This week, after what has seemed an eternity, I finally found myself on holiday. I had totally forgotten what it was like to work a 10 week term without a half term break, and boy, was it tough. So finally, the holidays came - but unfortunately, the money didn't... Thus I found myself in a situation where I desperately needed a holiday - and desperately couldn't afford one. What to do?
I really wanted to go to Melbourne and visit with my mates Iva and Nat whom I know from England, but I had left it too late to get a so-called 'cheap' flight (I've not yet found a flight that I would consider in the slightest 'cheap' with the 'cheap' airlines here). Dad had been making some noise about the possibility of me joining him and Mum when they went cruising on their yacht, and so in the back of my mind was the thought that at least I could do that - but that still meant I had a whole week of no plans. And to top it all off, I was technically 'grounded' - I couldn't get away until at least Sunday, because I had been railroaded into having a Tupperware party (at Mum's - they wouldn't fit in at mine!) on the Saturday. Surprisingly, that was a real success (a $1400 party with 3 bookings, not bad eh?). And then there was the Broncos final on the Saturday night - so that meant I wouldn't be away until at least Sunday - and realistically, not then - you need a day or so to pack everything up and get sorted out.
Anyway, I needed to figure something out, and quick - time was getting away. So I woke up on the Sunday and thought to myself, I have a tent, I have a car, I have hiking gear - I can borrow what I don't have from Mum and Dad - why not go camping? But where? And will I be safe by myself?
I did a bit of research, and discovered the fact that the cost of camping in a National Park is - you ready for this? - a princely $5 per person, per night. $5! How cheap is that?
Remembering that I would probably need to come back to Brisbane on the Wednesday for Nanny's birthday, I decided upon Lamington National Park, allegedly an hour or so from Brisbane. Well that's a joke for starters - if you go the way the website tells you, it takes the best part of 3 hours! That's because the website stupidly takes you out through Beenleigh / Beaudesert. But if you go straight down the highway to Oxenford or something, you can do it in just over 2 hours. But the clincher for Lamington was the 160kms or so of bushwalks that you can do there in the rainforest. So I packed up the car, borrowed all the camping stuff I needed and headed off.
The "Green Mountains" camping ground is at the end of the Lamington National Park Road, next door to a resort called O'Reillys. This is some 35kms from the nearest town, Canungra - which doesn't sound far, but in reality, its 35kms along a very steep, very narrow and very winding road, which takes about 50 minutes or so to negotiate. Quite a tricky drive.
I arrived mid-afternoon on Monday and discovered pretty quickly that the best campsites were already taken, and I was left with realistically only one of two options - both of which were out in the full, stinking hot afternoon sun - and with no trees for shade. And my other problem was that I really didn't want to advertise that I was on my own, but I had no choice but to set up in full view of everyone - so they knew. I was, I admit, a little worried for my safety.
The site I eventually settled on (having attempted to set up on an alternate site first and deciding it was just too exposed to the elements) was next to a very loud, very annoying German-Australian family with 2 young kids and a young baby. The father kept insisting on speaking in deep, gutteral, throat clearing German, and the kids never once spoke back to him in it. I guess they understood him though. It wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't so loud, especially very early the next morning - and especially as I didn't sleep so well that night. So I woke very tired, and very cranky.
My breakfast 'nook'
My campsite
I spent Tuesday hiking the Box Forest circuit, which was some 11kms or so, a nice little jaunt. I originally wanted to do the Toolona Creek circuit, some 17kms or so - but they were dropping parcels into the Albert River area via helicopter, and that meant this part of track was cut off for several days.
Took me 3-4 hours I guess, as there was quite a lot of uphill and down dale type of walking, and the path was very narrow. Also, too, it took a bit of time because of the little friends I met on the way - like the not so little brown snake that crossed the path (it needed a little encouragement to move, in the shape of a poke with a stick), or the huge carpet snake sunning itself on a rock, or the large goanna on the path. I have to say, when I first saw these little mates, I was more than a little bit frightened!
The walk was lovely, just what I needed, and the waterfalls at the bottom were just gorgeous (if not spectacular drops). The thing I enjoyed most about this though was the fact that in the rainforest, it is at least some 5 degrees cooler than in the city, so heatwise, the walk was very easy.
I returned to my campground mid afternoon and decided to go for a drive to the Gold Coast, thinking it wasn't all that far. This was an bit of an understatement. With the winding road down the mountain back to Canungra, and then the highway trek to Southport - this journey took easily almost 2 hours! It was worth it though, because I really needed to sort something out for my bed. I had been sleeping on a roll out mat, but this provided no level of support and I was aching in the morning. For $19 though, I was able to buy a 'junior twin' blow up mattress - although having slept on it later, I fail to see how two juniors would've fitted on it!
On Wednesday morning, after a fitful night's sleep due to increasing winds, I decided to do 2 walks - the Python Rock walk, and the Moran Falls Lookout walk. So off I went. I particularly enjoyed the start of the Python Rock walk, because of the very many Strangler Figs that I saw. I thought that these plants were terribly interesting. The walk was easy enough, mainly because it has been adapted for wheelchair users, but when I got to the lookout there was a small problem. You couldn't see anything!
Why? Because Wednesday was the day of the major dust storm. It was a reddish haze, very thick, and you simply couldn't not see anything. Very disappointing.
This was also the case on the Moran Falls lookout walk, so I completed the circuit and then made my way back to my tent. It was my intention to shower, and then set off back to Brisbane for Nanny's birthday. However, when I arrived at my tent, I discovered the boot of my car had been blown open in the strong wind, and the tent was flapping around like nobody's business. This put me in a small dilemma. Do I leave the tent there, with all my belongings in it - weighed down by the esky - and pray fervently that the tent still be there and in one piece when I returned the next day, or - do I pack it all up and cart everything with me back to Brisbane, only to set it all back up the next day (and run the risk that I lose the tent space). The wind was getting stronger, and I decided to go with door number 2 - pack up - because I didn't want to run the risk that I would get back and find half my stuff blown over the campground. So I began the onerous task of packing up.
As I was doing so, a woman and 2 small children pulled up to the tent space next to me and started to set up. As that space was exposed to the wind and sun, I offered them my space.
The drive back to Brisbane was uneventful, except that the closer you got to the city, the worse the dust got. In the mountains, you could barely notice it, except at the lookouts, but in the city, you could taste it in the air. It was foul.
I had a lovely dinner with Nanny, Kathy, Tim and Josh, and then went home for a proper nights sleep in a real bed. Next morning, Thursday, early, I set back off for Lamington, arriving mid morning, and setting up on the exposed site next to the woman and her children. They were lovely, Jack, 5 and Lily, 3, and they helped me set up (as much as they could anyway).
I then decided to treat myself to lunch at O'Reilly's so I could enjoy the view, and afterwards took a fair stab at the accessible part of the West Canungra circuit - but due to failing light, I was unable to complete it. I did make it down to the Darraboola falls though, so I reckon I probably achieved maybe 6-7 kms that day.
Which brings me to Friday. I decided that this would probably be my last chance for any proper sort of walk, and seeing as the helicopters had now stopped going over, there was every possibility that the Border track, which makes up part of many of the walks I had wanted to do, would now be open. So after a quick breakfast, and a farewell to Sue, Jack and Lily, who were going home today, I set off.
When I reached the entrance to the Border Track, I didn't see a sign or a Ranger telling me the track was closed, so I took off. Further down the track I saw where it branched off to the Albert River Circuit, a loop which in total would take me some 20 odd kms, so I decided to do it.
It was a lovely walk, and a short distance into it I came across an older couple looking for lyrebirds. I'm glad I did, because later on I made a wrong turning, and had to wait til they caught up to discover the right way to go. We met up again later at one of the waterfalls, and they introduced themselves as Bernie and Chris from Victoria. She was a school teacher and he a farmer, and their map was infinitely better than ours. I had quite a chat with them because looking at how the time was going, and how much further I had to go to get back to the campsite, I wasn't sure I would be able to do it in the hours of daylight still afforded to me. But Chris checked the map and said we had further to go if we went back the same way - so we ended up teaming up and walking the rest of the way back together, which was very pleasant, especially when we crossed over into New South Wales and made it to the lookout from where we could clearly see the coast, and Mt Warning. They were lovely company and I had a really enjoyable, if not very tiring, walk back home.
That night, as I was cooking my tea, suddenly I heard a noise in the bushes. It was a man, who had seen I was cooking on my own, and decided to say hello. Kylie pulls again, eh?
Turns out his name was John, and he was a 60+ retired IT specialist who had an interest in Nature photography, which is not shared by his wife, hence he was up at Lamington on his own taking photos. He showed me his website, www.myozimages.com. His photos are really something. Anyway, on the final day, Saturday, I woke up relatively early and decided I would do another walk if I could, before going home. I cooked my breakfast, and as I wanted to use up my bacon etc, I went over to John's campervan and invited him to share. We had a nice chat together, and then I packed up the tent, and headed off for my walk. I decided to do Python Rock and Moran Falls again, so that I could see the view without the dust. It was well worth it too!
Then I made my way home, having thoroughly enjoyed the week. It was truly something!
Box Falls
Eastern Yellow Robin
Moran Falls - the day of the Dust storm
Moran Falls
