Springbrook, Ancient trees and "Best of all Lookout".

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"Hi to all, Bilbo and Basho are still on the planet and are alive and well, we havn't been abducted by aliens, although we have encountered a few very strange humanoid life forms, and no we havn't turned left at the black stump when we should have turned right and ended up in Timbuk Three, which is just passed Timbuk Two. This blog has taken awhile to get to print, but no further adieu, here it is.

SPRINGBROOK,

A scenic drive up the Murwillumbah to Nerang Road, through the Border Ranges escarpment, is the Queensland border seemingly at the top of the world. And just when one thinks it can't get any higher, think again Bilbo, the road to springbrook is almost vertical with a 1 in 10 gradientWe were on the Nerang road, then a right turn up some very steep windy roads, we came into Springbrook national park where we camped at the Settlement campground. It was our first oportunity to try out our awning annexe, which literally gives us another room, expanding our domain. We had four days of exploring some truly magnificent forests and mountain views from what seems to be, the top of the world.

A must see at Springbrook is the "Best of all Lookout" situated not far from this cosy mountain village. The easy walk along the ridge, leads to the majestic, ancient 2000 year old Antarctic Beech trees. These are remnants from of an ancient forest surviving from the days of Gondwana land, when Antarctica, Australia, India and a stack of other countries formed the southern super continent of Gondwana. As Australia slowly broke away and drifted north from Antarctica, this remnant stand of Antarctic beech are a living memory of days long long ago.

As we walked further along the ridge, we came to, yes its actually called the "Best of all Lookout" we suddenly walked out onto a precipice that gives you an idea of actually how high this range is.To the south we could look down on to towering Mount Warning and further out to Byron Bay. To the not too distant east, different towering giants can be seen, but these are not made of wood, they are the ivory towers of the concrete jungle. The glittering mesh of concrete, glass and steel of the Gold Coast, where all that glitters is not necessarily gold, Grasshopper. A wise choice to circumnavigate around the mad hatters tea party far far below. Time to pack up and travel further north on our winter sojourn, so until our next instalment, may all your thoughts be happy,

Cheers Bilbo and Basho

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