Fire in the Mountains

Nicole was on a long day today, and I vaguely registered her leaving this morning.

When Eloise woke at 7 (aargh) I soon registered that a nappy bucket had been filled to soak, so after some fiddling around and watching Rage (Aussie equivalent of the old Chart Show) I put the nappies on.

We breakfasted, or is it broke our fast on yoghourt and muesli. I thought I would leave it a while for Eloise to build up an appetite as generally she doesn't seem to feel like eating much if breakfast is rifled in straight after waking up. She gobbled it.

Around 10 we set off for the beach and sang jolly songs whilst paddling around. Eloise then took off all her clothes. The dogs wandered around, Tiny dispensing discipline to Matilda for no really apparent reason, Matilda chasing little flat fish around the mangrove roots.

Eloise has begun to distinguish between singular and plural ("dog" and "dogs," for instance) and spends car journeys busily pointing things out ("car!" "truck" "lady" "bikes") - oh the fun we have... then we have a sing song. "Row row!" she'll cry out then scream at, or near, the appropriate time (that being, to the unititiated, the verse of row row row your boat where you see a crocodile).

The past couple of days Eloise hasn't napped at lunchtime which has been quite wearing but today after a Tim Tam and some milk she went down no worries and slept for two and a half hours.

While she was asleep I resolved to do something a bit different today and though why not go up to the Glass House Mountains for a nice sunset.

So she woke up, and after lunch off we toddled. I needed to fill up the car with petrol and had the unique experience in my life of the petrol station actually running out of petrol before the car was full... which was odd.

I wanted to go to a different place to last time because Wild Horse Mountain had a long steep path to climb which was quite exhausting, though very rewarding. I thought we could go to Mount Beerburrum Lookout which I'd seen signposted when we driven down that way with Sarah a while back.

So we got there for about 4.30 and drove up a dirt track to the lookout.... oh except it was just the car park. We got out of the car to see a sign pointing to a path marked "Lookout 720m Steep Path."

Oh great.

When they thought to say Steep Path they were having a laugh. It was a killer. I'm not the fittest person in the world but I had to stop several times to catch my breath. Blimey. Although I did have Eloise in the back pack, and she does weigh a bit. Oh, and when she got bored in the back pack, I'd put her down, she'd try to take five paces up the hill then say "Carry!" and I'd have to lug her up the winding path again before "Down" and another five paces... you get the picture.

At the top of the path, three quarters of an hour later, was a steel tower with two viewing galleries which we had to climb a ladder to get to. The top one was closed, probably thankfully, as Eloise had to be set free from the backpack before she climbed out of her own accord and I had to have some way of keeping an eye on her.

But the view was marvelous, on the one side the Glass House Mountains, ahead the sun, on the other a Glass House Outrider and a bushfire sending smoke drifting up into the clouds, and the Blackall Mountains behind.

On the way down it was so steep it was all I could do not to run, so I assumed a kind of Ministry of Silly Walks foot-slapping duck walk which took us down the path very fast, with Eloise screeching in my ear or copying my grunts to disquieting effect.

As we drove off, my legs were like jelly.