Lamington National Park

Steve and I went to Lamington National Park on Saturday. It's just over a 2 hour drive from Brisbane and is part of a world heritage area. We got a bit lost on the way there and ended up deep in the country. It was incredibly beautiful...

...but very crazy roads! Roads just a bit wider than our little Yaris but meant for 2 way traffic. The speed limit was 100 km per hour in some places, even though the road was very narrow and curly!
There were lots of cows everywhere. In some parts, there were no gates, so the cows could just walk onto the crazy narrow, curly roads, if they wanted! The roads were covered in cow poop! Moo Poo was for sale everywhere...$1 a bag. These cows didn't like that I came to take their picture and they all took off...
Cute little store, in a wee tiny town...
Once we finally got un-lost, the drive up the mountain to the park was just as narrow and just as curly! The first thing we saw when we arrived at the park were beautiful tropical birds and bush turkeys everywhere!!! We had bought some bird seed at the gift shop and realized that this one particular spot was the place to use it. If you put seed in your hand, Australian King Parrots, and Crimson Rosellas would come and eat out right out of your hand! The birds have been coming to be fed in this spot since the 1920s. It all started when a King Parrot was injured and someone fed it, to help nurse it back to health. Even after it was better, it would come to eat there and started bringing friends with him. It was pretty cool, well except when the King Parrot landed on my head, that just freaked me out a little! Steve very patiently waited for the birds...
The birds were beautiful! Can you believe these wild birds just came and ate out of our hands?!

Steve was like the Bird Man. He'd patiently wait for all the birds and then give them to the little kids when they came to him. Needless to say, the kids stayed quite close to Steve...

As you all know, I'm not crazy about birds, and the whole putting seed in my hand and waiting for the birds to come freaked me out a little! But, seeing as 4 year olds were doing it and really, how often in life do you get a King Parrot landing on you to eat?? So, I decided to suck it up and do it!
You can tell by this picture that I'm not too sure about it!!! Look at my face! It was pretty cool though! Their little feet felt so strange gripping on your finger! After the birds, we went on a tree top walk....

You walked on this thing...it was pretty bouncy and high up!

You could climb quite high up this ladder. The view from the top was very pretty.
The trees were huge!

I think this is a fig tree...
We took a walk through the Botanical Gardens...I really like this photo of me and Steve...

We saw this wild Wallaby...

He wasn't shy and came over pretty close! We also saw one when we were driving. Now I just need to see a wild kangaroo!
The drive down the mountain was just as narrow and just as curly, with just as many cows...

It was so nice to see some countryside for a change...
We stopped at a little cafe and gift shop on the way down the mountain. This mean dog lived there...I thought it was so funny to see the "Beware of Dog" sign and then see this guy snoozing!

The view from the cafe was absolutely breathtaking! Everything, everywhere we went was so green and lush and there were little ponds of water in all the fields, where you'd see cows cooling themselves off. The rain has been great for that!

The cafe...

They bred llamas there. The baby llamas were SO cute!! You can see one of the little guys in the pic...he's the little white one...

We also stopped at O'Reilly's vineyard on the way home. They make wine and breed platypus. So, of course we bought a bottle of their "Platypus Play" wine. It's supposed to go great with Thai, so we're going to take it with us the next time we go to our favorite BYO Thai place. We didn't see the platypus but apparently, in the river behind this cheesy picture, there is a whole family of them. The lady told me that you had to be very patient if you wanted to see one, as they are very shy.

The property was beautiful and so peaceful!

The grape vines...
It was a full day! We had such a great time!

Sunday, we spend relaxing and taking Jesse for a swim. We did our first BBQ dinner in the park with the Purdys on Sunday evening. It was such a nice evening but I forgot my camera! Next time! I think BBQs in the park are going to be something we do more often. They're so much fun and so easy!

Now, we get to look forward to a 4 day weekend! Yippee!