Exploring the Natural Wonders of Springbrook National Park!
Springbrook National Park marked the beginning of the end of our much-loved road trip. It was exciting and sad at the same time as we realised that we were slowly heading back towards Brisbane again. It didn’t deter us too much, as we had only just started planning the next three national parks! On top of that, Springbrook and Lamington National Parks both lie along the New South Wales and Queensland border, so we knew plenty of great hikes awaited us!
The 2023 Greater Brisbane road trip:
Before we get into this story, if you are new to the blog, here is a quick brief on the 2023 Queensland road trip. After finishing our 2022 adventures in Darwin, Yentl was lucky to land the Dive Master Internship on Moreton Island. Not six weeks later, I got a job with the quads department. We lived and worked on the island for eight months but started to get a little homesick for the road around the six-month mark.
While reminiscing about our last trip, our generous friends offered us their car for our next adventure. Kane and Jenna were heading to Asia for six weeks, so we had a timeline and began planning our adventure. Needing to be back on the island for Easter Holidays, we set boundaries about how far we could go. The Noosa Everglades was the northern boundary (~200 km north), and Byron Bay became the southern (~235 km south).
Read all the 2023 Greater Brisbane Road Trip Chapters:
1: Kayaking the Noosa Everglades.
2: The Best doughnuts in the Hinterland?
3: Attempt to Climb the Glass House Mountains.
4: Camping and Hiking in D’Aguilar National Park.
5: Mt Maroon and Its Incredible Views on the Scenic Rim.
7: Is Mullumbimby the new Byron Bay?
8: Exploring the Natural Wonders of Springbrook National Park!
9: Lamington National Park.
10: Mount Tamborine National Park.
Back into Queensland, then out again
After heading into New South Wales for a brief look at Nimbin and Mullumbimby, it was time to head back to our current home state of Queensland. It was more complicated than that, though. Leaving the last big town of Murwillumbah (~57 km / 52-min drive away), we decided to find a camp just outside Springbrook. We found two nice camp spots, and as it was mid-week, we thought that when they didn’t answer their phones, we could book on arrival.
Sadly, a large group was moving through the area and had booked everything out ! We briefly looked at the Natural Bridge in Springbrook before we had to start the hunt for where to stay—and the more pressing question, where to buy food. In hindsight, we should have just stayed and shopped where we started, but time slipped our minds, and we only had hiking on our minds…
Our brief look around
While brief, the Natural Bridge in Springbrook National Park was an excellent short walk. The Natural Bridge is home to hundreds of glow worms living in the cave, illuminating at night, which is the main draw. However, we sadly could not stay till dark (as we had to find somewhere to sleep), but the walk in the daylight was still marvellous. The walk through the rainforest was peaceful and much needed after a long drive. We stopped at the multiple lookouts along the way and even went into the cave at the base, but sadly no glow worms came out to play.
Back into NSW for the night
When we finished the walk, we spent another half an hour in the car park trying to figure out where to go. It was too late in the day to attempt the drive to Lamington National Park, especially since one of the main roads there was closed due to the flooding event at the start of 2022. After much debate, we found a little campground in Tyalgum, so we headed back down the ranges into the valley below.
Tyalgum was a great stop, with a good camp kitchen and showers, but sadly their general store wasn’t enough to stock up on all the food we needed. So after all the trouble of moving quickly to Springbrook the day before and leaving the last big town in haste, we had to travel the 40 minutes back to that town to stock up… This was the first time we had truly fumbled our planning quite badly that we had to turn around, and we promised to make it the last, at least for this trip.
Where to next
Fully stocked up and ready to go, we returned to the NSW/QLD border for the last time this trip. Having lost some valuable time, we had to head straight for Lamington National Park, leaving the rest of Springbrook National Park for another time. While we were disappointed with our error, we were excited to explore the glory of Lamington. We had heard many great things about the park and its extensive hiking trails that interconnect and take you along the border, so we were itching to get there. Luckily, I decided to call ahead this time and got the last campsite spot at O’Reilly’s and even scored a hiker’s cabin at the Binna Burra Lodge!
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