Illinbah Circuit

Date: 22nd April, 2012
Distance: 16.6 km
Time: 9 hours

Illinbah circuit is a bushwalk at Binna Burra. If you've got a map of eastern Lamington National Park handy (and you should - I like to sleep with at least one copy), this circuit is the one that was obviously designed to look like Elvis in a straight jacket gazing at the stars with something weird coming out of his chest. In their quest to achieve this astonishing architectural feat, the creators of this trail were unfortunately forced to steer a path directly through the Coomera River for half of its length.

Unlike all the other marked walks at Binna Burra (or at the least the ones I've done), Illinbah Circuit demands a significant amount of de-booting and confused meandering. I've read suggested times for this walk as short as 5 hours, but unless you're adept at charging through rocky, fast flowing cascades and walls of leeches you'll probably be closer to 7 or 8 hours, or 9 hours like us if you encounter various obstacles.

Dad has been wanting to do this walk for a while now, being one of the few walks we hadn't done at Binna Burra. In our excitement to tackle the elusive circuit, we ignored ominous warnings posted two weeks ago on the Government's website which suggested visitors may experience "a greater degree of difficulty and frequency of natural hazards." The track starts from the visitor's centre in the lower parking section and descends into the gorge that separates Binna Burra and O'Reilly's. You have two options: go left (clockwise) and drop steeply down the gorge's side, or go right (anti-clockwise) to enjoy a gentle sloping path that descends gradually to the valley floor over 8 km. We went for the latter, since John and Lyn Daly recommend this route to avoid a long walk uphill exposed to the afternoon sun once it rises over the mountain (although this is a little deceptive - the path is well-covered for almost its entire length, breaking only at the creek crossings).

Before reaching the circuit fork, the path passes a remarkable, almost perfectly cylindrical cleft in the rock formed by a trickling stream that runs down it. Heading right at the Illinbah Circuit junction, it took us about 2 hours to arrive at Illinbah Clearing at the bottom of the gorge. The vegetation is quite thick in parts and largely obscures the view across the gorge. Often the narrow path slopes heavily towards a steep drop at left, and one section of the path was completely wiped out by a recentish looking landslide. Apart from the two creek crossings at/near Piccabeen Creek, there isn't much in the way of a place to sit and rest (something to keep in mind if doing the track clockwise).

You can hear the crashing cascades as the Coomera River nears. This sound also heralds the arrival of a swarm of leeches, which cluster around the path in their trillions. I wonder what leeches feed on when humans aren't around? There is a small overgrown clearing that was apparently once a campsite, which brings you to the first creek crossing. I'd read that you can expect to get wet feet at some of the crossings, but we weren't expecting to take our boots off AT EVERY CROSSING. On the positive side, we were able to pick off the dozen or so leeches we'd acquired whenever we de-booted (not an exaggeration - dad consistently left behind a puddle of blood on the rocks, which no doubt attracted more of the buggers).

The distances between crossings was only brief enough to begin re-acclimatising to the warmth of my well-travelled hiking boots, before the river came back into view and it was time to de-boot again. At most of the river passages there are orange triangles to guide weary and disoriented walkers, although they are not always obvious. When in doubt, head straight across from where you entered and you'll probably find the track again. One major navigational issue we had was with being mislead by dry creek beds, which masquerade pretty well as paths - particularly since, in parts, the track is heavily overgrown (maybe due to the poor recent weather? I wonder how many other mad hikers attempted this walk in April... we saw no one on the track all day).

Monstrous fallen logs conveniently arced over creeks occasionally provided us with relief from our de-booting exercises, and offered us the chance to experience other kinds of discomfort. Between crossings #7 and #8 (by our counting) there's a 2 km river-free zone, before the final stretch of crossings. When we reached what we thought was the final crossing, disaster struck when I chanced a slightly longer than realistically achievable jump between rocks to avoid taking my boots off. My foot slipped at the intended landing zone and I plunged into knee-deep water. I knew something was amiss immediately, and a brief glance at my left hand confirmed my concerns: my little finger hand two bends, like a usual finger, only it stuck out sideways.

"I think I broke my finger!" I yelped out to dad, who was 50 m downstream and struggling to cross the river from a different approach.

"Shit!"

It was a good 30 minutes before I was able to stand up and walk, with my arm in a sling.

"Good thing that was the last crossing... imagine if we still had another half dozen to go!"

Minutes later the creek materialised out of nowhere again. Recent bad weather had created several new crossings. Bugger. This time dad was in for some fun. In tossing his boots across the river, they both rebounded back into the creek... one was collected by the current and then proceeded to drift downstream. I was closer to the boot than him, but with one arm out of action all I could do was sit on my rock and laugh insanely while my old man waded madly down the river after his water-borne boot. Luckily it eventually snagged on a rock, or he might have had to hop back to the car. In dad's haste to chase after the boot, my unlucky backpack was dipped in the creek a few times too.

Yet another crossing appeared before us, but without further mishap we crossed and were relieved to finally be heading upwards away from the river. The last stretch of track climbs steeply up the gorge back to the car park, including something close to 200 steps (many slippery and angled backwards to provide maximum discomfort). We agreed the 800 m return trip to Gwongoorool Pool would have to wait for another day. It was getting very dark at this point, and although we were both drenched, leech- and tick-infested, cramped and disabled to some extent, it was impossible to avoid marvelling at the scenery. Impressive Barrabareen Falls topples down from a great height beside the track, showering moss-covered rocks in water and adding another enjoyable aspect to the circuit.

Perhaps the only misfortune we evaded was being ravaged by the local eel population, which is sign-posted at the walk's entrance. I had wondered why so few photos existed of this walk, but now it's clear to me: most cameras that go into Illinbah Circuit don't return. No doubt if we had brought one it would have been flooded, trodden on, smacked with mud or somehow otherwise destroyed.

After our arduous adventure, I'm keen to do Illinbah Circuit again... when my finger heals. The rainforest in this section of Binna Burra is impressive and raging Coomera River makes the walk uniquely challenging. Might just be a bit more careful next time.