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Published: November 24th 2008
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Paradise?
Views of the Gold Coast from Coolangatta Beach Wet and Wild
We left Brisbane at around 9am and headed to the Gold Coast, our destination for the day being Wet and Wild. I misdirected us to 'White Water World' and we ended up standing in a queue for general enquiries for nearly 10 minutes before Mike checked with a guy in front of us whether we were at 'Wet and Wild' and he told us that we needed to get off at the next junction on the highway - oops!
We finally arrived at Wet and Wild around 10.30am. We were both very eager to get on the rides and made a plan to start at one end of the park and finish at the other so as not to miss anything. Our first ride of the day to warm us up (or should I say to cool us down!) was the 'Mammoth Falls', similar to white water rapids, but much more tame. We then entered the 'Extreme H2O Zone'. In this part of the park we went on the Black Hole, Tornado akin to going down a plug hole and Kamikaze where you experienced 'free fall' as you went down a slope that resembled a skateboard
ramp. Mike encouraged me to go on the almost vertical slides - the steepest was surprisingly the least painful. After a coffee we went on the more traditional water slides including 'Aqua Racer' where 7 people slid down a curvy slide on mats in a race, the River Rapids and Twister, a twisting tubular slide which went very quick and left us feeling very disorientated. It was a fun day and I am very glad we went on every ride that was open.
Coolangatta
We got back on the Pacific Highway at 4.30pm and drove to Coolangatta, the most southerly town on the Gold Coast. It is rated as being a laid back town with good surf which appealed to us. All the commercialism further north on the coast put us off staying there.
We checked into a 'Top Tourist Park' which appeared spotless, but after dark I found a cockroach in the ladies which made my skin crawl. Mike also found some unwelcome roaches in the gents - not such a 'Top' park we thought.
Unsure whether we would surf or not, we decided to take a long walk and check out Kirra Beach
where we were staying as well as Coolangatta Beaches. The surf was moderate and we saw a few people in the water, but due to the lack of places to hire boards we decided against it. We walked to Point Danger along the memorial walk to the allied ships sunk during WWII.
Springbrook National Park
Put off by our encounters with cockroaches, we decided to leave the coast and head inland to Springbrook National Park. It took us around 45 minutes to reach the park on very windy roads and I was glad that Mike was behind the steering wheel. We arrived at Gwongorella picnic area where we started a 4km circular walk around Purling Brook Falls. It had been raining heavily during the night and everywhere was very wet, but we went prepared with our waterproofs. The signs telling you about the walk warned of mosquitoes and leeches and advised applying lots of repellent which we did.
We set off on the walk through dense rainforest. Much of the initial track was down steps until we reached the falls. Unfortunately it was not possible to complete the 4km walk due to a landslide. Our options
were to head back or continue on a 2km return walk to the Waranga Pool. We continued to the pool and passed several other walkers on the way which is always a good sign.
When we reached the pool we had a rest and then it started to rain. Thankfully the trees provided shelter so we did not get too wet. From Purling Brook Falls, the walk was uphill and the rain quickened our pace. During our return journey, I had my first encounter with a leech. Luckily it did not touch my skin, only my trainer which I thought it was trying to burrow into. Mike came to my rescue and managed to swiftly detach it from my shoe whilst I hopped around on one leg shouting ''get it off''! Only now can I laugh about it.
We had lunch and then travelled to the Natural Bridge section of the park. We did a 1km circular walk to the bridge and took plenty of photos of this feature of erosion.
Mount Warning
Late afternoon, we crossed the border into New South Wales and entered another national park, Mount Warning. We stayed at a campsite
at the foot of the mountain, perfect for climbing it the next day. The campsite was quite rustic and there was little artificial light so it was a bit spooky at night.
The next day we got up early to climb the mountain which lies 1156m above sea level and apparently the peak is the first part of mainland Australia to be touched by sunlight each day. It was named by Captain Cook to warn seamen of offshore reefs.
We started our climb around 8.30am and passed a couple coming down who had obviously made it to the peak to see sunrise. We had met a girl called Liz from Alice Springs staying on our campsite the previous night who also wanted to climb it so we gave her a lift to the base and began the walk together. The whole climb was 8.8km return and was predicted to take 4-5 hours. We began with a gentle incline which progressively got steeper as time went on. We stayed with Liz for most of our journey to the top, but occasionally left her to drift behind as she took photographs for her 'artwork'.
At 1.1km intervals there was
a marker which was useful. The last 1.1km was the toughest being the steepest section and it had begun to rain by this point making the ground very slippery. The final 500m was the worst bit - a scramble over a vertical rock face clinging to a metal chain to pull you up into the next foot hole.
We reached the summit at around 11am and got to see why it is known by the aborigines as 'cloud catcher'. The clouds moved off a little so we could capture some of the view on film, but we were a little disappointed that it was so cloudy after our efforts. We remained at the top for a good half hour and then made our descent. The vertical rock face was harder going down, but we managed to do it backwards. Liz wanted to meditate at the top (she was a hippy) for a little longer and so we agreed to meet her somewhere near the bottom.
At 1.30pm we had reached the van and then Liz arrived shortly after complete with 2 leeches stuck to her foot. Once she had spotted the leeches she said ''ooh that is both
interesting and disgusting - I have 2 species of leech stuck to my foot''. Being a native she was able to remove them easily without any screaming unlike some people!
Byron Bay
We arrived in Byron early evening. We were too tired from our earlier climb to do anything too strenuous so stocked up on food and had an early tea. The next morning we felt refreshed and ready to explore the town. We walked into town from the campsite which took us about half and hour. After getting a bit lost and walking a couple of kilometres in the wrong direction (my fault entirely), we found the starting point of the 4km walk around Cape Byron. We then set off on the walk which had some great vistas of the bay. We walked past Clarke's Beach, Watego's Beach and Little Watego's Beach before reaching the most easterly point of Australia. We then carried on to the lighthouse built in 1901 and from there we watched humpback whales and dolphins swimming very close to some people in kayaks. The walk then continued through the bush and back to the starting point where we enjoyed a picnic. In
the afternoon we chilled out on Main Beach for a couple of hours and sampled one of the many ice cream parlours on the high street.
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