Mount Tamborine Revisited

This month long trip has been about revisiting a few of our local favourite places. Having enjoyed Mount Tamborine previously, it was on the list. The run of rainy weather continued which also meant running in the rain.

We always seem to be talking about food and here to we had to go and get some muffins from the Tamborine Mountain Coffee Plantation. Their muffins are exceptional. The one challenge is that there are usually rather aggressive birds around which takes away some of the joy of the muffins. During our previous trip Walter had one bird swoop and help itself to a large bit of muffin whilst it was in Walter’s hand. Sadly, this behaviour is due to ‘well meaning’ but ignorant people feeding the birds.

The area has many great walks and a short drive away are a few National Parks offering a variety of walks – from short and easy to long challenging walks. We decided to take a drive to try some of these walks. We opted for 2 half day walks experiencing different sides of the mountain at Binna Burra. In September 2019 a big bushfire swept through the park. It is unusual to have fires in this area due to the sub-tropical micro climate. The park had to be closed for a year. Returning 2 years after the fire we could see where the fire had been but it is also amazing how quickly the forest can recover especially in a tropical climate.

Our first walk was on the Bellbird track. Part of the track is still closed due to damage from the bushfire. We did it as an out and back walk descending and eventually walking along the Nixon Creek. Along the way we stopped off at the Ballanjui Falls. With all the rain we have had, the falls were flowing well. This walk stared at about 800m above sea level and descended to about 440m. It was very pleasant walking through a sub-tropical bush. So much nicer than the typically dry Australian bush.

Click on this link if you want to see a short video of us walking the track.

Our second walk was on the Gwongoorool Track. This track descends through open forest and rainforest to Gwongoorool Pool on the Coomera River. It is not a long walk but the gradient is fairly steep. The walk starts at about 670m and descends down to 400m. The rock pools at the bottom are certainly worth the walk. We met a lady at the bottom who sadly seemed to have lost her phone on the walk. Hopefully she found it. With no reception, it was not possible to try phoning it.

There are many more tracks in the National Park and we would recommend the area for anyone interested in bushwalking. Last time we went to O’Reilly which is another part of the park for starting walks. We would recommend Binna Burra because the access road is shorter and a much easier drive.

One of the strange things (well strange for us) that we did was to buy some nice meat and have a BBQ using the public BBQ’s in one of the parks. The weather was cool but fortunately it remained dry. We had a nice time and the BBQ worked well.

As usual, we did a Parkrun and the start was only a few 100 metres from where we were staying. Knowing that the soil in this area is very red and coats your shoes, we came prepared with old pair of running shoes. It is very fertile soil, but you can identify locals by their red shoes. No wonder our accommodation has a no shoes inside policy.