Date: 7th December, 2014
Distance: 24 km (return)
Time: 6 hours 45 min
Lamington National Park Map
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| Mount Merino Lookout |
It's usually too hot to do much bushwalking in Queensland in Summer but Lamington's rainforests are a good place to cool off, particularly on drizzly days. In preparation for our upcoming Tassie adventure, me and dad headed off along the Border Track from O'Reilly's with the goal of locating the off-track walk to Wanungara Falls.
One great thing about overcast days is that other people just aren't keen to get up early and visit the mountains, so you can have an otherwise popular walk like the Border Track all to yourself. There is some irony too, since the rainforest is at its most spectacular in misty conditions.
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| Dad trying to locate some of the frogs that called to us whenever we passed a stream |
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| Mist in the mountains |
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| Track smothered in beautiful red flowers |
Another bonus of walking in the wet is the colourful array of fungi that spring up beside the track. A bright orange fungus that seemed to be everywhere was fun to photograph, but later I discovered it is actually considered to be an aggressive invasive species.
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| Orange pore fungus - apparently an invasive species |
Working our way towards the southern escarpment and winding slowly uphill, the scenery gradually changed from subtropical to temperate forest. Two major tree falls along the track held us up briefly, including one particularly nasty one where many stinging plants required some delicate maneuvering to negotiate.
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| Dad negotiating a hairy tree fall |
From Bithongabel, a series of lookouts provide impressive views south towards Mount Warning and into NSW, even on an overcast day.
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| View from Nyamulli Lookout on the Border Track |
Following the track notes in the Take A Walk in SEQ book, we located the switchbacks and an old national park sign engraved 7MA on the right hand side heading north. However, we failed to find where the track departs the Border Track at East Canungra Creek. Instead we decided to continue on to Mount Merino, a destination roughly midway between O'Reillys and Binna Burra. This might have been for the best, as the leeches were particularly ravenous today - we must have plucked off several hundred each, I can't remember there being a time they were so numerous.
We passed the midway point of the Border Track (a sign with BB 7 and OR 7 on either side, indicating the distance to either destination in miles) and Chakoonya Lookout, the only northwards facing vantage point on the Border Track.
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| View from Chakoonya Lookout on the Border Track |
A few minutes from here we met the turnoff to Mount Merino. Pretty helmholtzia lilies (aka Stream lilies) were flowering along this section. They only grow on the McPherson range, and flower in November and December.
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| Bright pink flower of Helmholtzia glaberrima |
About 10 minutes from the Border Track, the path ends at Mount Merino lookout with superb views south over Tweed Valley. The track leading to the actual summit has been closed for revegetation.
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| Mount Merino Lookout |
The lookout was a pleasant place to stop for lunch, although it was quite hot in the sun. In addition to the great views, we also had a leech-free patch of ground to stand on, although there was a few march flies buzzing around.
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| Panoramic view from Mount Merino |
We made the return trip in under 3 hours, thinking that walking faster might help to reduce the number of leeches that latched onto us (it didn't). Disappointing not to reach Wanungara Falls, but Mount Merino was well worth the effort - I'll be coming back to do it again on a fine day.
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| Heading back home |
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