Winter in Brisbane isn’t really like winter so it is sometimes nice to wrap up and go up into the hills of the Gold Coast hinterland for the day. On Sunday we put on the hiking boots and headed for Witches Falls on Tamborine Mountain Road, just after the Eagle Heights turn-off coming from the Brisbane side. It is June and it’s been dry for quite a while so we didn’t really expect the falls to be dramatic but the fresh air and a bit of exercise climbing down into the gully and back out again was fun. It is only about 3.5km so nothing serious but varied habitat, some piccabean palm groves, huge strangler figs and rainforest along the way and plenty of birds. We saw a superb lyrebird as we were climbing back out, they aren’t rare but we hadn’t spotted one before and they have a really distinctive tail when they display so are easy to identify, a pair of spotted quail-thrush chasing each other around a fallen log and in the leaf litter at the bottom of the gully were also a good spot . The falls will be worth coming back to see in the wet season and the track is good enough that it should still be fairly easy, huge columns of vertical lava formed thousands of years ago were dry at the moment with only small quantities of water coming over the rock face and the seasonal lagoons along the track were empty.
One of the good things about the hinterland (both Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast) is the fabulous places to eat, whether you want to settle in for the afternoon or sit outside and grab something to warm you up. In Eagle Heights if you just want a reasonable coffee and one of Brisbane’s best pies (with awards to prove it) you can’t go past the Mt Tamborines Winery and Homestead. Of course no stop at Tamborine Mountain is complete without a couple of cheeses from Witches Chase cheesemaker and a stop at the fudge shop for a little treat to take home.
