Turtle Rock, Ships Stern, Caves Circuit

Location: Lamington National Park (Binna Burra), South East QLD
Date: 26th October, 2014
Distance: 19 km (circuit)
Time: 7 hours

Turtle Rock from the steep bluff of the Ships Stern

This is a challenging variation of the classic Lamington walk: Ships Stern Circuit. It involves tackling steep, off-track terrain and some serious exposed scrambling up the face of the Ships Stern. In return there are great views of Egg and Turtle Rocks, plus you have the option of exploring the myriad tracks around and on top of Turtle Rock. Keep away from this walk/climb unless you are a confident scrambler who enjoys clinging to exposed rock faces.

The first 40 minutes covers what must be some of the least interesting walking in all of Lamington NP. Beginning at the Information Centre, you head 500 m back down the road to the Lower Bellbird Circuit sign. From here it is all downhill along old forest roads, following the Great Walk through open eucalyptus forest. I caught glimpses of Egg Rock through the bush, but otherwise the scenery was pretty uninteresting. At least wildlife was out in abundance this morning, obviously trying to enjoy the day before it started heating up.

The dirt road steepened considerably during the descent, until finally reaching a small gravel path that crosses Egg Rock Creek at the valley floor (dry at the moment). At this point I departed the Great Walk, turned right at the crossing, and rock-hopped about 20 m to meet Nixon Creek, which at least resembled a creek.

Nixon Creek

Rainforest surrounds the creeks in the valley, and provided some shade from the already scorching morning sun. This is the last water source for about 3.5 hours, so it's worth filling up.

Taking a rough route directly up the opposite bank of Nixon Creek (at the head of the "T" intersection from Egg Rock Creek), I bashed my way through the ferny understory until I found a clear footpad heading east uphill in the direction of Turtle Rock. According to Take A Walk in SEQ, I was meant to meet a fence at some point... but I guess this has disappeared since that was published. Instead, someone had gotten very excited and placed pink ribbons at every second tree, guaranteeing at least that you won't get lost in this "off-track" section.

Pink ribbons guide the way to Turtle Rock

After half an hour of steep uphill, I met the hulking line of cliffs below Turtle Rock.

Dwarfed by the cliffs of Turtle Rock

A very obvious track seems to head both directions around the base of the cliffs, pink ribbons now replaced with blue. I took the right and shortly thereafter found myself tackling a short steep track, slippery with dirt, to the saddle between Turtle Rock and Ships Stern.

To the left lies Turtle Rock, not much higher than the saddle and well worth taking a detour to explore. Dozens of trails have been thrashed through the bush and seem to lead to various vantage points all over Turtle Rock. As I had only 1.5 L of water with me, and feeling the temperature nudging upwards every few minutes, I just had time to follow the blue markers to a rocky outcrop on the far (northern) side, which had nice views across Numinbah Valley and to Egg Rock. The track reminded me of clambering up Charraboomba Rock, a few km away on the Ships Stern Circuit.

Egg Rock seen from Turtle Rock

Returning to the junction, the saddle runs wide and long to the base of Ships Stern. Rather than keeping to the top of this saddle, I ended up winding down slightly to the right, before realising I had come too far, and had to scramble up the side (adding more scrambling than would otherwise have been necessary). I met the main track, swung around to the left of the cliffs past a tiny shallow cave (a handy landmark noted in the Take A Walk guide) until it seemed feasible to scramble upwards. I actually found this section to be the most difficult due to the profusion of burnt out trees and scrub (that crumbled when you touched it) and loose, dry dirt covering the rocks.

After reaching a ledge, the track becomes much more steeper and exposed. I wandered around either side of the bluff but the cliffs were even steeper there (an orange arrow nailed to a tree on the right side seems to indicate the starting point for a rock climb).

Egg Rock from the base of Ships Stern

I considered turning around at this point, but after taking a short break to calm my nerves and consider the route ahead, I decided to give it a shot.

Steep, exposed bluff from the ledge

Although it was extremely exposed, my initial feelings of fear quickly turned into excitement. This was a new challenge, and it was thrilling. Keeping my centre of weight close to the wall, I slowly worked my way up the rock face, looking for tiny hand holds in the rock. Because the bluff is so steep, there is no loose dirt covering the rock. To me this meant less danger than a standard scramble, because it removed an unknown factor beyond my control (who knows when you could slip on that crumbly dirt?).

The views were incredible.

Egg Rock and Turtle Rock

Rock climb: accomplished

The very steep rocky climb lasted about 10 minutes, but there was a long way to go yet. Mostly this was accomplished by scrambling over very large boulders, but with a much friendlier gradient (and still no loose dirt) it felt like no trouble at all. It was, however, extremely hot, and I had to whip out the water bottle every few minutes to keep myself going.

Giant boulders pepper the slopes of Ships Stern

Nearly at the top! Turtle Rock from Ships Stern

After about an hour of climbing and scrambling I met the graded track network at Kooloobano Lookout. Usually this is a great lunch spot when doing the Ships Stern Circuit but there seemed to be little shade here today, so I continued on south uphill (after taking a left at the junction) until I found a convenient shaded patch on the track where I could flop and recover. The climb combined with the soaring heat had completely exhausted me.

It looks pleasant and shady but it was still stinking hot

Bright, white flowers were abundant on the Ships Stern ridge, which made the walking along here pleasant despite the heat.

Springbrook and Mt Warning from Gorooburra Lookout

The new few km wanders in and out of rainforest, finally offering some sun relief. Beyond here the track makes a long curve right, back towards Binna Burra, where many colourful flowers were blooming.

I passed some other walkers and made my way down to Ballunjui Cascades to fill up my depleted water supply from the barely trickling stream. Further up the track, even Nagarigoon Falls were an embarrassment. Apparently Binna Burra has not been spared from suffering at the hands of a long and dry season.

From the falls it was another hour before I was back at the Binna Burra day use area. Rather than taking the boring road option back to my car, I took the meandering Caves Circuit track.

Two-legged giant straddling the path

From the road, the Caves Circuit zig zags back and forth downhill for about 30 minutes (I always forget how long this section is), veers right, before meeting an enormous rocky overhang known as Kweebani Cave.

Kweebani Cave

From the cave the track runs along the edge of the escarpment, providing good views of the ridge of mountains that lie between Binna Burra and Green Mountains.

All up, a very long and demanding hike, but with some incredible views. Walkers unfamiliar with tackling exposed climbs should stick to the graded Ships Stern Circuit, but for those who are searching for a challenge this is a great option. Note that this would be extremely difficult to complete in a counter-clockwise direction, and a rope would be necessary to descend the Ships Stern. This is also probably much better done in Winter (and as early as possible) to avoid encrispifying on the exposed bluff.