Springbrook National Park

This weekend ended up being pretty great! We were going to go to the Glasshouse Mountains, but the trail we wanted to do was closed due to rock falls. Instead, we decided to go to Springbrook National Park, about 2 hours from Brisbane. We rented a car and Jordan did a beautiful job with the driving (for the most part). There was one incidence of driving on the right side of the road (when we should have been on the left), but that was short-lived and there was no traffic around. Anyway, we saw some wild wallabies before starting our trek through the rain forest. The park was up in this tiny rural town. It's the kind of place that would be really fun to vacation in. The track we wanted to go on was closed due to landslides, so we decided to do the Twin Falls Circuit and then go find this swimming hole. The waterfall you see us standing by in the picture is part of the Twin Falls. We started our hike around 11 and were immediately in the heart of some pretty awesome forest. There were waterfalls and creeks all over the place and we narrowly missed stepping on lizards on more than one occassion. I don't have too much to say about the hiking. It was absolutely gorgeous and Becca, Beth, Jordan, and I all had a great time. After going around the Twin Falls Circuit, we went in search of this pool. We had all intended on swimming, so we brought swim suits and towels. Unfortunately, the water was absolutely freezing, like stop-your-heart cold. Of course, Beth talked me into swimming with her anyway. We had an enjoyable time jumping off the rocks into the pool. And, yes, we did check to see if it was deep enough before doing this. Even though it was freezing, we had a fun time and there were a bunch of people there watching us act like crazy people. These two little girls were inspired by us and got in too. They were pretty brave kids. So, we finally decided we'd had enough of the frigid waters and got out to dry off and change. I noticed a black spot on my foot that was kind of shiny. Sure enough, it was a leech (which they warn about in the trail guide). Jordan picked it off of me, but not before it left a little spot of blood on my foot. I'm not quite sure why having a leech attached to my foot makes me feel adventurous, but it does. The walk back up from the pool was tough. It was in a very deep canyon and there were a lot of stairs. I'm obviously not working out here at all. I think we hiked about 15 kilometers over the course of the day. The entire day was just a blast and we're hoping to go to the Glasshouse Mountains the weekend after spring break. Speaking of which, we leave for New Zealand in just one week! I'm really looking forward to it!

That's pretty much it for the weekend. I've got a paper that I have to finish before we leave next Tuesday, so I'll be doing that this week. More blog posting upon our return from the South Island of New Zealand!

Nicole

P.S. Pictures from the hiking trip are up on Flickr.