Rainforest

After 4 days it was time to leave the holiday house in Coolum Beach. Now it's camping time again. The weather was fine today, no rain, and I had a beautiful drive up the hills from which you get magificent views of the scenery, and the Pacific in the distance.

I did not need to go very far. Passing through Nambour I went to the little town Mapleton. There is a waterfall (Mapleton Falls) in a rainforest grove which they made a National Park.

This was my first encounter with Australian subtropical rainforest. (You may remember my pictures of the Tasmanian rainforests, but these are temperate and thus quite different in terms of flora and fauna.) The tracks were a bit muddy from the heavy rains but otherwise it was a really nice walk.

The tree in the picture is a strangler fig. It is a similar specimen to the one I photographed on Moonbi, but this guy has really strangled and murdered its host tree, as you can see. They are bastards -- but fascinating with their tentacle-like aerial roots.

Then 10 km futher down the way I made a stop at another similar place. It's called Kondilla National Park, and has waterfalls too.

That bird on the last picture was really cheeky and even came to sit on the "basket" of my campervan, watching me eagerly to see if he'd get his share from the sandwich I was eating at a picnic break. (He didn't get it!)

Finding a caravan park was a bit difficult tonight. It's a long weekend (Monday is Queen's Birthday) and the parks are nearly all booked out. But I finally found one and got the last available powered site (Stellplatz mit Strom) at Landsborough.