Springbrook.

It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent. ~Dave Barry

You either like camping or you don't. I do. I like getting up close & personal with nature & Australia is very campable as a rule. My friend Sian & I like the Gold Coast hinterland which consists of sub~tropical rainforest. This sort of rainforest doesn't consist of palmy things although the trees do that *reach for the sky* thing tropical trees do so well. It is also pretty close ~ only a couple of hours down the coast so nice & accessible.

Friday was an absolute scorcher. Because we aren't allowed on the site until after 10am we stop for food en route ~ in Ditz's case this usually consists of something sweet & sugary. To Die for Chocolate cake & Ditz at her cheesiest.

This is a really nice little restaurant with rustic furniture made from slabs of eucalyptus & plenty of homemade goodies.

The other important stop is the Fudge shop that makes seriously good fudge. We bought a awful lot of this but as it turned out it was a real blessing as we had one afternoon confined to the tent & fudge & a good book was the order of the day. They make a lovely Raspberry & cream fudge & several different sorts with either Baileys or Cointreau that are addictive!So long as I get something with caffeine in it I'm all good. This time around I had Turkish bread with avocado, tomato & feta. mm Ditz was meant to share with me but she turned her nose up at all of it except the bread part. I ended up a little too full for comfort & the end result was we hit the campsite in absolutely broiling temperatures, put the Tarp up & collapsed in the shade for a snooze while Ditz gleefully took horrible pictures of us.We did eventually surface again to get on with the serious business of erecting the tent & finding the gas bottle. Tea & coffee is absolutely essential. Without it life as we know it is not sustainable.

This time we seriously wanted to hike the Wari Circuit which is an all day hike through some of the most rugged walking country & to this end I had pre~prepared trail snacks, water bottles & remembered to pack a first aid kit with a constriction bandage in case of snake bite ~ all to no avail. The full circuit is closed as it has been our last 2 visits. Heavy rainfall has caused landslides, tree falls & other things that have made the trail a hazard. We've done the Twin Falls circuit twice now & as that is the first part of the Wari Circuit, though a loop of it's own as well, we have a good idea of the terrain we'd be covering. We were disappointed but there are so many good walks it's not as if we didn't have other excellent choices.

The campsite is a five minute walk from the Purling Brook Falls. The whole place is littered with creeks & rivers & water cascading down cliffs; lookouts with the sort of spectacular views that make my stomach drop out & me edge away from the ledge; huge trees & huger variety of birdlife. The water rushes headlong for the cliffs but there are spreading pools of quieter water as well & it is along these quieter stretches we platypus watch. This is one of our favourite haunts. We think we saw platypus here once. There are burrows that can be seen along the banks & Dearest reckons there could be as many as 12 platypie in just this one small stretch of water. There is another burrow we've found further up the creek & Sian has definitely seen a platypus around there so we are always hopeful. Ditz wishes we weren't quite so hopeful. She finds platypus watching exceedingly dull.The edges of the rainforest are rather weed infested. The rainforest is always considerably cooler that outside & I rarely travel far without a jumper. The further down & the closer to water you get the colder it is. The temperature plummets towards evening too so we try to be back in camp before it gets fully dark.Mostly we cook on the gas bottle or stick to fruit & yogurt or salad but Ditz decided pancakes were in order & headed over to the BBQs to get going while Sian & I recuperated with a hot cuppa!Yes, even in summer it gets cold enough for jumpers & jackets & the first night was the only really warm night we had. By our last night we all decided we hadn't brought enough warm bedding despite the fact we've done this often enough to know we need to be prepared for freezing night temps.

Ditz & I fought over Liddy's camera so now I have to sort out who took what where but between us we've got some great pics of our walks & I will get around to putting those up over the next day or so ~ just in case anyone is interested you know. ;) However we are going away with Liddy at the end of the week & I have a doctor's appointment with Dearest today & all the laundry to get done as well so I guess they will be full & busy days.