We started off our 10 day adventure through coastal Queensland with a scenic drive through the Glasshouse Mountains. They aren’t mountains as we would think of them, but rather smaller peaks (remnants of volcanic activity) rising up from the surrounding countryside. We parked at the lot for Mount Tibrogargan and set off on a hike just over 3 km long. The first part led us uphill to a viewpoint where we could see two of the peaks in the distance. We then walked through the woods circling around Mount Tibrogargan. The peak itself was off limits unless you had proper climbing gear as some sections required you to climb a rock face! As we circled, we got views of the other peaks in the chain. We enjoyed all of the different vegetation and wildlife. We spotted a few different butterflies, a blue-headed bird, red-headed bird, and even a huge lizard up in a tree. Anoop heard the lizard moving and just happened to see it at the right moment! We saw a few different wildflowers as the area was a little warmer than where we had visited before and the tree canopy wasn’t as dense. We then had a picnic at one of the tables near the car and spotted a kookaburra in a nearby tree.

We continued on our way and entered the Blackhall Range, considered one of the most scenic drives in Queensland. We stopped off at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve to do a short loop through the rainforest. They had a visitor centre with tons of information on the various plants growing there, but we didn’t have enough time to read all of it. The walk was amazing with so many different trees and plants! Anoop was again on the ball for wildlife spotting and we saw two very colourful parrots playing higher up in the canopy. Further along, he spotted a pandalemon, also known as a forest wallaby! We passed by some really interesting trees with amazing roots twisting all over the place. We saw more wallabies along the path before arriving at the palms where fruit bats were making the most amazing racket. They were flying around and hanging from the trees, much to my distaste, not being a fan of bats. We eventually decided that we had better head out since we still had one stop to make before heading to our final destination for the night.

I had read in a blog that in the nearby town of Maleny there was a gelato place that had won lots of awards. Being a huge fan of gelato, I had inked it in to our plan! We arrived just in time to order a cone and enjoy it before they closed. They didn’t have a huge selection, but the few varieties we sampled were delicious. In the end I opted for a scoop of Baccio, a favourite I had discovered in Italy that is chocolate hazelnut, similar to a Ferrero Rocher, and also a scoop of white chocolate raspberry. Anoop was more adventurous and went for the ginger macadamia nut (amazing!) and pineapple.  

We headed off for the rest of the scenic drive but it was rapidly becoming dark. We decided as we passed through that we really wanted to have more time to do the drive and stop in another town that we didn’t have enough time to see. We will hopefully be able to do it on our drive back down!