Coomera Circuit, Lamington National Park - June 2016

Heads Up, if you're not a fan of waterfalls maybe give this post a miss!

As I type this post up the temperature in Melbourne is hovering around 7 c and there snow falling in all the hills around town. I'm planning snow walk tomorrow but for today I'm spending the afternoon snug in my local cafe, drinking coffee, chatting to the waitress and typing up a post about warmer climates. This will be the second of three posts from my trip up to Binna Burra, we were up there to chill out a bit and to meet and do a few walks with the multi talented Ms Extreme. After doing the very easy Tullawallal Circuit the day before and getting to know Ms Extreme a bit, today we decided to head out after breakfast on what is probably my favourite walk up at Binna Burra, the Coomera Circuit. I remember the Coomera Circuit as being a fairly solid day walk and with numerous waterfalls to try and photograph so it promised to be a long day. 

Hey, hey blue sky and sunshine, I wonder what my mates back at work in Melbourne are putting up with.

The good news today was that South East Queensland was putting on a beautiful blue sky winters day for us, now while Ms Extreme may be used to these balmy winters days, for me it was something of a novelty walking in winter in short sleeves and shirts, a very pleasant novelty! Like the Tullawallal Circuit the Coomera Circuit starts off by following the Border Track for awhile, this superb track made for a very easy start to the day. Once again I marvelled as Ms Extreme seemingly effortlessly took great shots in the dappled light of the rainforest (you don't believe me...I'll put a link to her post when she puts it online), while I on the other hand worked on the law of averages in that if I took enough photos then on average I'd have to get a couple of good ones. 

Today's ramble started off on the Border Track again.

Yeah I was working on the theory that if I took enough photos one or two would be OK.

Now the plan was to walk out the Border Track and then slowly make our way back via the cascading Coomera River, yeah that was the plan. In reality we were to busy chatting and taking photos instead of concentrating on the map (the GPS was struggling again under the dense rainforest canopy) and managed to head around the circuit in a anti clockwise direction instead of a clock wise direction.  I started to get a bit suspicious that we were heading the opposite way when the route continued to drop off the ridge line, with the high ground to our left something didn't seem kosher. Sure enough after gently descending for 2 or 3 kilometres the yawning chasm of Coomera Gorge started to open up to our right. My public school year 10 educated brain had my thinking that maybe I'd misspelt yawning chasm in the last sentence so I thought I'd do a bit of research on google to make sure I wasn't making a total dick of myself, check out what the Urban Dictionary says about the phrase 'yawning chasm', bugger me they must be living in a different world than me, I certainly didn't learn that at school!

Dropping down towards the Coomera Gorge Lookout.

I think this is the same tree as the one in the photo above, only thing is Ms Extreme took this shot so the photo actually looks like its in a rainforest!

There's some bloody big, old trees up here.

Yarrabilgong Falls.

Coomera Falls, don't ask me why its on a strange angle, maybe I was suffering from vertigo.

An Extreme Boot and a Feral Boot from Coomera Lookout, see what I mean by vertigo inducing.

Looking back down the gorge from the lookout, watch this space as I've got an Indiana Jones style of walk planned for the gorge......one day:)

Anyway it wasn't long until the track started to traverse the cliff line, high above the Coomera River in the gorge below, this next 4 or 5 kilometre section of the Coomera Circuit makes for spectacular walking. Initially the track is cut into the middle of a cliff line, with huge drop offs it pays to concentrate a little along here, after a short while traversing the cliffs the track comes out at the stunning Coomera Gorge Lookout. This lookout is one of the best going around, but as usual my photos were a bit of a disappointment, the beautiful scenery deserved better than my meagre efforts, Ms Extreme meanwhile managed to capture the essence of the spot with a shot of our boots hanging out over the edge of the lookout, yes its a looong way down! 

It's a bit of a crappy photo (yeah its a Feral original) but I was trying to show the track benched into the cliffs high above the river, yeah I know....

I'm going to struggle to name all these waterfalls, this little side creek was cascading down through the rainforest to join the Coomera River.

Leaving the lookout the route starts to climb upstream along the gushing Coomera River, this is like entering a water world. The next few kilometres is a never ending mix of gushing waterfalls, cascades, rapids and rocks, all the while cloaked in the most primordial rainforest that I've walked in for awhile. The route through here criss crosses the infant river numerous times as well as crossing numerous side streams rushing down to meet the Coomera River, and while you have to pay attention the track is still fairly easy to follow. Most of the river crossings have stepping stones that mean at normal water levels you can get through with dry feet, the track itself is a little muddy but hey, you are bushwalking in a rainforest so you've got to expect that.

The track is a little rough and muddy in a couple of spots but easily walkable.

Ms Extreme leading the way to our next stunning waterfall.

Slowly Ms Extreme and I meandered our way upstream, stopping to check out every waterfall on the way. Now I've got so many photos of waterfalls along here that I really don't know which falls are which, I'll probably not name to many of them as I'd be guessing to a large extent, if anyone checks out the photos and wants to send me the names of the falls then I'll be happy to go through and retrospectively caption the photos. It took us hours to slowly amble upstream, curing the ills of the world as we wandered along chatting. Eventually after passing one last waterfall the route headed up hill away from the infant river and met up once again with the Border Track, all of a sudden the walking became very easy again as we followed the well benched track.

The Border Track was an easy way to make our way back to Binna Burra which was just as well as by now it was late afternoon and it would be touch and go as to whether we would get back to Binna Burra before dark. After a little while views started to open up through the canopy to the west, culminating eventually at Joalah Lookout and its views over the Woggunba Valley and across to Springbrook Plateau (I think). The extensive views now providing a huge contrast to what had been a claustrophobic few hours walking along the Coomera River where a lot of the time we couldn't even see the sky through the dense green canopy. 

The diminishing late afternoon light meant that there wasn't to many photo stops as we made our way back to Binna Burra Lodge, the time passed quickly though as Ms Extreme and I talk about old adventures and plans for future adventures. Like any bushland, the rainforest came alive as dusk descended and there were suddenly plenty of animals and birds out foraging on the forest floor, it was too dark to get any photographs but it was nice to share the forest with the wildlife. We arrived back at Binna Burra just as the last light was fading to black, although with the last few hundred metres back to the lodge being along the bitumen access road there was no need for a head torch, we could just enjoy the twilight and reflect on what had been a great day.

Are we all waterfalled out yet? Relax there's only one more.

I'm thinking these falls are Goorawa Falls, the track re-joined the Border Track shortly after this.

Looking out towards Springbrook from Joolah Lookout, late afternoon on the Border Track.

The Dirt.

The Coomera Circuit is a great walk, its not overly hard but is adventurous and scenic enough to keep even hardcore walkers entertained. Including the distance to and from Binna Burra Lodge we walked 19 kilometres today, I've got no metres climbed today but I'd guess it at around 600 metres over the course of the day. I'd class this as a medium grade walk, the track is well marked and constructed but it does have a lot of river crossings and can be a bit muddy as well as being a reasonable length, we took around 7 hours to walk the circuit, although you can blame Mr Feral and not Ms Extreme. On the subject of Ms Extreme here's another link to her wonderful blog, I'll up date the link when Jane posts her version of our Coomera Walk. We carried the notes out of Take A Walk In South-East Queensland by John & Lyn Daly and I also had a Hema map of the park as well as the maps on my GPS. The route is well signposted and marked though and we didn't actually need to consult our maps for the duration of the walk, although having been there years ago and with Ms Extreme being a local we had a bit of on the ground knowledge.

I'd really like to thank Jane (aka Ms Extreme) for sharing this wonderful walk with me.