We traveled down to yet another rainforest and hiking area this last weekend. Several Americans were visiting from John Deere in Moline this week so they went with us on our hiking adventure. We had heard from several others that the Purling Brook Falls area of this park was amazing so we wanted to check it out. We were easily able to view Purling Brook Falls from above via a lookout but decided to take the trail down to the base of the waterfall as well. Little did we know that we were going to travel down 450 stairs (one way), through the rainforest valley to get to the falls. It is classified as a short, easy 4K (2.5 miles) walk but, again, with two small children is not an easy hike, especially with the many stairs up and down the valley! Once we reached the destination though it was amazing. Purling Brook Falls drop 110 metres (360 feet) to the base and the trail or walkway actually winds behind the falls so that you can stand behind them and feel the refreshing breeze and water. Depending on how the wind is blowing you can get pretty wet! Evan loved this part and didn't want to leave the falls when we started to hike back up.
You'll see in the slide show another creature we came upon while on our hike . . . a land mullet. It is the largest member of the skink lizard family and is a uniform glossy black to brown color. It's habitat is restricted to the coastal rainforests of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It can reach a length of 60cm/2feet. The unusual name comes from the pungent, fishy odour emitted when threatened. After reading more about this lizard we realized we didn't need to be scared of it at all, but it sure looked scary to us!
We travelled to several other lookouts within Springbrook, Canyon Lookout and The Best of All Lookout, and saw several other waterfalls from above. This park is just filled with waterfalls, beautiful scenery, and many, many more hikes for us to explore. I'm sure we will be back soon to discover more!
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