Snakes alive!

So I’d done the coast and the city, the only thing left was the Hinterland – an area of steep hills and semi-tropical forest, remnants of a huge ancient volcano centred around the northern edge of NSW. I’d hoped to do quite an active bushwalking tour of Springbrook National Park but that was booked out and instead I was on a more sedate tour with stops primarily aimed at making you part with your cash. Having said that, the tour guide, Davo, was a fountain of knowledge and the drive was beautiful.

The first stop was Tambourine Mountain…don’t get too excited - no stops at look outs or waterfalls but 45 minutes to spend ambling down Gallery walk. Ooh. Did have a complementary scone with rhubarb jam and improper non-westcountry cream though, meaning I was too full to spend money in Mrs Macs Olde Fashioned Fudge Shoppe. Descending Tambourine Mountain, the road went through a couple of green valleys before another climb up the McPherson Range in Lamington National Park. The road then zigzagged above the valleys and, between the trees, there were some staggering views both to the Great Dividing Range to the west and Lamington National Park to the south and east. This is a world heritage area, along with Springbrook National Park where no doubt a group of smelly backpackers were crossing streams, walking under waterfalls and climbing paths to rocky outcrops with panoramic views to everywhere.

Our road ended at O’Reillys, a jungle resort where you can “get away from it all”. Or experience lots of screaming kids, Japanese people feeding the Rosellas or queues to climb a ladder on the treetop walk. Enough of the negativity already! The treetop walk was actually rather good, although shorter than I expected. This was real jungle, I just expected Paul Burrell to appear from around the corner.


Like any tourist trap, walk five metres from the trail you’re expected to follow and you’re almost instantly teleported into another world. The screams of kids and clicks of Sony cameras were replaced by the clicks of bugs and the screams of birds living life to the full in the jungle. That wasn’t the only wildlife. There were also snakes. Yes, snakes (and not on planes). A red bellied black snake, not huge but probably packing enough venom to down me with the bat of an eyelid (do snakes have eyelids?). I would’ve taken a picture for y’all but as I nearly stood on him I scared him back into the undergrowth (I scared him?!).

On another track (which led eventually to beautiful waterfalls and lookouts, only 3 or 4 hours walk...not possible when you have 2 hours) I thought there was another snake lazing about in the leaves ahead of me, only to find out it was this lizard (a form of Lace Monitor maybe). He wasn’t that scary, quite cute really!

The next bit of wildlife was a man with a tanned face and frazzled white hair, lugging about a great big camera telling me about the beautiful waterfalls and overlooks he had been to and taking pictures of the fungi. I told him to have fun…guy. He didn’t laugh though he was rather jolly.

After a quick pie from O’Reillys food emporium (which I ate in front of the “Welcome to O’Reillys sign, annoying the hell out of people who wanted to take a picture of the sign!), I took a snoop around the resort, where I was able to sneak a few views of some of the mountains (At last, an overlook!).



I also saw up here quite a strange little thing – like the size of a rabbit but bouncing about like a kangaroo – I believe it might be called a red-necked pademelon.

So with that my allocated two hours was up, though I quickly picked up a Lamington NP guide from the deserted rangers office, and we headed back down the mountains, spotting a large batch of Pretty Face Wallabies on the way down. They have white faces and some black eyeliner markings. Back down in the valley we had a bit of wine tasting. Now Queensland is more renowned for its rum and delicious Bundaberg Ginger Beer than it’s wine, but one or two of them weren’t bad. Certainly made the journey back to Brisbane (via Nerang of all places) pass more quickly. Even Davo had worn himself out, but he proved a good bloke and helped make it an enjoyable day despite one or two disappointments. I’ll certainly remember it as my first confirmed snake spotting in Australia!! Crikey!