The Glasshouse Mountains.

Yesterday was the Queen's Birthday in Queensland. She is a lucky lady. She could travel the world and be feted every day could she not? So to celebrate we headed to the hills and specifically to the Glasshouse Mountains Lookout - this was where Captain Cook in 1770 looked out onto the Queensland plain and saw these mountains popping up and thought, we are told, of his glass furnaces back in Yorkshire and he called them the Glasshouse Mountains. They are actually more accurately 

volcanic plugs which have come to the surface during the earth's movements some 27 million years ago and remained these remarkable shapes on the horizon. The Lookout gives you a panoramic view of them from Mt Beerwah, to Mt Coonowrin, then Mt Ngungun, followed by the Twins, Mt Tumbubudula- Mt Tibrogargan and finally Mt Beerburram. Each of a different height and significance because this is also sacred Aboriginal land. 

 We walked along the Lookout circuit and came across wild irises and native rosellas which gave colour to the eucalyptus scrub and fern forest.

We admired the mosaics of each mountain embedded in the path around the Lookout.

This time we admired them from afar. Next time it will be from the tops !