North to the Australian Rainforest

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O'Reillys Rainforest Retreat

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     Anna and Richard talked us into doing the most extraordinary thing!  We took a bus to O'Reilly's, a resort in the rainforest!  We stayed two nights and three days and had a WONDERFUL time!  The bus there and back was entertaining enough with excellent and jolly drivers always keeping us either laughing at ("the cemetery is the 'dead center' of Canungra") or genuinely interested in their stories. 

     Though we absolutely hated leaving our friends and their daughters, and were a bit worried about all the warnings about the leeches on the tracks, we were thrilled for the opportunity!  The resort is in the Lamington National Park, www.oreillys.com.au and is quite a beautiful spot in the midst of the rainforest.  The help is young and enthusiastic -- reminded us a tad of visiting Yellowstone!  We had a deluxe room with a balcony on either end -- you could open up both sliding glass doors and enjoy a breeze through the room complete with a background all the bird calls.  strange too, I can't figure out where all those insects go...absolutley none in the room, I didn;t get a single bite (and many of you know how all spiders, knats, and mosquitos LOVE me)!

Denny on the Tree Top Walk

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     The roselles are everywhere, plus king parrots and magpies -- they beg for food and climb all over those who will feed them.  The sounds of birds are EVERYWHERE and I greatly enjoyed the early morning bird walk on which I learned all the different calls and matched them up to the actual birds -- even a white headed pigeon (supposedly rare!) 

     That first afternoon we took the Tree Top Walk -- an elevated walk through the rainforest canopy -- suspended on cables, it angles up and up leading to a monstrous tree which we also climbed up to the very tiptop through a cage.  We were at the very, very top, peeking out of the rainforest canopy and looking across a view that went forever!  Totally unreal! 

A roselle eating Denny's peanuts on our deck.

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     The next day (after covering ourselves with DEET) we took what is known as the "Box Log Circuit," a 10.6 km tramp through the rainforest and along a river with several stunning waterfalls.  At first we were walking quite fearfully, checking one another out constantly for leeches, but we soon relaxed.  We had to cross the river three times which was both challenging and an adrenalin rush!  The forest itself is breathtaking, but the waterfalls ... WOW!  And there are spiny crayfish! 

     Lunching by the river may have been our downfall because soon after I saw a leech crawling on Denny (not yet connected, thank goodness).  It was easy to get off and then we did a throrough check of our feet and ankles finding three more -- one who had obviously tried hard with me (for there was blood and bite marks) but walking must have dislodged it before it got firmly attached.  It was fun to watch them trying, but I would not have liked to have seen one engorged.  You're supposed to wait and let them fillup and drop off naturally as they put out a numbing substance so you don't feel them bite, then a decoagulant to get your blood and then a co-agulant as they drop off.  Sweet of them, isn't it???  Like as if I could do that -- just watch -- but they are supposedly terribly itchy and bloody if you pull them off prematurely.  Thank goodness we never had to make the choice!     lololol

A leech that Denny knocked off his ankle.

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     We saw a spectacular owlet nightjar (a tiny, rare nocturnal owl) peeping out of its hole in a tree.  We learned about these other really neat birds, the Albert's lyrebird, which we heard but never located.  Do please come over and watch the video we purchased about them and my personal favorites, the satin and regent bowerbirds.  You won;t believe the bowers they make!  I am so glad that we actually found one to see in person!  Denny was more fascinated with the padymelons so we have lots of pictures of them -- several with joeys in their pouches!  Denny hopes to download some pictures to attach to these journals...but when???

     O'Reilly's was great -- we have MANY tales to tell about it to all who will listen!  But we had to leave...back to Bribane for a last wonderful evening with our friends and then on to New Zealand...the south island awaits!