We had only booked ahead for the Thursday night so decided still to go then, luckily it was a better day so we drove down to Natural Bridge which is just the Queensland side of the border. It is a rock archway where behind the bridge the creek forms a waterfall that falls through a hole into the cave. It was on Neil's must photograph locations before we left the UK. He wasn't altogether too pleased with the results as spray from the fall was a constant battle on the lens. So we may be back there again.
After we had finished we drove slightly north again to Mount Tamborine to check into our motel, which was lovely, had lunch then did another walk to Curtis falls. Great place but just needed more water in the fall! Can't win, too much rain or not enough!!
We explored the village and took a stroll around the botanical gardens. After a relax in our motel we had a lovely meal in an Irish pub but Neil still stuck to his Aussie beer.
Cath posing again in the Botanical Gardens.
We woke the next day to better weather so decided to head out on a four wheel drive adventure we had originally planned.
It took us through the mountains to Border Ranges National Park, it was really beautiful countryside and we spotted wallabies and rosellas fron the Ute. Tanky had to get his tyres wet through a series of causeways before climbing up into the mountains to admire the view.
There are two bush campsites in the national park, we parked up at the first to go for a walk into the rainforest.
This goanna patrols the campsite looking for an easy lunch, don't think I would want to share my tent with him; he is about four foot long and pretty fat!
The walk was lovely, real rainforest with palms, pools and huge fig trees.
Next we arrived at Forest Tops Campsite our planned stopover for the night. We picked our spot, slightly nervously as someone had left a handmade sign saying "caution snakes" but had no idea how long it had been there.So weren't too worried as Cath is getting much better with the snake idea! After 45 mins of setting up camp(well Neil setting up camp and Cath boiling the kettle!),some one else pulled up and said they had been there the previous day and half a dozen brown snakes had been seen here. Just to point out Brown Snakes figure in the top 10 most deadly snakes in the world, so it was no friendly carpet pythons! We still sat there trying not to worry then some more Aussies pulled up looking for the best place to camp, discovered the brown snakes were actually there(we failed to see them!), four of them. They drove off saying no way were they camping there! Neil was stood near two who were curled up, as he took a photo of one, then went to look at the other and in seconds it had disappeared, luckily no where near his ankles! He decided no further photos were needed and retreated! After about 2 minutes we decided a restful and enjoyable night was not going to be spent camping here,(especially as we were a long way from a hospital!) so we packed up and made for home!
We enjoyed the rest of the drive out the park even though we did it at a slightly faster pace than planned to make sure we were back on sealed roads in daylight. We stopped at a true Aussie Hotel for tea, then hit the road getting back to our safe house about 10.30pm. It was full of adventure but a good couple of days none the less! Lets hope our first holiday with Bradley provides better luck!
