Queensland is the land of sun, surf and the Great Barrier Reef. But we are at 1000 meters in Bunya National Park in the interior of Queensland, which is an Equus caballus of a completely different hue. First of all it rained all day and most of the night. The nighttime temperature dropped into the low 40s, which translates to "damn chilly" on the Celsius scale.
The sky was clear this morning but fog persisted on the mountain as we hiked along the aptly named "Scenic Loop" from the ranger station, searching for rifle birds. This is a "dry rainforest," a place of ferns and lianas, bromeliads and strangler figs, streams and waterfalls, where the "crack" of the elusive whip-bird echoes through the forest. And towering above it all are the stately hoop pines and the Bunya pines, from which the park gets its name.
