Tom Russell's Blog

G’day
Since my last blog, Fiona has been back at work and we have had 6 nights away at a mountain retreat only an hour south of Brisbane--Mount Tamborine. Fiona kindly gave us the use of her Polo and after looking at 3 locations we drove up a twisty road to Mount Tamborine, looked at a Motel room there and instantly fell for the view from the balcony! To call the area a mountain is a bit of a misnomer as it is a forested plateau some 500 m high. There are 3 settlements some 5 km apart and all of them are spread out. There are quite a few art/craft shops so Pat enjoyed that side of it,
The area is surrounded by tropical rain forest and we managed to complete all the walks which are found on the steep slopes but are not much more than 3-4 km in length. Supposedly there are several waterfalls but in the drought conditions they’ve been experiencing there is barely a trickle of water going down the rock face! We really enjoyed having breakfast on the balcony, watching the sun rise over the Gold Coast. The sunsets there have been fabulous but occur at 4.30 pm--it is dark by 5.15!
Two of the days we motored for about an hour south to the Lamington National Park--about 1000m-- where there are 2 lodges and half day and day walks radiating from them. The first day’s walk was from O’Reilly’s Lodge and was a circuit of 11 km and entailed a crossing a creek three times--they have constructed no bridges. At the first crossing Pat went her length and got wet but quickly dried out--the other crossings were more simple! It was great walking in the tropical forest as it gave perfect shade from the sun. At the end of the walk we went on an aerial walkway and at one point you could climb up a ladder to an eyrie, 30 m off the ground ( I only went to stage 1 at 24 m!)
The next day we went to Binna Burra Lodge and managed to complete a circuit to Dave’s Creek and some extensions, resulting in an 18 km walk. Half way round Pat slipped on some wet laterite and came down heavily on the small of her back--it is still giving her bother. Unfortunately her trainers don’t give as good a grip on dicy terrain. The vegetation on this walk changed with the soil type and one section was much more open. The whole area is volcanic and there are huge lava flow cliffs with impressive waterfalls. We saw parrots, hawks and pademelons--minature ru’s and heard a lyre bird.
At the end of the walk we had a meal at the Lodge, eating out on a verandah admiring the sunset. As you can gather we are enjoying wall to wall sunshine!
What we have really enjoyed has been the peace and quiet--the days we did the longer trecks we hardly met a soul and you felt you were away from all trials and tribulations. All the walks are well graded and are a contrast to many UK ones which seem to go straight up a hill! Today we visited another National Park on the NSW border and landed at a tearoom which had just opened on a country road and produced a wonderful meal at a reasonable price.
It is hard to realise that we have less than a week left and this will definitely be my last blog before coming home! Thanks to all who have sent messages and apologies if I have not given due acknowledgement!
Pat & Tom