and the bird sang beautifully. It was so beautiful, and its song was so sweet, that everyone praised the bird and the bird grew prideful.
Now only the black and white birds have sweet songs, and the colorful birds have horrible squawking songs.
We had to move on, and left Lamington National Park at about 2 on the 12th of December.
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