Somewhere new

Once, when I was 15 or 16 I went to the Bunya Mountains.  Can't remember anything about the place so it was like seeing it for the first time when I visited last month.  I'd come close in the past few years as it isn't far from both Kingaroy and Nanango, where I visited in 2014.

It's only a two and a half to three hour drive from Brisbane yet a whole different world.  It's pristine, peaceful and spectacular.  The rainforest is as lush as it is in the far north and area is home to the world's largest forest of bunya pines.  

Bunya pine (and no my photo is not crooked, that how it grew.)

Three of my sisters and one brother (and partners) and I had a weekend getaway there in a huge house surrounded by trees on the edge of the National Park.  Because of the elevation it is generally at least 5 - 7 degrees Celsius cooler than Brisbane.  On the Saturday afternoon we enjoyed gathering around a roaring fire before setting out on foot for the little restaurant (and whisky bar) about 200 metres down the hill.  We took a bit longer to walk back up the hill on our way home!  And yes, it was very chilly but well worth it.  We'd had a lovely meal. 

We'd seen a few wallabies near the house Saturday evening but it was the birds that lured us out into the cold the next morning.  There was a bird seed trough running along the front deck and those birds knew where to come!  It was delightful being so close to them.  There were bird feeding sessions mid morning and mid afternoon down near the restaurant where the birds flocked by the dozen but I much preferred our private visits.

King Parrot

 The red and blue parakeets seemed to prefer to feed from the ground

Some were a little shy and thought they'd hide in the trees until we went away.

The glossey blue black bowerbird (the male, the female is very nondescript) wouldn't go too far from cover. 

Can't wait to return.