144) Texas takes the Gold Coast by storm!

Well - it rained a lot at least.

Maggie is here on a visit on her way back to Austin after a semester at James Cook Uni in Townsville. We decided to tour some of the local temperate rainforest, where the crimson rosellas and king parrots are rather habituated to people!

A fine new mural in Springbrook - some great animal detail on this!











Maggie coming out from behind Twin Falls


















We have had a bit of rain of late - great drips, and runs, and falls along the trails.

















On the tree top walk at O'Reilley's. Maggie was simply astounded with the fantastic fog formation.

Hey - wouldn't be a rainforest without the mists!
















But the view from the "Best of All Possible Lookouts" was even better!











There are dangers along the trails. This Lamington crayfish was intent on protecting his piece of turf. Never mind that he was 100's of meters from the creek! Maybe he just didn't want to be anyone's dinner.









There are slower dangers too if you move too slowly the strangler figs take root.
















Being the kind soul she is, Maggie also contributed generously to the starving and endangered yellow-stripe leeches. She now sports a multitude of bandaids but feels much better about donating to this worthy cause (personally, I think she is simply lightheaded)















The eternal weightiness of parrots.

















A Whiptail wallaby and joey posed along the road...


















...and the splendid fairy wrens were bright blurs coming out of the mists in the campground.

The non-PC "Black-fella Falls" in Springbrook