Jessica Wandering

Photos and thoughts on my travels

Brisbane and family!

My sister actually flew all the way from Minneapolis to meet us in Brisbane! And to see Dave, who we have known since 1975. He and his wife, Alicia, were both amazing hosts even though they are in the midst of packing up and moving to the US for a couple of years. Dave and I were such buddies when we were kids. Us and Max Germer got up to all the tree climbing and exploring possible.

This is on their fridge, I really love this. I hope to put it on my fridge at home.

Dave’s son Tobias had chopped us a bunch of wood.

And this is Oreo, he is so sweet! I wish I had taken more pictures of their beautiful house and 5 acre land with garden and greenhouse and chickens… I was a very lovely space

Queensland takes us back to epiphytes everywhere.

Lovely Somerset overlook on a walk on Mount Mee. Strangely, no wallabies or kangaroos…

Something about gum trees are so beautiful.

And the yellow banksia bottle brushes

And sunset from the car on the way home.

Cascade on the hike in Maiala area of D’Aguilar NP

But what we came for was seeing the “strangler fig” trees. They are huge and start from a seed in the branches and they grow both down and up from there until it literally strangles out the tree underneath.

Here’s one earlier in the process.

And here is a bonsai version at the botanical garden the next day.

I loved this exhibit.

It part of the Japanese garden

And a lovely garden it was.

And there were water monitors

I loved that this one looked like he had tiny plants growing on him. He had just swum through plants floating on the water… but it was a cool effect.

The next morning I found this toad swimming in their swimming pool. I relocated him here near the creek with the leaf. I hope he is ok.

Then we went to the Glass House Mountains for a walk.

There were volcanoes, then the mountain eroded away and left the solidified magma core behind.

They are very strange looking and beautiful.

I don’t know what makes the squiggles on the bark of some gum trees, but it seems to me like an intelligence trying to communicate.

They are so sweet to each other when there isn’t competition for food.

The stepping stones make the trail seem more magical.

Next day- A microcosm of green.

It was along a pretty little creek but the “trail” got pretty hairy pretty quick.

Very hairy…where do you go? We made it over this.

But Zarah ended with a back pocket full of glass, and we turned around. Luckily she had the coverage plan, but unluckily Australia uses a different waveform for cellular than in the US, so the actual phone is different and they only had a new one in Sydney. 10 days of no phone!

Next day: Kookaburra sits in another gum tree-ee. But still no wild mammal sightings in the Brisbane area. It’s really odd.

It is quite beautiful though

Lake at Walkabout Creek

And this guy near the parking lot!

We went to the downtown street market for Jenny’s birthday.

There is the most beautiful cafe in Samford Village called Little Tree, but the trees are not small.

Since we still hadn’t seen any mammals with Jenny we went to the sanctuary at the park with the lake. I love wombats so much.

And they had Platypuses!! They move so frenetically, it’s hard to get a good photo.

They really zoom. As my mom would say.

and a tree kangaroo.

By far the most common wild animal sighting in the Brisbane area was the bush turkey.

Then surfers at Noosa National Park.

Hells gate!

Windy day but we had fun. And we did see mammals— dolphins!

There is a kookaburra somewhere in the tree as well as these lovely ladies.

We got burgers so big we couldn’t really figure out how to eat them!!

Then we just had to go see the marsupials at Lone Pine Sanctuary.

It’s the oldest koala sanctuary in Australia

and they let you pet some of them.

It is really quite huge. And koalas sit in such funny ways.

So so cute. So so tired … all the time.

They can be so sweet when there isn’t competition for food.

And the swamp wallabies

And the western reds

And the eastern grays.

And a raptor show.

These were really cool to see them fly right by you.

AND THEN THERE WAS A BABY!!!

Next day one last hike in Queensland, Condalilla Falls National Park

The vistas were amazing.

And the falls

And the fern trees

And the place where a huge tree’s roots are seeming to hold up the whole mountain.

And the faeries might be afoot again

Look! I found a swing!

I love to look over the valley to all the layers of mountains.

And the clouds!

Next up… Sydney!

jessicaeastre

2 responses to “Brisbane and family!”

lesacooks

August 5, 2024 at 3:01 pm

Hi, Jenny! Amazing that she came all the way out to Melbourne ❤️ Do I know this Dave guy? If you hung out with Max I maybe do?? Also, baby koala omgggg ❤️

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1. jessicaeastre
  
  August 5, 2024 at 3:09 pm
  
  Aw. I’ll tell her hi for you. Dave and Max and I went to Quaker Meeting together, so I don’t think you know Dave. On the kolala, right?
  
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