Springbrook Mountain and Hinze Dam

We didn't get soaked today!

After a lovely holiday sleep in (again) we hauled ourselves out of bed and through the shower and headed for the Hinze dam (otherwise known as Advancetown Lake).  This is basically a drowned valley where the Nerang river flowed. The Hinze family all lost their homes in the process - hence the name. The dam was created  ( and then the height of the wall increased twice) to create a valuable resource to supply Gold Coast water and feed into the water grid for Qld.

The Queensland water authority kindly supplied a cafe with views over the dam for us to find some breakfast. Included in the price was entertainment provided by two very friendly magpies and a bunch of little kids on a school trip who actually were quiet while they had their recess. (What do those Lutherans do to their kids to get them to be so good?)

Hinze Dam

After walking a few of the paths around here we decided to chance the weather (predicted to turn into thunderstorms) and headed towards Springbrook National Park, and particularly Natural Bridge which has a reputation not to be ignored.
We allowed ourselves to be diverted on the way by many lovely geocaches, a fellow driving a team of oxen beside the road (complete with stock whip in hand) and lunch at what used to be a telephone exchange while we examined the hills  surrounding for dinosaurs (it's a long story).

Oxen through the front windscreen.

By the time we got to Natural  Bridge the GPS was flat and the iPhone was heading that way (a disaster as we were traveling light with no spare batteries or camera).

Natural Bridge was an easier walk than we expected, and quite an impressive phenomena. It would be good to go back at night some time and see the glow worms doing their thing under the arch of the bridge.  Hearing the waterfall thundering in the dark would be pretty cool too. 

Natural Bridge

Since the rain had only threatened , but all we had received was a very light sprinkling, we decided to try our luck and head back further into the Springbrook Park (which meant quite a back track, and then a drive up a winding mountain road).

At one stage we were clinging to the side of the drop on a single lane , at another driving along a ridge with steep drops on either side.   We were quite surprised to find so many driveways on the mountain, showing that many think the winding drive is worth it for the chance to live in this spot.  The reason why might be the views - which are simply spectacular. We stopped at a number of lookouts,  and each one had wonderful vistas available for our enjoyment (some also with caches). The local store didn't hold much, but did have AA batteries which meant we could also resume the hunting as we went. 

We enjoyed the Purling Brook Falls with their long, long drop, and were starting to get used to seeing brush turkeys as they ran about the place in their haphazard way.   If yesterday was kookaburra day, then today was brush turkey day. Are they called Brush Turkey because they sound like a brush in the Bush? 

Purling Brook Falls
Unfortunately the circuit walk is currently closed due to rock slides.

Brush Turkey

Our target was the "Best of all Lookout" which turned out to be worth the journey. Wow! 

We ran in as we were pretty convinced by this stage that the cloud surrounding us was going to let go and let us have it, but we never got too wet.  The rainforest was dripping from a previous fall , but the lookout was still spectacular, with only the far views blocked by clouds.

Best of All lookout

We could see all the way to Tweed Heads (just out of picture to the left) and along the coast to Byron Bay (far right). And it was a VERY long way down. 

We also detoured in search of a decent park map, but instead found another magnificent view - this time of the high rise buildings on the Gold Coast shining up in the afternoon sunshine. 

Views of the Gold Coast high rise.

As we wound our way back down the mountain the sunset was completely blocked by the foliage, and then the trees gave way to evening sky and our headlights picked out the shapes of small hopping creatures which we think were the shy pademelons which can reportedly be seen in the area particularly dining on grass seeds on the road sides at dusk.

And so another day of our holiday has ended.  Once again the weatherman is telling sad stories about tomorrow, but we will wait and see.