We head down town to the Tourist Information building to get some info on Lamington Nat Park - it was 9:10 am - they don't open till 9:30am , however she opened the doors early for us - how nice !!
We are only 36 klms away from the park , so we thought we'd be there reasonably quickly . Turns out of the 36 klms , about 34.5 is winding road - some of that is only single lane - imagine Cambewarra , Barrengarry , Macquarie Pass and Jamberoo Pass all combined and you'd be getting close . It took us over an hour !!! The first part was easy , driving through the valley with farms all around , the next we were driving through farms , with cows & horses having free access to the road . Onwards and upwards we went climbing up one side of the valley , before going around a couple of hairpins and ending up on the other side of the ridge , in the next valley across . The road was single lane in many places , with give way signs at strategic positions , fortunately for us , we didn't meet anyone in those sections . We seemed to switch back from one side of the ridge to the other quite frequently as we climbed higher . There were views to the east & the west , it was hard to concentrate on the road - just as well Lyn was driving !! We stopped at intervals for some photos .
Looking to the west - Scenic Rim country
Continuing on , we stopped at one lookout and found the jumpers fairly quickly - the temperature was 12 degrees according to the ute . We could see out to the ocean on the eastern side and across to the western edge of the Scenic Rim . The drive was interesting with vegetation changing regularly - there was open forest with lots of grass and grass trees , then you would go around a corner in the road and bang , straight into thick rainforest !! Just as quickly you were out of the rainforest again , until there was nothing but rainforest .
We arrived at O'Reilly's and parked the ute , the decision to bring jumpers was a wise one as the temperature up the top was 10 degrees !!! This is the starting point for many walks , ranging from half an hour , up to 3 to 4 days . Scrub turkeys and king parrots were everywhere - they do get fed a bit .
We chose to walk down the border track - or the first 1 klm of it anyway , before coming back and doing the tree top walk . The forest is alive with birds - you have to be quick to see them though as they hop about the forest floor and are so well camouflaged , you can barely make them out if they are still . We did observe an eastern whip bird - wasn't concerned that we had stopped to watch it , and carried on with it's foraging . The strangler figs are amazing things , starting life high in the tree topped sending roots down to the ground , gradually strangling the life out of the host tree - there were many that had grown into huge trees , and the original host tree had died and rotted away , leaving an empty central core . There was one that had sent it's roots down and wrapped itself around a huge rock , holding it in place fortunately .
The tree top walk was interesting - it started with a board walk and then went to the tree top walk - like a suspension bridge . The first section led us to a strangler fig that had a ladder attached to it in a couple of places , taking you up the tree about 10 metres to the first platform , then up another 5 metres to a second . There was moss growing everywhere , with lilies and orchids growing all over the branches .
This was definitely the cheapest tree top walk we have been on - zero , nada , zip , nothing to pay .
There were many plants showing new growth - all different colours , and many types and colours of fungi growing also .
Back to the ute and it was lunch time - about 1:30 pm anyway - we stood in the sun beside the ute to warm up . Speaking of the ute , we nearly lost it - the bush tried to reclaim it - we'd only been gone for about an hour & a half - check it out !!! Very fertile soil up here !!!!
Lunch done , we headed down the road about a klm to the parking area for Morans Falls - a 4.4 klm return walk . The walk started on a bitumen track , and wound it's way back and forth across the sides of many hills , gradually taking us downwards . Finally the viewing area was in front of us and the falls were about 70 metres away . The water dropped about 60 metres to the bottom of the sheer cliff , with foliage clinging to the rock face .
There was an extension to the walk , that takes you to the other side of the falls and has views down Morans Gorge .
After taking in the views and having a little rest , we headed back up the track to the ute . People were still walking down as we went up . We commented that it was quite dark in places as the sun didn't hit the floor of the rainforest - by the time these people were coming back up it would be considerably darker .
The trip back down to Canungra would take us about 50 mins without any stops . Not a fast trip by any means .
Here is todays map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.klFMWTPJ-mPU
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