Glasshouse Mountains

In the morning our car’s windscreen is covered in a thin layer of ice. The temperatures had dropped to freezing point. Time to find some more moderate spots. Like the day before we follow rural roads, this time winding down the hills, before we eventually hit the Pacific Highway again.

Here, only around 100 kilometres south of Brisbane, it has got 4 lanes in each direction. Reason is the popularity of the Gold Coast region with tourists. We pass Warner Brothers Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild, an almost infinite strip of entertainment parks with cheap diners, fast food chains, and roller coasters along the way. We don’t bother stopping in Brisbane, and instead head another 80 kilometres further north till we reach the Glasshouse Mountains area.

The Glasshouse Mountains are a chain of volcanic plugs, i.e. they are the cores of volcanoes that had been active around 25 million years ago. The volcanoes’ slopes have eroded, but the lava pipes have withstood wind and rain. We set up tent at Beerwah (aboriginal for “mother”) with the plan to hike up one of the hills the next day.

On top of Mount Ngungun

The following day Jonas, Niklas and their grandparents visit the nearby Australia Zoo, while Claudia and I climb up Mount Ngungun and walk through heathland around Mount Tibrogargan. We had seen the Glasshouse Mountains a few times before, but always from the “safe distance” of the Pacific Highway. It’s nice to finally “put names to their faces”.

[Glasshouse Mountains, Beerwah campground, 14.-16. July]