Walking Mary Cairncross.

We have been walking through the Valley of the Shadow.  It has retreated for a while ~ but it will be back.   That's what shadows do.

Amidst all the angst & difficulties I managed a week with my own mother, who is in her 80's but robust & healthy.  As I always say when I stay with her & am asked the perennial question: What would you like to do while you are here?  I answer: Walk.

The Sunshine Coast is littered with National Parks & walking tracks, some good, some not so good, but all dependant on having amenable weather. Rain brings out the leeches & makes many of the tracks slippery & dangerous.  Too hot & they are exhausting.  This year we had wonderful weather & on the Wednesday we walked the Mary Cairncross track.

Mary Cairncross is perhaps my favourite walk.  It is part of the lush hinterland around Maleny/Monteville with spectacular views towards the Glasshouse Mountains. These 13 volcanic peaks can been seen for miles along the coast or out @ sea before you are anywhere near them.

I have done this walk any number of times.  It is neither a particularly long or strenuous walk but has recently been upgraded to be more wheelchair friendly. It is home to a huge variety of native birds & always, always I see birds I never see @ home ~ & hear the calls of many more I can't identify.

 Pademelons can usually be spotted if you don't have noisy small children with you.  I have walked this with children but mine were well trained to walk quietly & keep their eyes peeled & invariably it was a child who spotted the most interesting things having sharp young eyes that didn't need glasses! ☺

 The quality of the pictures is bad but we were so excited to see a family of yellow Robins, robins being ecologically sensitive.  We also spotted log~runners, a brown cuckoo & a rose crowned dove, all beautiful in their own way, while we were serenaded around the track by Golden Whistlers, Cat birds & Koel.

 There is a special spot just for the bats.  I have always had a special affection for our native bats since the bitter winter day we rescued an abandoned baby & I learnt how soft & hugely affectionate they are.

 Nests.  No idea really.  Gerrygongs maybe... There were lots of them hanging right beside the track, abandoned of course as most species have finished breeding.

 We completed our outing by having lunch @ the new Resource centre with its wonderful views of the Glasshouse: quiche & salad, so very scrummy.

The updated resource centre is wonderfully informative.  Nests, feathers & exoskeletons are on display & they have several interactive things, including bird calls, which ate up huge wads of mum & my time as we attempted to identify all the birds we had heard but not seen ~ which meant a lot of guessing to start with! Then whittling it down bit by bit.

Our final call was Nambour train station to pick up my niece who is @ uni in Brisbane & spends most of her free time up @ mum's.  Luckily she too likes to walk!