Binna Burra Mountain Lodge, Queensland
Chris and Dan spend all day walking 25km across Lamington National Park along the Border Track, from O'Reilly's Guesthouse to Binna Burra Lodge.
Since we left the blinds open, we woke with the sun about 6am, packed our daypacks, and had breakfast. By 8:15 we were in the bus and on the way to O'Reilly's Guesthouse, 6km west as the crow flies from Binna Burra, but 22km walking and 70km if you're driving down the twisty roads and around the tall cliffs and deep valleys of this part of Australia.
At 9:30 we pulled into O'Reilly's. I'd briefly considered staying here after reading about it in Kangaroo Dreaming, a God-awful book written by two American birdwatchers. The book is *not* about bird watching... but how wonderful it was for them to watch birds. You are supposed to be awed by their running count of bird species they've seen. Oh, and be awed that the author dreams about kangaroos, which is somehow all mystical. But I digress.
Anyway, O'Reilly's is very very expensive, about twice what Binna Burra wants, if you can figure out their rate schedule--supposedly all inclusive, as long as you bring along your own food. It's considered more upscale, whereas I'd characterize Binna Burra as rustic but comfortable. It's also quite a bit more commercial in that 'give the people what they want' sense, rather than 'this is what the Lamington National Park rainforest and wildlife is about'. For example, O'Reilly's actually encourages people to feed the wildlife with a specially constructed platform to feed birds, and birdseed available for sale at the gift shop. OK, I'm a bit guilty here--I took some birdseed and fed a parrot. But I excuse myself by saying that I didn't purchase the birdseed at the store! Another thing I just didn't like about O'Reilly's was the 'botanic garden' they had next to the national park border, stocked with rainforest species that could easily escape into the wild, like common impatiens and Central American bromeliads. It just didn't seem to be responsible.
Anyway, we did the treetop climb (with a 'donations accepted' box at the entrance, we declined, we'll let the O'Reilly's upscale guests subsidize us) then headed up the track. A few kilometers later, we branched off and took the Brush Box [todo] track.
[todo] Finish this up!