Australian East Coast - Part One: Brisbane and the Glasshouse Mountains
From November 25 to December 24 I was travelling with some friends (Andrea, Andreas, Peter and Tim) along the Australian east coast. We took the greyhound bus from Brisbane up to Cairnes. The stations were: Brisbane - Noosa - Rainbow Beach - Fraser Island - Rainbow Beach - Rockhampton - Airlie Beach - Whitsunday Islands - Airlie Beach - Townsville - Mission Beach - Innisfail - Mission Beach - Cairnes.
We left Melbourne on November 25 to go to Brisbane by plane. There we catched up with our fellow students Andrea and Peter who did their semester abroad in Sydney. The picture above is the landscape around Brisbane on a one-day-trip to the Glasshouse Mountains and the Rainforest there.
This is a panorama view of the glasshouse mountains. They are called like this because Captain Cook who sailed past the coast said that from the far distance they remind him of glasshouses in England. Well, as an European he saw a lot of new things, so he probably just had a lack of names. So why not? Glasshouse Mountains. According to scientists these are the reminders of vulcanoes. According to the Aborigines these mountains are a family, so each mountain is a member of this family. In brief the story: the father saw there was a thunder-storm coming and told the son to help the pregnant mother. But this naughty kid just cared for himself. Actually, nothing happened to the mother but, nevertheless the father was angry. So angry that he bashed his son ...
... Since then the son had a bended neck, as you can see on the picture. The father still couldn´t forgive him and therefore does not look at him (the "father rock" seems to have a face). There are more family members like the twins and I´m quite sure they have a story as well. However, I don´t know it. Sorry.
And here we got Andreas, not a local rice farmer.
Anyway, when you have a closer look at the field: these are pineapples. A very nice smell, delicious and juicy. I never got some like these in Europe.
According to the Aborigines to climb the Glasshouse Mountains makes unlucky. Like the story about someone who went there to make a map of the area and who went blind afterwards. So we rather went to the close rainforest. That´s a strangling fig from inside. By chance birds drop the seed on another tree, so the fig grows from the light top downwards. When it reaches the ground it gets roots and gets strong. Then it strangles the host tree which dies off. In the end there is a hollow tree. They become old and very tall. How do I know all these stories? We had a guide called Rob who made a really nice daytrip with Robs Rainforest Explorer Day Tours. Recommendable.
Back in Brisbane there are also some nice trees. Here with Peter and Andreas.
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