Coomera gorging

Saturday was yet another memorable day spent in Lamington National Park, high in the mountains behind the Gold Coast Hinterland. After the recent rain, I decided to join some friends for a 17km walk through some rainforest packed with waterfalls and leeches (although only one bite ensued). The ride to get there seemed a little more draining than usual, largely due to another wave of disgusting heat and humidity. Yet what waited at the top was always going to be special on a day like this.





The objective of the walk had been to find some of those Lamington Blue Cray Fish (pictured above if you look closely). The plan was to do the "boring" part of the walk first (the 8km up the hill to the summit through the rainforest, before returning where all the watefalls were). Somehow during this process I ended up as the "leader" of the group, and I'm still not sure who died and gave me that role. It wasn't actually such a chore as it turned out -- I even convinced a few people to join me on some of the detours to the various waterfalls with unpronounceable names.









By a complete fluke, I even managed to find us a perfect lunch spot near another waterfall that I hadn't even realised existed 5 minutes previously. The best part was I even convinced everyone else that I'd intended it to work that way, although I later fessed up that it had as much to do with good luck as good management. I was tempted for a swim on the pool at the bottom, but apparently the water was "freezing" according to those who were brave enough. On the other hand, "freezing" isn't necessarily a bad thing at this time of year.











We visited the rest of the waterfalls after lunch, before heading back to the cafe at Binna Burra (where I created some excitement by discovering two more leeches), to reflect on what had been a memorable day. The recent rain had really given the waterfalls an extra dimension today, but my day wasn't over yet. The ride home would provide further beauty all the way to Beechmont. Once again I was reminded of how fortunate I am to be able to experience these things on a regular basis.