Springbrook NP and Lamington NP

by frank on Aug.19, 2011, under The East Coast

August 19, 2011

Today we had planned a day excursion from Palm Beach to the Springbrook and Lamington National Parks. The first one is located right at the rim of the volcano remnants of Mt Warning, the latter lies directly in the volcano crater. This provides for some stunning scenery as you will see.

Along the way we stopped at the Wunburrah Lookout and could recognize the skyline of the Gold Coast with Surfers Paradise in the distance:

Gold Coast skyline from Wunburrah Lookout

In the Springbrook NP the Purlingbrook Falls were our primary target. The Purlingbrook Falls drop an unbroken 109 metres into a lush gorge filled with palms and lillies, and we stepped onto the circuit walk. Not long until we first sighted the falls from the higher grounds:

The Purlingbrook Falls from the top side

We stepped down further the exhausting walk to the bottom of the falls:

: Purlingbrook Falls

: Purlingbrook Falls

: Note the dimensions – can you see a person?

: Little Cutie, great falls

One of the outstanding features of these falls is the opportunity to walk below the falls as the boardwalk leads straight below the splunging waters, and from there again up to the escarpment:

: Behind the Purlingbrook Falls

: Behind the Purlingbrook Falls

: Behind the Purlingbrook Falls

: Below the Purlingbrook Falls

: The Purlingbrook Falls

Here’s a panorama from the bottom of the falls section:

Purlingbrook Falls at the bottom

What a beautiful waterfall! We headed towards the next attraction, the Best Of All Lookout and found some really ancient beeches along the way:

Arctic beeches up to 2000 years old

The view from the lookout itself is simply breathtaking:

View into volcanic crater from Best Of All Lookout

Interestingly enough Mt Warning, well recognizable in the following picture, is close to the easternmost point in Australia, Byron Bay. This means it’s the first place in Australia to receive the sun’s rays on every new day.

Mt Warning, an ancient volcano

Can it get better? Wait until you see what we found next. Having seen pictures before, we were keen on visiting the Natural Bridge ourselves, and we found ourselves not disappointed. Judge for yourself:

: The Natural Bridge

: The Natural Bridge from inside the cave

: Water trickling into the cave at the Natural Bridge

: Strangler figs

A lot of gorgeous places today, eh? Next we drove down into the crater and circled around Mt Warning via Tyalgum and Uki. We got up to the mountain as far as possible, but were much too late to do the summit climb that takes 4-6 hours and ends with pulling yourself up with ropes.