A trip to the Glasshouse Mountains

Today a few of us from the Brisbane centre decided to make a journey to the nearby Glasshouse Mountains, situated about an hour's drive north of the city.

The focus of our outing was to practice being aware in a conducive location out in nature.

Here we are about to embark on our first climb. Destination: the summit of Mt Beerburrum.

Trent finishes off breakfast while Klaus and Sarah apply some sunscreen.

About to begin: Klaus, Trent, Sarah and Bianca.

"Steep Walk"?? No worries.

Doesn't look so hard - Sarah leads the way.

Interesting - a strangler fig. We stood here for a moment to take in what we could sense. The smell of the leaves was very refreshing!

Sarah, Klaus and I admire the strangler before moving on.

Almost there - Bianca and Trent.

The view from Mt Beerburrum - some of the other Glasshouse Mountains.

Trent has a stretch on top of the lookout before the descent.

After the first mountain we decided to rest at the nearby picnic area and have some lunch.

Sarah slices up the mango - it was delicious!

Enjoying our lunch.

All of a sudden we heard a familiar squawking as a magpie chased a goanna. Around this time of year magpies get very territorial to protect their young - which means you have to be extremely careful in case you get swooped by one!

The goanna runs for it.

The magpie takes a swoop.

The goanna finds safety but the magpie keeps a keen watch (below).

 

Refreshed and recharged we headed off for the second mountain and largest of all the Glasshouse Mountains, Mt Beerwah. But as a surprise the path had been closed due to a rock fall. Not to be dismayed we chose climb the nearby Mt Ngungun.

Sarah, Trent and Klaus in the back of the 'Yellow Submarine' on the way to Mt Ngungun.

Trent begins the climb.

Some of the beautiful scenery. Every so often we would stop and just use our senses to take it all in and really appreciate being in that moment.

But plenty of nasties as well!

This is where it started getting tough.

Klaus makes it look easy! Above him you can see a small cave which we decided to check out (see below).

 

Klaus looks at us in bewilderment.

Having experienced enough of the cave we headed on into the unknown.

 

Continuing the climb.

Getting close!

Made it! Check out the view (below).

A hard earned rest. Two mountains in one day isn't bad!

How's the view, Klaus?

Hey! I can see my van from here!

A group of abseilers were already at the top when we arrived - here's one of them.

Group photo before we go back down again.

With plenty of time left in the day we decided to head to the closeby township of Maleny, set amongst some pretty breathtaking landscape. First stop was a cafe for a short break before going to Mary Cairncross Park, the second-most visited place in the Sunshine Coast hinterland!

Does somebody have a sweet-tooth?! Bianca and Sarah enjoy a mango icecream.

Cows on the way...

The view from just outside Mary Cairncross Park. It was absolutely amazing...

Thankfully this is just a model! We passed through the information centre before entering the rainforest walk. The volunteer on duty was very helpful with giving us a bit of local lore.

By this time the sun was going down so the photos weren't coming out too well but there were still a few good ones shown below. Before entering the walk we made the affirmation to use our awareness to go as deep as we could into conscious states. The result was quite profound! As we went on we tried as much as possible to absorb all the sounds, sights, smells and overall feeling of this magical area.

These two massive gum trees are over 500 years old and pre-date the surrounding rainforest.

There was definitely a different feel amongst our group after this walk. It was the perfect way to end a big day!

Here we are for one final group shot after the tranquil walk.

The sun is setting and we admire the view one last time (below).