Lamington National Park

Lamington is one of the lesser known national parks in the Gold Coast hinterland, especially in comparison to its well known siblings such as Springbrook and Tamborine national parks. The infrastructure here are a tad lesser than the surrounding parks, which infact adds to the charm of the place, making it more in sync with the wilderness. This park has a narrow one lane road through the forest and very limited parking spots for those interested to explore this area. But that was exactly what made the drive through the rain-forest simply mind-blowing.



We had decided to explore 2 bushwalking trails. One which explores the Moran falls and the other which leads to the view from the Python rock. To reach the starting point of these trails one has to start towards O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, which is a resort in the middle of this rainforest. Just before one reaches this resort there is a small parking lot which signifies the start of both the trails. The left trail leads towards the falls and the one leading to the right leads towards the view point.



We decided to explore the falls trail first, which is 4.4km return and goes through some decent elevation. Initially one gets the frontal view point of the falls and trail further leads to the top of the falls and also giving some good views of the valley forged by its water. Moran falls was with decent amount of water, testament to the recent rains which had lashed these regions. But there is no opportunity to get into the water either on the top or at the foot of the falls.

We returned back after taking close to 2 hrs and then we moved on towards the Python Rock trail. The return distance of 3.1km to the Python Rock goes through fairly flat terrain and can be completed in an hour. The views we got from this point was simply mindblowing especially of the rain laden clouds condensing over the nearby mountain ranges. Overall the hinterland regions of Gold Coast are a good place to visit especially in the peak summer, when the temperatures here are atleast 5-6 degrees cooler than the plains.