It didn't take long until we found the twisty roads of Australia! Like NZ but with better pavement although I think a bit narrower. Springbrook Mountain (1,000 m) is a plateau at the southern boundary of Queensland with numerous waterfalls, walking tracks and ancient rainforest.
We stopped at a self serve information centre and luckily encountered a volunteer that was maintaining the building. She was very helpful in guiding us to the best areas to visit.
Our first stop was the "Best of All" Lookout. Looking south into New South Wales. We walked through Antarctic Beech Trees to this fabulous view.
After that, we drove to the Tallanbana Picnic Grounds and picked up the Twin Falls circuit hike. This passed through rock clefts, behind two waterfalls and among ancient palms and tree ferns. About a two hour walk with lots of stops for photos.
From some of the lookouts, you can see to the coast. Surfers Paradise in the distance.
We did have a couple of critter encounters. The first one was a Blue Crab that was right in the middle of the trail as I rounded the corner to walk behind the waterfall. Unfortunately I had the Nikon all bundled up in my waterproof camera bag but I was able to get a picture of one pincer while he was hiding in some rocks with my phone camera.
Near the end of the walk I saw some movement in the forest and encountered a Pademelon (Rainforest Wallaby) with baby. How cute is this!
After the walk, we had our picnic lunch and had a parrot join us in a nearby tree.
We left here and drove south to Natural Bridge. We had a short walk to a rock arch spanning a water formed cave. Time for some creative photography!
From here we drove a little south into New South Wales towards the coast through the Numinbah Valley. Lots of twisty roads and we marvelled at the large sugar cane fields with the plateau in the background.
We hooked up with the Gold Coast Highway at Currumbin and got home by dark (6:00 pm).
Grilled some chops on the barbie tonight and an early bed time.
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