A Spontaneous Trip and an Outgoing Owl

Wanting to get out of the city for the night, I took two trains and ended up in Landsborough two hours later.  This is in the Hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane.  I packed very light so that I would be able to go bushwalking (hiking) the next day.

After sleeping at a local caravan park, I awoke early and wrote for an hour while I waited for a breakfast joint to open.  At 7:30, I refueled myself with toast and salad and had a lovely conversation with Vivian, the cafe owner who told me a bit about the area and explained the way to the Mary Cairncross reserve--a beautiful piece of protected (rainforest) land that I had wanted to check out.

I arrived to the bus stop outside of the train station at 8:29am and saw that the bus heading west to the reserve had recently come at 8:13.  Using my finger to follow along the timetable, I came across the next time: 11:00am.  Darnit!  The bus system in that part of Queensland is still in the "trying to sort out whether it makes financial sense" phase.  Rather than wait for 2.5 hours, I started walking the 11 kilometers by foot.  It became fairly clear that the main road wasn't going to be very pedestrian-friendly.  At times, it became quite narrow.  So, I crossed the street to backtrack to a side road that I had passed called "Old Maleny Road".  I figured that regardless of where it took me, it would be the better (safer) option.  Just as I had crossed the road, a car pulled over and an older man in a white ute (like a pick up truck) offered to give me a lift.  I explained that I was trying to go up the hill, towards the reserve, and thanked him anyway.

As I walked along Old Maleny Road, I only passed one car, which was wonderful.  The street went through a beautiful Eucalypt forest and bordered along a National Park.  Although there was a sign that read "No Through Street", I was confident that it did indeed go through, and that the people living there chose to put that sign up to discourage people from turning onto it.  After walking several kilometers (most of it uphill), I was happy to see that the road did indeed merge onto the main road that I initially started trekking on.  At this point, I switched into my extra shirt that I had in my backpack and hung the sweaty one onto a clip outside my pack, so that it could dry as I walked.  (Because of the heat, I would do this same thing THREE more times that day!)

While walking along, I spotted an unusual tree that I had never seen before.  I sat down and sketched the leaves, fruit and flower so that I could later ID it when I returned home.  Turns out, it was either a Kigelia Africana or Kigelia Pinnata (common name is: Sausage Tree).  Check out these photos:

The elongated seed pods surely give this tree it's common name.

beautiful flowers that hang down from the branches and bloom in bunches

As I looked towards the direction I wanted to go, I realized that the main road wasn't any wider than it had been earlier.  Some traffic control workers pulled over to pick up some orange cones and I asked them whether it was safe for me to walk up the hill.  They both said that it was and apologised for not being able to give me a lift (against company protocols).  After they drove off, I walked a bit more but decided against their advice.  I was trying to determine what steps to take when I saw the same white ute who had stopped two hours earlier.  The nice man named John was going back home and offered to give me a lift for the remaining kilometers to the reserve.

You wouldn't believe the various bird calls that I heard whilst in the reserve park.  It was unbelievable.  There is one that sounds EXACTLY like a small baby crying.  I felt sure that there sometimes were people who walked around, looking for a stranded baby.  While I walked around, it rained a little.  But, since I was under the canopy of these huge trees, it was merely a mist by the time it got down to me.  

I ate some soup and watched an old brush turkey walk around the outdoor cafe, looking for sugar packets to rip open and consume.  It was strangely entertaining.

After my long walk into Maleny, I saw the two traffic controllers who I had seen earlier.  They were very friendly and said "you must be knackered (tired)!"  Hearing that, with the sun beating down on me, surrounded by subtropical trees...I truly felt like I was in Australia.   

I waited for a late afternoon bus to take me back to the Landsborough train station where I hopped on the train into Brisbane.  Being outside and going on a day-long bushwalk was just what I needed. .  . 

Oh---and I saw my first owl last night.  It was quite cute, sitting on a big tree branch, and letting me come up to one meter away from it.  It purred at me for a while.  (It really was more like a 'purr' than a "whoooo")