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| There were a few snakes out and about on today's stroll. |
Lamington National Park has to be one of Australia's best National Park's when it comes to walking. The park is home to a large network of well maintained, signposted and graded walking tracks, which makes walking up there a pleasure. Combine the great tracks with the beautiful flora, fauna, long reaching views and more than it's fair share of waterfalls then there is not much not to like about walking in Lamington National Park. Now, while epic off track walking is feasible in the park, today Sam and I were sticking to the main track network and heading out to walk the Ships Stern Circuit. Of course being a Feral walk then everything wasn't perfect, our main issue today was the summer humidity and the leaches, while the heat and humidity were manageable the leaches were a pain in the arse (or foot, as it turned out - check out the last photo!)
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"Big Foot" the tree that is, not the fat bastard!
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| The rainforest in the Lamington National Park near Binna Burra is lush to put it mildly. |
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After parking the car near the cafe at Binna Burra we headed back down the access road for a couple of hundred metres to a big grassy clearing. This clearing marked the spot that we would head off into the rainforest. This first section of track is shared with a lot of other walks that head out from Binna Burra, initially the path descends very gently, passing a huge tallowwood known as 'Big Foot' before coming to our first of many lookouts, Koolanbilba Lookout. After the obligatory stop to take in the view, somewhat grey and drab today in the overcast humid conditions, we continued on passing through the middle of Kong Gong Rock on our way to Lower Ballunjui Falls.
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It was a bit of a humid, grey and overcast day today. This is the view from Koolanbilba Lookout.
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That's Egg Rock down in the valley.
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There is no shortage of water up here over summer, whether it's on the ground on in the air.
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Now I'd normally crap a bit about the view but as this walk was done more than 8 years ago I'm a little vague on a lot of these photos. What I can tell you is that Egg Rock is visible in the murky middle distance.
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| Kong Gong Rock |
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Lower Ballunjui Falls drops in two stages and I struggled as usual to catch it all in a photo so you'll have to settle for a photo of the top section and another of the bottom section. Our route today would actually double back to the top of the falls, but not for about another 8 kilometres. Instead we headed in the opposite direction, crossing Chiminya and Nixon Creek before starting a climb towards the turn off to Charraboomba Rock Lookout. From what I remember the climb to Charraboomba Rock was a bit of a stiff one, but once at the lookout the view made the effort worth while, Egg Rock being particularly prominent.
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Lower Ballunjui Falls, the falls come down in two drops and the route would pass by the upper section a few hours later.
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Lower Ballunjui Falls
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Now these two photos could be of Nixon or Chiminya Creek or maybe there's a photo of both, I've got no idea!
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| Heading towards Charraboomba Rock. |
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After a bit of a beak at Charraboomba Rock we headed back down and re-joined the main track, the route now heads along close the the Ships Stern escarpment and in the next few kilometres passes a series of lookouts, each one showcasing it's own dramatic views over the Tweed Valley. It's not the views I remember most about this section but it is the snakes, we encountered two of my cold blooded mates out for a relaxing day on the slightly over grown track. Thankfully both the snakes were of the non poisonous varieties but they still get your attention when you only notice them as you are about to step on them!
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Having a bit of a break at Charraboomba Rock, have I mentioned that it was a bit humid today?
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Now, where are we...
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The track was slightly overgrown in spots on this visit.
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| The next section of the walk along the Ships Stern passes close by a series of great lookouts. |
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It was as we were passing through the old Nagarigoon Camp that the rain started so from here on photos are pretty thin on the ground. With the rainforest now living up to it's name we joined the Daves Creek Track for a short section before meeting up with the back bone of the park, the Border Track. Once on the wide and well maintained Border Track we only had a couple of kilometres to go to get back to the car, with the rain having now set in it was two fairly bedraggled walkers that arrived back at the almost deserted car park just before dark. After drying ourselves off a bit we headed back up to Brisbane and our base camp for the is short stay, the Brisbane Hilton Hotel. Taking my boots off back at the hotel my socks were soaked in blood, the Binna Burra leaches had enjoyed a good feed at my expense, I'm pretty sure that the walls of the bathroom in the flash hotel hadn't very often witnessed a scene like that before.
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Now next time I do this walk I'll get the names of all these lookouts, but for now I'll have to be happy with just posting the view.
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| I mentioned somewhere in this rambling post that the snakes today were all non venomous.....but actually that was a Feral fact. Thanks to my good friend Jane (aka Ms Extreme) this guys has been identified as a Stephens Banded Snake and it is indeed mildly venomous. |
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The Dirt.
We walked 19 kilometres on this walk, I'm not sure on the climbing involved but I'd estimate it being around 600 to 700 metres. I'd rate this as a medium grade walk. The walk is generally on pretty good tracks that are well sign posted but the rainforest can crowd the path a little. When we walked it the section along the Ships Stern escarpment were the most overgrown sections and that was also the section that we encountered the most reptilian action. I think I used some walking notes out of an old Lonely Planet
Walking in Australia book. The walk has also been written up by Tyrone Thomas and John and Lyn Daly in various editions of their books.
Ms Extreme has also written up a more current post of the Ships Stern Walk, check it out if you want to see some great photos and a more up to date look a track conditions. From what I can see it looks as though the track is still getting a bit overgrown in spots.
Relevant Posts.
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Nearing the end of the walk the weather started to close in a little.
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| Climbing up a short section of the Daves Creek Track to meet the Border Track. |
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| I'm thinking that the rarefied surrounds of the Hilton Hotel don't witness this too often. Lamington National Park can be a leach fest in summer. |
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