Saturday 14 April 2012

A Skink and waterfalls at Springbrook

The weather here in Queensland at Easter was absolutely glorious, we had a wonderful camping trip.  We were staying near the Channon, a lovely place, but were really keen to visit Springbrook National Park - although not particularly near where we were staying (in fact, closer to home, oops!!).  Anyhow, it was a really stunning drive across the hills, passing by no less than 3 national parks: Mt Jerusalem, Mt Warning (Wollumbin) and Lamington (Binna Burra section), as well as quaint villages like Uki, and the infamous Nimbin.

Perhaps it was the drop of rain we had during the night that meant the waterfalls were in full flow!  We decided to do the Twin Falls circuit walk, which loops above, below and behind several beautiful falls.  This is the Twin Falls waterfall, below, that we walked behind (second image)!  How I wish I had been wearing my swimmers for a dip in the beautiful pool below the falls.



A couple of other lovely waterfalls we could only see the top of, but I got some nice pictures nonetheless.  The first is a picture of the view out across the treetops taken from a little bridge crossing the top of Blackfellow falls (my favourite viewpoint of the day), the second is taken at the top of Goomoolahrah falls (meaning Big Waterfall in the language of the Yugambeh people of this region) - a short drive away.


The reason I know the Yugambeh aboriginal word is that we also came across a noticeboard, explaining all the aboriginal place names around Springbrook, very interesting!
We also encountered some wildlife, despite the tracks being rather busy.  We were lucky enough to see a Land Mullet, Egernia major, which is a very large Skink - in fact the largest Skink species in the world!  Apparently they can be quite shy despite their size, so Im very pleased to have manged to get a quick snap of one before he disappeared into the bush.

3 comments:

  1. An excellent report. Here is another walk you might like to try, not too far from Brisbane! http://gonorth2011.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/nearly-mt-cougal.html

    Martin

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  2. Thanks Martin! Looks like I might need the GPS for that one, maybe not so well trodden?! Its a lovely part of the world there so we are sure to go back (when we get a car!) Hazel

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  3. Well done with capturing the Skink! Looks like you had a lovely break in the Northern Rivers district; always a great destination! I did the Mt Warning climb to the summit about 10 years ago which was amazing! We are spoilt for choice when it comes to the great outdoors in Australia. Aren't we lucky!!

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