O'Reillys Hike to Picnic Rock and Elabana Falls/Lamington National Park

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On January 15th, we spent the day at O’Reillys Rainforest Retreat in Lamington National Park. We started the day on a short rainforest walk learning about the different wildlife and trees in Queensland. As we walked through the forest we were greeted with several types of birds such as Brush Turkeys. The best part was walking along the narrow and swinging bridge, only allowing six people at a time. Although it was scary it was a cool way to experience this rainforest from a higher level. After the 45 minute walk, we headed over to the “wildlife experience” to see some birds and other animals. I really don’t enjoy birds, but I thought it was really interesting to see how well trained and controlled both birds were. Right after, the rest of the class went on a hike, but due to an injury I skipped out on the hike and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the retreat.

` The next big activity of the day was the Flying Fox zipline! We took around a five minute car ride to the outer part of the property and then got our gear and learned all of the safety instructions. The worst part was trekking up a steep hill and flights of stairs to make our way to the start of the zipline. As each person went down, the next got more and more confident with running down the platform and zipping through the air. Everyone was supporting and cheering for each other which I think was really important for creating a stronger group morale. I chose to go down the zipline three times each one with a new strategy. The first was to just have fun, the second and third were to film the experience and hope that I don’t drop my phone! In the end the

Flying Fox zipline was such a fun experience and bonding time for the class. We all got very funny videos of everyone zipping down, screams and all.

Overall, the experience in Lamington National Park and on the Flying Fox was super fun and informative. We were able to learn a lot about their wildlife and native habitat and just how they live their life in this area. Additionally, at O’Reilly’s we experience strong sustainability aspects through the resort. With the shower-time advice in the rooms as well as several bottle filler stations around the grounds, those are just a few of the sustainability features displayed not only in Lamington National Park, but inside O’Reilly’s itself. The flying fox provided such a fun and freeing break from a lot of the strenuous activities we had in the leadup to it. It allowed us as a group to relax and just have some fun before moving on to the next destination!


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