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July 11-17, 1998.
My wife and I flew from our local eastern Pennsylvania airport to Brisbane, Australia via Chicago, Los Angeles and Sydney. Twenty-one hours in the air. Eight hours in airports. It's long. We left our home airport at noon Saturday and arrived in Brisbane late in the morning on Monday. The International Dateline accounts for the loss of Sunday. We spent Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday exploring local stores in a large downtown Brisbane street mall while we readjusted our internal clocks. On Wednesday we took a two-hour bus ride to O'Reilly's Guest House in Lamington National Park - the mountains. O'Reilly's is famous as a destination for daytrippers from Brisbane and visitors from all over eastern Australia who stay for a few days. We thought we were going for birdwatching but were disappointed by the lack of birds or staff attention to birdwatching. We'll concede that it was winter and birds were probably in more favorable climes. We weren't disappointed, however, by the extremely personable staff, the interesting people we met at meals (seated 6 to 8 to a table), the mountain air, vistas, and rainforest, and the morning and afternoon ride-and-walk trips. O'Reilly's is a family-run guesthouse that's been around for about 85 years. It started out as a remote mountain farm built by Bernard O'Reilly and his wife. Well-to-do cityfolk spent two days traveling to visit these mountains and the O'Reilly's found themselves providing food and lodging. Eventually they decided to start the guest house. Today it is run by children, grandchildren and others. The staff included Tim O'Reilly, worth recognizing for his funny and informative stories; Michael O'Reilly, for his friendly, enthusiastic nature and great dancing; and "Megan the Hostess," who can seat at least 75 guests, remember all their names when making table introductions, and make you feel like you're really wanted as a guest. Many of the other staff members were enjoyable too. The schedule for O'Reilly's is simple. Eat a sumptuous breakfast. Catch a bus to a mountain promontory. Look at the view. Say "Oooh. Ahhh." Hike a little. Catch the bus back to the guesthouse in time for morning tea. Eat a sumptuous lunch. Catch a bus to another mountain promontory. Say "Oooh. Ahhh." Hike a little. Catch the bus in time for afternoon tea. Eat a sumptuous supper. Take an after-supper hike or fall asleep watching a movie. This is what you call fun. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Passive Ecotravel in Australia in Environment is owned by . Permission to republish Passive Ecotravel in Australia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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