The view from inside a waterfall is rather... wet! (Apr. 10/09 - Nimbin, Australia, mileage 137km)

The sun was shining this morning as we cooked pancakes in the park, much to the interest of the local birds. Magpies were bold enough to come right up to us looking for food, while the pretty songbirds and rainbow lorikeets flew over but kept their distance. Even a couple red parrots and noisy cockatoos paid us a visit. Full of maple syrupy goodness, we walked over to the nearby lookout at the top of Purling Brook Falls, where a stream plummets over 600 feet off a sheet cliff into the rainforest below. The whole area is a series of high plateaus created by volcanic lava flows and slowly eroded over time by the massive amounts of rain that the plateau generates thanks to its height and proximity to the ocean. We intended on hiking the loop trail that skirts the top of the gorge, descends down into it, crosses below the falls, and then climbs back up the other side. But the recent heavy rains have washed out part of the trail on the east side, so we were limited to a down-and-back route on the west side. From the top, the views out over the rainforested valleys were impressive. After the trail hugged the edge of the cliff, it zigzagged down into the forest, where strangler figs, epiphytes, tree ferns, and palms thrived, even at almost 30° south latitude. When the roaring became louder and mist started to rain down, we knew we were close to the base of the falls. The trail emerged at the plunge pool and even continued right behind the falls, so we bundled up in rain gear and learned what it was like to be inside a massive wall of water pounding from almost 700 feet up. It was a pretty awesome (and wet!) experience. We followed the trail down to some scenic pools that would have made a lovely swimming hole on a hot day, then got in a workout hiking all the way back up to the top.

(can you see Ken to the left of the waterfall?)

We pulled into a couple more lookouts on our way out of the park, one of which gave an amazing view all the way out to Surfer's Paradise. A couple little pademelons (marsupials, like wallabies) bounded across the road in front of us as we drove north, down the ridge we came up, and then south down the pretty Numinbah Valley. We passed through a few small towns with names like Uki and Dum Dum before finding a campground at the base of Mount Warning, which is the huge volcanic plug that fed the massive shield volcano that dominated this landscape 23 million years ago. It was clearly a popular long weekend spot, as the sole campground was overflowing with campers and tents and kids and people in a way that reminded us of Pemberton Festival! The hippy town of Nimbin was much less busy, so we found a spot easily and relaxed for the rest of the day while flocks of rainbow lorikeets sang from the trees and kookaburras hung out on a fire hydrant, ready to sing their nightly laughing cackle.