A land of dragons.

On Saturday, after all our state hopping, Dave drove us up to Tamborine Mountain. Much of the subtropical rainforest was cleared for agriculture, human settlement and logging, but some remains and some has been replanted. 

We first stopped off at Gallery Walk, a street filled with cafes, souvenir shops, distilleries and craft shops. After walking down the one side of the street we crossed over and walked back up the other, stopping off for a cream tea. It was in the gardens of the cafe that I spotted a species of fern that Lynne said was a elk fern (Platycerium bifurcatum), just one of many plants I saw.

After our cream tea we set off for the Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens, where we walked through the a rainforest garden, saw a couple of lizards having a fight and found a sculpture by Matt Bird, something that Lynne found hysterical.

We then set off for Curtis Falls, in the Tamborine National Park. The walk down to the falls was amazing. The tall straight trees growing ever upwards in an attempt to reach the sun. The forest full of the sounds of birds. The strangler figs in particular were very impressive.

After our walk back up the hill and a cool drink we set off for The Glow Worm Caves.

As I was about to walk down the path a great big metre (well maybe not quite) long lizard ran across the path in front of me. I shouted out in surprise, but by the time I got my camera out it had disappeared into the bushes. I did however get to take some photos of some juvenile Eastern water dragons. 

The glow worm cave was truly beautiful, like a million stars twinkling in the night sky, they didn't fail to please. The project had originally collected 300 glow worms from the forest and the colony is now nearly 10,000. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend a trip to the caves.