A few days break in the Numinbah Valley. It's been a very wet year in Mullumbimby and although the rain is still around we needed to go camping - well take grandson, Nate camping during the school holidays.
Thursday 21: Our base was the Log Cabin Camp, a camp run by the Seventh Day Adventists quite close to Natural Bridge National Park. They have spots for camping as well as cabin accommodation. It's fairly quiet at the moment (probably still too wet for most people) so we had the camping area to ourselves. After setting up camp we went for an explore. There's quite a bit of forest at the back of the camp with a track down to the creek where you can sometimes see platypus. We got to a very steep part of the path and decided that it was just too wet to slide down and have to come back up - another time.
Friday 22: We headed off to the circuit walk at Natural Bridge which is found in the southern part of Springbrook National Park.
A 1-kilometre sealed circuit track takes you through the forest, across Cave Creek and into the arched cave of Natural Bridge to witness the waterfall plunging from above. Hard to imagine now that Nates's dad, Bradley and his brother Damian jumped through the hole in the roof of the cave into the pool at the base. This was allowed 30+ years ago but was banned after someone died many tears ago now. Nate was probably pleased that it was no longer allowed. Lots of hoop pines in the surrounding rainforest. These are living relics of the Jurassic Age—the Age of the Conifers—about 180 million years ago.
Returning to the carpark we headed off to Springbrook, 30 km away where we visited the Fudge Shop (top points by Nate) and had lunch at the Dancing Waters Cafe.
After a bit more checking out the Springbrook area, we headed back to The Log Cabin for a rest prior to our return to Natural Bridge to see the glow worms.
We were very impressed not only with the glowworms and microbats in the cave but also with the luminous fungi which could be found along the track. Also say a few critters, a beautiful blue Lamington Crayfish on the path and a beautiful great barred frog.
Saturday 23: It's raining today so it was a matter of packing up in and between showers before heading off to Chillingham for a coffee and something to eat before heading home.
