Spiders and Snipers...
As we headed south from Rainbow Beach we passed through the unfortunately named town of Gympie. The drive was a long one by UK standards, but probably perceived as pretty pathetic by Aussie ones. In the old days distances in Queensland used to be measured by the number of beers you would quaff at the wheel en route; ‘How far’s that mate?’ would provoke a response along the lines of ‘Oh about four cans’.Driving up a knife-edge ridge road we climbed onto the Springbrook Plateau, our van making indignant straining noises and releasing foul burning smells like the Human Torch with chronic constipation. From the top we could see over the remnants of what is the biggest volcanic caldera in the southern hemisphere, rocky peaks surrounding the crater that once flooded this landscape with lava. The sharp spike of Mt Warning dominated the area, known as ‘Wollumbi’ or Cloud-gatherer in aboriginal it’s the first point on the Australian mainland to receive the first light of a new day.
