Day 41

Sunday was the big hiking outing with my friends from work, Hanne, Ben, Anita, Haipu, and Miroslava. Quite possibly the most fun day, I’ve had here yet. We met in front of Beate’s house, Miroslava and Hanne driving the cars. Hanne and I went to go pick up Ben, and Anita and Miroslava went to get Haipu. We arranged where we would meet in Springbrook, the national park. It’s about a two hour drive. As we hit the rainforest area, the roads became windy and we were heading up into the mountains. It wasn’t that high, but I could feel the pressure on my ears.
Finally we hit the plateau, and entered a small town! There’s actually a city, Springbrook, up here! It was lovely and quaint. If it weren’t so far away from the city, I’d love to live there. We went first to an overlook. Completely amazing! My first rainforest and it was gorgeous, with the waterfall, foliage, and rock cliffs.
We decided while we had good weather to head to the Best of All Lookouts since the last time Hanne was here with her husband, they could not see anything, but fog. The trail was beautiful! I could not take a photo with flash because there was so much mist in the air, it just reflected. The trail was also somewhat slippery. Everything was dripping with water and it was cold. The vibrant green colors were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. At one spot there were several Antarctic beech trees. They grew from one tree that existed over 2,000 years ago. That’s old! We made it to the lookout and had a spectacular view, free of fog, but with a rainbow! You could see the Gold Coast skyline. When we got back to the cars, you could see the misty rain clouds and fog start to move in as the sun faded. Perfect timing!
Next, we ended up at Canyon lookout where the Twin Falls trail started. That’s the hike we wanted to take. From this lookout, you could see Rainbow Falls, and the Twin Falls. We ate a bit of lunch there, and headed off. It was an easy trail to follow and walk, compared with the tangled underbrush around. I could never try to hack through that! There were some awesome cave like tunnels, we had to walk through. It’s impossible to describe the varied beauty around us. I did notice that the rainforest had different levels. Up top it was drier, and got more lush and green as we descended. We saw three waters, making a detour to see Rainbow Falls. I was the only one to dare walk partially behind it since all the rocks were so wet.
We took the trail behind the Twin Falls. Totally idyllic. I wished it were summer and I would swim here. Somewhat of a romantic setting too. Nature constantly surprises me with these gorgeous scenes. After some more walking, we reached another water fall. This time the trail passed so close to the curtain of water, the entire path was soaked and part of the path was blocked by dripping water. We all protected our electronics and made a rain through it.
We headed upwards again, passing by some fenced lookout areas, through dry bush. All of a sudden Ben told us to halt. There was a wallaby on the path in front of us! My first wild kangaroo! Afterwards, we headed back home, Hanne choosing to take the scenic back roads. It was really pretty with lots of orange grasslands. I saw two larger wallabies hopping together over a field! And then when we passed over a bridge, on one of the street lights, there sat a pelican! My first one! Definitely one of the best days in my life.