Had one last night to camp before arriving in Brisbane to visit some friends and see the city. The area I camped in was quite beautiful, but the campground was another state forest full of bogans. After pitching my tent in what appeared to be a deserted campground, I ventured off to explore some of the sites in the area including The Glasshouse Mountains and The Australia Zoo.
The Glasshouse Mountains were really quite interesting since they was actually volcano plugs that were once below the surface of the earth but not sticking up as mountains due to the erosion of everything around them. There were a series of them in a line that James Cook spotted and named as he explored the area.
The Australian Zoo was the base for Steve “Crikey” Irwin before he died and is still run by his surviving family. Not being a huge fan, I was a bit put off at what appeared to be too much emphasis on the family members as celebrities and not enough on wildlife. I was especially put off by the $60 price tag (!) to visit the place for the day. I spoke with several friends since I decided to skip it and they all said it was quite good. For $60 I would have felt obligated to spend an entire day there – and that would have made it difficult to get into Brisbane during peak rush hour at the end of the day.
While I was out, the campsite quickly filled up with loud boisterous bogans smoking dope and drinking too much beer in the evening. Some of them were actually making an attempt to be quiet and friendly (perhaps to head off any complaints), but the combination of very hot weather, very high humidity, and very stagnant air made it very difficult to sleep that night. Campfires made it especially bad because every time there was a slight breeze it ended up blowing smoke in my tent and choking me out.
