Springbrook National Park, QLD: Revisit in April 2015 Day 3.

After waking up bright and early we drove approximately 4 km to the Tallanbana Picnic Area carpark to start the Twin Falls Circuit, a 4 km, Class 3 walk. We just love this scenic trail as it winds in and out of narrow openings and past beautiful waterfalls. In addition, there is always the tantalizing hope that we might spot Blue Spiny Crayfish.

There is a choice of walking below Twin Falls on a concrete causeway or behind the waterfalls. Of cause we choose to do both and walked behind the falls first.

Then we walked across the causeway to get a full view of the Twin Falls.

The trail continues through lush forest, crows nest ferns and interesting cliff overhangs.

We arrived at Blackfellow Falls which were flowing well and billowing spay.

From here the circuit starts to ascend and we rested awhile at the top in the hope of seeing Lamington Blue Spiny Crayfish. Once again, our patience was rewarded.

 From here the walk opens up to beautiful views of the Gold Coast and hinterland.

On the last section of the trail we kept our eyes open for sunbathing Land Mullets Egernia major. They look like giant skinks and are always fascinating to see. This one was camera shy and wouldn't show its face.

Before long we were back in the Tallanbana Picnic Area for a well deserved rest and picnic before driving 5 km to The Best of All Lookout car park. The walk to the lookout is only 1.2 km return and has two main attractions: the ancient Antarctic beech trees and the amazing lookout that looks out over the eroded volcanic landscape of northern New South Wales.

Antarctic Beech

Mount Cougal

Mount Warning shrouded in cloud.

Last time we drove up this road it was early in the morning and we encountered large numbers of pademelons and wallabies. This time we found ourselves behind a milk tanker. At the bottom the driver pulled over to let us pass and we were on our way back to camp after another beautiful day in Springbrook National Park.

Springbrook National Park, QLD. Part 2: Twin Falls.

Twin Falls, Springbrook National Park

Twin Falls Circuit: Class 3, 4 km.

This is one of our all-time favourite walks. Not only is the scenery superb the wildlife we have encountered is unique and unforgettable. Do bear in mind though that this is prime leech territory.

The starting point for walking the Twin Falls Circuit is a short drive from Settlement Campground in Springbrook National Park. There is parking at either the Tallanbana picnic area or the Canyon Lookout carpark. It is recommended that the walk be done anti-clockwise.

There is plenty of beautiful scenery to see on the trail to Twin Falls.

Like Purling Brook Falls, the trail leads you behind the falls at Twin Falls.

Twin Falls, Springbrook National Park.

We saw several Land Mullets: a type of very large heavy skink about 60 cm long. We also saw this small skink which was quite blue underneath (sorry the photo is a bit blurry). Thank you Benjamin Harms for letting us know that it is a Murray's Skink. 

Land Mullet Egernia major and a Murray's Skink Eulamprus murrayi

As we continued the circuit and climbed back up above the falls, we were lucky to see several Lamington Spiny Crayfish. As we were crossing a small creek we saw a flash of blue disappearing behind some rocks so we decided to stop and wait quietly to see if the crayfish would return. Our patience was rewarded with good views of several crayfish moving about the creek. We saw several colour variations from brown-blue, pale blue to bright blue.

Lamington Spiny Crayfish Euastacus sulcatus

Beautiful view towards the end of the walk.