Springbrook National Park

-Best of all Lookout-

On August 12th, I took a day trip to Springbrook National Park! A couple weeks earlier I was looking through the emails that my university sent me, and I came across this trip they were hosting. I was very excited to sign up for it, since I really wanted to do some hiking and exploring national parks in Australia. So, fast forward to Aug. 12th and I finally was in an Australian National Park!

The trip started with a 1.5 hour bus ride, stopping in Canungra Township for morning tea or breakfast snack, and then another half hour to the first point in the itinerary. We went to the Best of All lookout, Purling Brook Falls, and Natural Arch Falls. The hikes were short and simple, the longest hike was 4km long while the other hikes took 15/20 minutes each. Also, each stop we went to took about 20/40 minutes to get there, so a lot of time was spent on the bus. The bus took us to both Queensland and New South Wales side of the park, which I did not realize that we were that close to the border.

The tour hosted 100 people in 2 coach buses, so yes it was a bit crammed when going to the scenic trails or lookouts. Being honest, since there were so many people, it was difficult taking pictures of the scenery (without people being in them) but I did manage to take a couple of good shots:

 

  

I walked slowly on the trails, not because they were difficult, but it was a different kind of forest than I'm used to. This is a subtropical rainforest. The eucalyptus trees were a vibrant green and the air was so fresh. It was 75 deg and cloudy, perfect for hiking.

 

 

Also, since a lot of the names of places and towns come from the aboriginal language, I was glad to see a sign that has the words and meanings in english. I like learning different words or phrases in other languages (hence why I'm currently taking up Chinese Mandarin), so this was an added bonus to the trip!

I was so happy to be hiking again, and I'm glad this little trip started it back up. I can't wait to hike more and to go to more National Parks (I'll keep you updated)!