It was another beautiful day today, (what else do you expect from Queensland) so we packed a picnic and headed for the hills.

We drove through Springbrook to Purling Brook Falls and had our picnic lunch in a lovely shady spot. We weren’t alone as there were lots of families spread out on picnic blankets. It’s times like these that we reflect on how much we really miss our family. 

Further on was a lookout called “The Best Of All Lookout”. We thought we had better take a look. The view was across the valley below the mountain and we could see all the way to the coast. We were told by locals that on a clearer day Byron Bay is even visible.

Our attention was diverted from the view by the arrival of a lady with two parrots attached to her. Caleb had just been trying to get us to agree to buy a Macaw bird (he’s been watching the movie “Rio”) when we get home. His eyes widened considerably when he saw the lady with the parrots on her shoulders. He wasted no time in relieving her of the birds and giggled while they nibbled his hair and then in his ears. It was hard tearing him away from the birds and I’m sure she worried about ever regaining ownership of her pets! The further car trip conversation was dominated by how good he would be at looking after his own bird and didn’t we see just how much birds loved him? 

The conversation was still continuing when we pulled into the next lookout. This one was called Canyon Lookout. We didn’t realise that it had a circuit walk attached to the lookout because we failed to read any signs when we got there. (Probably because of the incessant nagging for a bird coming from the kid).

We wandered down a path and it kept going so we did too. Before we knew it, we were winding down a path to the floor of the rainforest. We came across two waterfalls that we needed to walk behind in order to continue walking. It was magnificent and we wondered at the natural formation as we enjoyed the thrill of walking behind an actual waterfall! Along the way (about 2km into the trek) we read a sign that explained that we were on a circuit walk totalling 4km which would take us 2-3hours to complete. We diverted Caleb’s attention away from the sign and kept on walking.

The descent down into the rainforest was peaceful and the temperature dropped dramatically as the overhead canopy of trees shielded the sun. Inhaling the smells of the forest was so refreshing and we filled our lungs with it. At the conclusion of the walk, (the climb up was quite steep) we were glad that we had each decided to wear runners this morning rather than our usual uniform of thongs. 

• 

• 

• 

We returned to the van well exercised and we each agreed that the Queensland hinterland area has some very spectacular scenery which certainly made us consider whether we preferred the coast or the mountains. Queensland really does have something for everyone.