Our Corner of the World: O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat

After leaving the Gold Coast, we headed up to the Rainforest about an hour and a half inland. To get here, we drove up the the narrowest, windiest road ever. It's definitely in the middle of nowhere! Should have taken Dramamine.. We finally made it though.
The whole property is inhabited by these blue and red parrots. They were really cute at first! Until we realized that everyone fed them, so you can't eat anywhere outside without the birds trying to steal your food and land on your table..

Even without food, the birds would swoop down and land on you..

There were lots of treks to take through the rainforest, some guided, some not. The first guide showed us how to spot all the hidden spider holes (some were enormous!), the poisonous plants to stay way from, and the local wildlife - from snakes to birds to wallabies. A little creepy, but still beautiful.

It was mostly cloudy and misting rain the whole time we were here, but I guess that's to be expected :) The view of the valley was beautiful when it was clear though.

The tree-top walk they have was really cool - lots of suspension bridges leading to a climb up a tree to platforms where you could see the valley. Taylor and I made the climb, Mike opted to wait on the bridge and talk to all the other tourists!

After we got back we spotted this sign. How do you not go look for the wishing tree?! It was probably a mile and a half into the forest. Mike walked at the front of the trail, battling the spider webs and vines as we went. He's a good sport.. I'm pretty sure he would rather have been on the deck with a cold drink..

The trees were enormous! This is a tree that had been taken over by a Strangler Fig - once the fig grows over the tree, the middle of the tree dies out. The saying here is that everything in Australia will kill you. Taylor joked that even the trees kill each other! Funny. Kind of.. OK, let's go back to the hotel!