“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”
–Helen Keller
I decided to escape the theme park ridden-Miami beach like Gold Coast. Traveling about 2.5 hours into the hinterland I reached Springbrook. My ears popped a few times on my way up the winding roads. What a beautiful drive if you don’t look down. Yikes!! it was one hell of a drop, sometimes on both sides as the road became a small narrow one way mountain hugging road. I have to thank my Fraser Island adventure friend, Tamsin Curl for her Springbrook recommendation. It was spectacular or “brilliant” as the Brits say.
At that time of the trip I was getting a little homesick, Springbrook was the cure. It gave me a little feel of northern Ontario. I reached the hostel in mid afternoon. It was more of a lodge than a hostel. It seems I was the only guest . The view from the balcony of my lodge was breathtaking. It was a little foggy but impressive none the less. The first night in the lodge I was petrified. I felt like I was in the Overlook hotel in the movie “The Shining”. Such a huge place and only me.
The next morning it was time to lace up those hiking boots and head out. Hiking north towards a sign that stated “Best of All Lookouts” (more Aussie wit) I chuckled to myself. This lookout was clearly as the sign described it as you can see by the pictures. I was in awe. I also came across some Anarticia beech trees which were almost as old as time itself. After a 5 km hike I decided to head back to the Overlook Hotel for some XXXX. Sounds like porn eh? . Actually it’s beer. Queensland bitter to exact. The beer in Oz was really good. Enough of beer memories back to hiking.
The next day I did the Twin Falls hike and managed to get some amazing pictures of a little lizard whose name escapes me. He stopped on the trail and posed for me. The fact that he was so fearless made me stop and think that he must be incredible poisonous or have a huge whack of teeth or something. I kept my distance.
My next stop was Byron Bay in NSW, but I was told I should stop at the Natural Bridge on the way down. It was located so deep in forest that I had little light to get good pictures with my digital camera. Thus, the lack of pictures here. Within the Natural Bridge are glowworms. Although it was incredibly dark underneath the bridge, I did not see any. Upon return to my car, I took the last picture of a scrub turkey. Colorful but very stupid creatures.
