The night was spent in stages of cold and not cold in the swag. The
sleeping bag I got is good until about 5°C (they say) and the night
was four. Funnily enough it was still warmer than some nights in the
hostel. Just when the shoulder pocked out of the bag it got cold fast
and my small toe couldn't be felt in the morning. Will have socks on
the next night.
Once up in the morning
I had a fast breakfast and after getting some directions from the
Simon (manager) I set of towards Mt. Nimmel. A bit confusing as Mt.
Nimmel isn't actually a mountain, it's more of a hill with a lot of
mansions on it. Mansions because of the view. If you built your house
right you had a clear view down over the Gold Coast. I could think
that especially at night it would be rather spectacular. From the
road you had a decent view, but there was always a tree or some
housing in the way.
Soon after I carried on
to Springbrook, a mountain village about half an hour from the Gold
Coast. It borders one of the national parks (named Springbrook, wow!)
and has some really good waterfalls. First of I drove to a lookout
called “The Best of All”. It gave a really good view over an
extinct volcano that was massive. Only the crater is left today, full
of farms and villages and the lookout is situated on what used to be
the lip of the crater.
Coming back I took a
walk around Purlingbrook Falls which has a large waterfall dropping
down from the edge of the crater in to the surrounding valley. Got
some really good pictures there, as the sun was also just the right
angle to make a waterfall appear at the bottom of the falls. After
about 6km of walking and seeing various fauna, flora and people I was
back were I had started, and hungry. Cooked up some soup at the
picnic site they had there and enjoyed some nice warm lunch.
Temperature wise it is still cold in the day to. Must be acclimating
to Australian temperatures, never used to think that 20°C was cold.
After lunch I drove on
to a tourist place called Canyon View and was greeted with a stunning
view over the surrounding mountains and the Gold Coast in the
distance. Spending some time there I realised that they also had some
walks going around. One was two kilometres, another one four and the
last one 17. As it was mid afternoon and the sun goes down at about
five I wasn't game enough to walk the 17km track, but from what I
heard from others I didn't miss to much by doing the four. Passed
three waterfalls, two above and bellow them and one bellow. You had
to walk under two of them, but I got lost close to the first one and
ended up on the other side of it (somehow). The second waterfall
walkway was situated so that you did get a bit wet walking underneath
it, but no massive drench. Carrying on I met no one for a while
before encountering a group in front of me who had stopped. We both
had the worry that we were doing the 17km one backwards, but some
quick thinking on how we were situated geographical solved that
problem (we were still on the right path). Reached the car again
after a while and drove back to the camp-site after having an ice.
The two Germans where
still there (Chris & Jana) and both of them are visiting
Lamington National Park tomorrow, so I'll tag along with them. The
weather is better now and I was recommended to have a look at it from
both Iain and Leanne.
Dinner in the evening
and then some camp fire warmth against the cold before going back to
the swag for some sleep.
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