Sunshine Coast Hinterland Trail- South East Queensland. 56km, 3 days- 2 nights.

Map sourced from Parks Qld link

Overview.

This trail was a surprise.

Views, a well maintained footpad, sublime forests, peaceful, quiet campsites, ubiquitous native wildlife and very few other walkers.  

I had a blast!

The trail is a lollipop loop in the Northern region of Mapleton National Park and sweeps down to a single lane wiggle through Flaxton locality and Kondalillia National Park, ending at Lake Baroon, necessitating a point to point shuttle or return walk back the same way.

It isn't wilderness and there is always the distant hum of civilisation in the background however the scenery is first rate and accessibility is easy.

What we did.

The day before we slipped out of Toowoomba for a 3 day circuit hike in Conondale National park, a late afternoon phone call from Parks Queensland informed us that our trip wasn't going to happen due to a spontaneous decision to conduct a burn off.

The plan quickly switched to walk the nearby Sunshine Coast Hinterland Trail and we rolled up at the Sam Kelly Road carpark near Kenilworth in the Northern region of the hiking trail located in Mapleton National Park.  

A connector trail lead to a gentle meander alongside Gheerulla Creek.  We stopped in for water at Ubajee walkers camp and pushed on to Flaxton walkers camp for the first night.  

Bit of up and down around Baxter Creek Falls however the track is well graded and maintained.

• Sam Kelly Road carpark to Flaxton campsite: 21km.

• Flaxton campsite to Kondalilla Falls then North to Thilba Thalba campsite via Delicia Road: 29km.

• Thilba Thalba campsite to Sam Kelly Road carpark: 6km.

Day 2; we headed to Kondalilla National Park and the falls area.  We retraced our steps back to Flaxton township and hit up the Barn cafe for a huge breakfast and great coffee.  

Heading North towards Baxter Creek Falls again and through Mapleton Falls day use area, we took unsealed Delicia Road as a shortcut and nudged up the Western half of the lollipop loop to Thilba Thalba campsite for the night.  

Day 3; Lovely ridge walking and terrific views ending at the carpark and an unmolested vehicle.

Getting there/ Parking.

There are many vehicle access points along the trail system; 

• Sam Kelly Road in the North

• Mapleton day use area along Mapleton Forest Road

• Mapleton Falls day use area in the middle

• Flaxton Mill Road close to Flaxton walkers camp

• Kondalillia Falls day use area

• Barron Pocket Dam via Narrows Road

The Sunshine Coast Hinterland Trail is around 90 minutes Heading North from Brisbane.
 

Wildlife.

We sighted loads of fur and feathers:

Dingo, 

King parrots,

Striated pardalotes,

Carpet python,

Monitor lizards,

Inland thornbills,

White eared honeyeater,

White throated tree creeper,

Red winged fairy wren,

Olive backed oriole,

Pheasant coucal,

Bush turkeys,

Golden whistler,

White throated gerygone,

Eastern yellow robins,

Kookaburra.

Water and Campsites.

Every campsite has an outhouse with poo tickets, loads of well spaced out sites and platforms to rest on.

Water tanks are provided and the camps are located in a well thought out locations.  

The tall timbers of Flaxton are bewitching in the sunrise and the views and bush of Thilba Thalba make for excellent star gazing. 

Bookings can be made for each campsite via Parks Qld website 

$7.50 per person.

Navigation and Resources.

I downloaded the free topographical map from the Parks Qld website here and utilised the All Trails app and trail map.

Signs are everywhere, hard to go wrong.

Flaxton campsite.

Thoughts.

We were fortunate to encounter only a handful of other walkers over our 3 day wander during a sunny weekday Winter time slot.

I would guess the hiking trails and campsites fill up on public holidays and long weekends being so close to major population areas.

It is a gorgeous area with alluring forests and easily accessible walking tracks, highly recommended.

Photos by Shiny & Safari.

Carnarvon Great Walk- 90km. Queensland, Australia.

 

The Trail:

The Carnarvon 'Great Walk' is a circuit loop hike up in the lush, gorgeous highlands of Carnarvon National Park in central Queensland.  

It's a long way from anywhere and perfect for those who long to lose sight of power lines and fences and other humans.

You get tall gum trees, iconic wildlife, easy walking and big skies.

The trail is operated and maintained by Queensland Parks and Wildlife, bookings for the campsites can be made on the website where all other relevant information concerning the walk is found. Queensland Parks

Travel time is huge from anywhere you are coming from.

9 hours from Brisbane by vehicle. 

7 hours from Toowoomba.

No public transport (you could try a tour bus) and sealed roads all the way to the start of the walk which kicks off in the upper carpark near the visitor center.

Map sourced from Google maps.

Map sourced from www.parks.des.qld.gov.au

What we did:

I hiked the trail with my partner Jen.  We allocated 5 days and took our time muddling along the track.  There was a prescribed burn off for the month of June before we wandered the trail so very little long grass and mostly open horizons and simple navigation.

Day 1- Start to Big Bend Campsite.  12km.

We drove up in the morning from an overnight at Injune and plugged along the heavily trafficked tourist trail that rolls up Carnarvon Gorge with many side trails to various 'highlights' along the valley.  

We encountered many middle age pear caravan dwellers, difficult to avoid signage extolling the virtues of the area and a sense of being underwhelmed by mediocrity.

In all honesty I could have easily skipped the crowds and just nailed it to Big Bend as I have seen most of this kind of thing in Australia before.  

It's pretty, yes.  

There is rock art, lovely natural features and a very well graded pathway interrupted by numerous creek crossings.  But fuck me there was quite the fair number of homo sapiens all compressed into a small space.  Including us... 

Big Bend Campsite is situated on a side trail before Boowinda Canyon.  

Beautiful but windy as all hell the evening we dropped by.

Water, toilet.  Avoid if possible.

Big Bend Campsite.

Boowinda Gorge.

Day 2:  Big Bend Campsite to Gadd's Campsite.  15km.

Through the gorge and up the slope to views and cruisey walking through grasslands and undulating landscapes.

Gadd's has water, shelter, toilet.

Day 3:  Gadd's to West Branch Campsite.  16km.

Another low volume mileage day enjoying the changing flora and camping at the car accessible camping ground.

Water, toilet, tables.

Day 4:  West Branch to Cabbage Tree Campsite.  31km.

The Mahogany Forest was bewitching, full of crowded, competing plant life and bustling birdlife.  We stopped for lunch at Consuelo Campsite and sat in a tree and made coffee and went wow, yes.

Onwards to Cabbage Tree the track stayed flat and a no brainer.  Just back up and keep following the management fire trail when things get confusing.  That night we lay in the tent under an impossibly star laden sky and listened as a powerful owl swooped in and hunted the shit out of resident gliders.

Water, shelter, table.  No toilet and poop paper everywhere.  

Please bury your kaka and bag up your used bog roll and take it with you.  

Some people are fuckin disgusting.  No excuses. 

Day 5:  Cabbage Tree to end of the trail.  16km.

Views, up and down and up again.  

There's a dam with great wildlife viewing opportunities, some stupendous sheer cliffside outlooks and the obligatory downhill plunge to the end.

Navigation:

Orange triangle markers are hammered onto trees every 50 metres.  

There is a deliberate footpad that is hard to miss and signage when needed.

We used the topographical map provided by Parks Queensland and the All Trails offline digital map.

 

West Branch Campsite.

Flora and Fauna:

Fauna; Loads of feral pigs and horse and cows left their tracks and scat for us to clearly see and in the case of the pigs; immense amount of churned earth where they had chased a feed.  

That was the not so good but not the end of the world.

Other than those species it was a fantastic assortment of some the greatest hits of Australian wildlife.

Emu's, dingoes, roos, raptors, scuttling goannas, darting woodland birds and chunky insects.

Flora;  mighty gums, endemic Carnarvon fan palms, cycads.   There's an amazing variety of plant life in the various temperate zones of the park.  

Rainforest habitat in the gorges and temperate open forest on the plateau host diverse genus specialising in the particular locations.  

Shit, we live on a spectacular continent.  I certainly re-appreciated it during this walk.

The invasive plant species usually prevalent in South East Queensland public lands were noticeably absent in Carnarvon.  No lantana, very little cobblers peg, no spikey stuff; just healthy forests, thriving grasslands and prolific birdlife including pardalote, pheasant coucal and black cockatoo.

Water and Camping:

Water is available from pumps at each campsite.

Camping is $7.50 per person, payable upon booking on the Parks website.

We only encountered one other person walking clockwise as we were.  A few other hikers bumped into us heading the opposite way but the trail was in no way crowded.

When we reserved the campsites, they were reportedly booked up solid online but we only had company from that one solo hiker every evening.

Thoughts:

Once you get away from the main tourist track in the gorge area and head up out of Boowinda I felt a genuine sense of solitude and wildness.  

The walking is simple and low effort and affords a slower pace that lends itself to peeking up every tall tree and soaking up the distant drumbeat of resident emus and dingoes howling away.

Absolutely worth the effort and recommended for those that revel in pristine Australian environs.

Photos by Shiny & Safari.

Highfields Falls Bushland- Toowoomba, South East Queensland. 3km - 5km circuit walks.

This weekend was a bit of a reboot.  

An awakening.

Getting back to who I am, connecting with the things on this good green earth that feed my soul and nix the dark, twisty shit inside me.

I've enjoyed (possibly a tad too much) the constant partying, casual hookups, getting really, really fucked up and the swanky hotel rooms of late as I explore my new home in this corner of Queensland.  

But on Saturday morning I decided enough was enough; it was time to switch gears.  

So I kiboshed a number of invites I had to various weekend sessions with new friends and played house and hit the kettlebells hard and ran and walked local paths and made solid plans to get out and hike and camp overnight once a week from now on.  

Back to basics.  

The Circuit:

Highfields is a swish area 12 kilometres north of the city of Toowoomba.

Remnant bushland surrounded by semi rural housing has been conserved into a tiny pocket of steep well maintained paths suitable for a family ramble and walking the woofer.  

Or decompressing and finding your arrow again.

I have wandered the various short trails in Highfields Falls Bushland a few times but rarely spot the so-called abundant wildlife that is purported to be easily spotted trail side.  Plenty of twangy bird calls though and a worthy stop if you happen to be buzzing up the New England Highway to Crows Nest.

Getting There:

I started my circuit walk from the Kleve Road carpark, marked above as YOU ARE HERE on the trail sign.

Just punch in 'Highfields Falls Bushland directions' and you will be taken past the police station to the pull off parking area.

Cascades Circuit and Ridge Trail: Main Range National Park, Queensland. 10km.

 

INTRODUCTION:

Widely known and often visited by many for good reason, this short walk blew me away due to the well kept trail network and lovely Dalrymple Creek which will require more than 2 hands to count the number of times you cross and recross the water feature. 

It was the first public land area in the region that I had a 'well fuck me this is classy' epiphany while toddling along with my neck craned up gawking at the forest canopy.  

Since relocating to South East Queensland I have been a tad underwhelmed by the immense amount of invasive weeds and long grasses and overgrown, neglected trails in National and State Parks.   

Looking at you Scenic Rim from the Thornton trailhead.

However the Cascades Circuit really kicked that in the dick.

It's uber lush.  Easy to walk.  Loads of wild life and never dull.  Lots of good stuff.

Main Range National Park info here.

Map of Goomburra area walks sourced from Parks Qld

GETTING TO MANNA GUM CAMPING AREA (Start of trails):

Punch in 'Manna Gums Campgrounds Directions'.  

Your heading to the Goomburra region of Main Range National Park.

Approximate travel times by private vehicle: 

• 80 minutes/ 100km from Toowoomba
• 135 minutes/ 175km from Brisbane

Parking is at the eastern end of road past the campsites, opposite the trail signage.

No public transport options but cycle touring would be doable.

Fuel up beforehand, this is a rural area.  Bring water and food.  

Watch for cows and calves on the road over the last 10km.  They think it's India.

Plenty of private camping options on the drive in and also within the National Park.

No charge if not camping.  Camping sites booked here.

Map sourced from Google maps.

TRAIL TREAD & NAVIGATION:

Basic online mapping again via this link.

I used the digital All Trails mapping system, downloading 'Cascade Circuit and Ridge Trail' beforehand.

It states distance as 7.6km but my Suunto reckoned it was 10km all up.

I started anti clockwise up the hill and cruised around over 3.5 hours taking my time and soaking up the splendour of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area .  

Trail is a bit scrubby to start.  A steep plug up the hill leads to an intersection with a well kept chunk of the Scenic Rim Trail then your off to discover some waterfall features and wander along Dalrymple Creek.  Tracks are signed and well maintained.

Watch for stinging trees and ticks and snakes but otherwise safe as it gets.

I would classify the walk as EASY. 

WILDLIFE AND FLORA:

So many critters.  

I bumped into 3 snakes including a beautiful carpet python with a big swollen mid section having a quiet drink.

The usual bush turkeys, eastern yellow robins, red necked wallabies, monitor lizards and fairy wrens abound.  You'll have your ear canals pinged by the Whipbirds doing their high pitched song.

I also saw various skinks, quails, colourful parrots and yabbies.  And I listened to the crazy call of the green cat bird.  

The plant life is a constantly changing lineup of tall gums and hoop pines and lilies and boxwoods and dogwoods and cabbage palms.  Cool eh.