Carrying on , we drove past Darlington Park , another camp spot with minimal fee . We were driving into the end of the valley and it looked spectacular .
Continuing on into the valley , we crossed the Albert River several times , before coming to a gate - then the question arose - do we go through ? , is it private property ? Ahh what the hell , we're here so lets do it , and away we go - private property signs either side of the road on the fences - we were a little apprehensive to say the least - then we saw some cattle yards with 3 men working some cattle - they didn't bother with us so we carried on again , finally we arrived at another gate - this one was locked . We had arrived at THE LOST WORLD !!!
From here it was on foot , so we donned the boots & lunch and off we went . About 300m down the track the first obstacle arrived - a creek crossing - rock hopping across was a little hazardous , so off came the boots and we splashed our way across the cool crystal clear creek . The mountains either side were closing in , but there were still some cleared areas and around the corner we found two houses - with occupants !! 2nd obstacle arrived - time to cross the same creek , a bit further up . I decided I would rock hop my way across , so did Lyn , until a little slip led to wet shoes - she walked through the water to get across - couldn't get any wetter !! The track gradually shrank and we found ourselves in the bush - the track virtually disappeared , then there was a sign suggesting you should follow all the basic bush walking rules - topographic map , gps , notify someone , etc , etc , etc . No diplomacy here , we turned around and headed back to the ute . Heading back down the road , we turned left and crossed over into the next valley . The road had a sign to warn people not to take trucks , caravans or buses - what did we strike - a traffic control crew on top of the hill madly waving at us to stop , then waiving us through , as the semi trailer hadn't started coming up the other side yet , and would wait for us to get down . Guess what , it was an Energex pole delivery semi trailer , with one pole left to deliver , presumably up the hill somewhere . The road over the ridge was tarred , but was single lane and very steep both sides !! Then we arrived at Hillview and had lunch at a picnic spot , before heading up to Christmas Creek , and another section of Lamington Nat.Park . Hopefully this section will be better than The Lost World - we were a little underwhelmed with it !!!
The drive in was similar to the Lost World , but we could get further up the valley this time , as the dirt road seemed to go on and on and on , before reaching the locked gate .
There were no creeks to walk through or rock hop over , we got to drive over it this time . Wandering past the last houses again , the track started to close down again , but this time it led us to Christmas Creek . Clambering down , we found a pristine creek , again crystal clear water and trees & vines & lantana , staghorns , elkhorns , crows nests and rock lillys . This was what we thought the Lost World would be like .
We discovered the track actually crossed the creek and disappeared into the foliage , again we decided that we'd seen enough - this was pretty spectacular after all . Another hiker emerged from the scrub and crossed the creek to where we were , reinforcing the need for a map , gps etc , etc that he also didn't have !!!
That was our day , so we headed back to the RV.
Here's todays map :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kpOCZYiiP8Zo
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