The Bunyas

We have just spent the better part of a week in the Bunya mountains. Adrian and I had camped there with friends about 15 years earlier and had been in awe of the chalets snuggled into the landscape then. The sensuous smell of the wood smoke twirling lazily above each picturesque house, the mist hanging over the roof tops like a gossamer cloak, the lush green grass covering the gentle slopes…. hummm

Our chalet was beautiful and lived up to all my expectations. A four bedroom double story loft house, complete with fireplace and two balconies. The owners really went out of their way to ensure that the tenants felt at home and comfortable. The little touches like the tea and coffee tray, practical things like the tick puller ( used constantly) the myriad of games suitable for all ages, and a host of popular kids and adult videos and dvds. One of the upper bedrooms had a TV, DVD and Video player in it.. Morgan and Lilly claimed it immediately – even though we could have each had a room to ourselves the kids wanted to sleep in the same room. Lilly luxuriated in a queen bed, morgan claimed the single bed overlooking the valley through a huge florr to ceiling window - and there were two couches – one a pull out bed as well. Surprisingly the house could easily sleep 11 people. The kitchen had every appliance you could think of. We ate well and constantly – something holidays are all about. When I booked it, I sent and email out to our friends to invite them to come and stay a while with us. Now we are here I am sorry I didn’t follow up and really sell it to them. Such a great house, close to the walking tracks and beautiful views.

Morgan and Lilly never tired of waking and pulling back the curtains to watch the pretty-face wallabies on the manicured lawns. On the bigger balcony near the dining room, we breakfasted with lorikeets, parrots, currawongs and magpies. Morgans face was a treasure to be kept as he hand fed a parrot one of his raw peanuts. It was a special moment, but one we didn’t encourage as we are well aware of the dangers of domesticating wild animals.

Memories from the trip include

Bird feeding at the café each day.

• Lillys amazing ability to strip naked in five seconds flat and hang from the balconies like a monkey.
• The mist as it hung over the valley
• Watching the sunset as the temperature plummeted.
• The kids racing round with glow sticks in the pitch darkness.
• Those damned ticks – doing a tick patrol every day.
• Morgans amazing ability to hide on the track and jump out to scare us.
• Lillys announcement after walking about 100 mtrs that it was time for snacks…every day…

When Morgan and Age cranked up the playstation, I sat at my laptop and edited stories, read my emails, answering and deleting as I went ( something I hadn’t done for months and was feeling a bit overwhelmed and paralyzed a the enormity of the task),writing and editing my articles for the ebook and planning the framework and world views for my NANO book.

Every day we set off after breakfast on our intrepid adventures. Kitted up with our hydro packs, hiking boots and poles, we attacked our walks with gusto. The longest one we did was a little over 5 kms and had some pretty steep hills following the waterfall trak. Very proud of the kids who kept up, skipped and jumped around excited to see everything in our way.

I can’t believe its at an end and we have to now go home. I hope we can come back soon with lots of friends, warm mead and some good board games to play – its just the right atmosphere.