The Glass House Mountains

I have one rule about getting up before the crack of dawn , I only do it for very special occasions and only by choice. Today, I eagerly got up at 3AM despite having only 3 hours sleep.

We went hot air ballooning this morning over the Glass House Mountains and that meant a very early start and an hour of driving to get to the meet up point. My friend and I joined 10 other people and spent about an hour at 5000 ft up in the air. This was my first time to do this and the prospect of taking photos of the Glass House Mountains at that vantage point prevailed over my teeny weeny bit fear of heights.

Now, I cannot describe in words how amazing the experience was. My only regret was having only spent an hour up in the air and used a camera that I wasn't familiar with, yet. It seems what they say is true, it doesn't matter how fancy your camera is if you don't know how to use it. Ugh! Just the same, I could have stayed up there for hours as it was the most tranquil experience I have ever had!

I took about 200 photos and it was hard for me to pick which one to post. However, this photo shows the Glass House Mountains with the different peaks hence I decided to pick this for my blip.

Named by James Cook during his epic voyage along Australia's east coast, the Glass Houses are rhyolite plugs formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. Remnants of the open eucalypt woodland and heath vegetation, which once covered the coastal plains, provide a home for an interesting variety of animals and plants, including 26 near threatened plant species.

The Glass House Mountains area was a special meeting place where many Aboriginal people gathered for ceremonies and trading. This place is considered spiritually significant with many ceremonial sites still present and protected today.

The name of the different peaks can be found here

PS. I had to fight the urge to post the B&W version because I think the coloured version better represents what the area looks like. Here's a look at the B&W version and another photo from the set.

It has been a long day with the hot air balloon early this morning and a hen night that I left half way through due to a sore knee. I've been awake 21 hours now and that's pushing it for me so I bid everyone a smashing Saturday night/morning! Tomorrow hopefully i'll have more time to spend in the blip world. :)