A cool entry to the park
July 2018
Based at Finch Hatton showgrounds we drive up to Finch Hatton Gorge, through sugar farms and small acreages studded with fruit trees and banana palms. What a heavenly place this would be to live.
Entry to the Eungella (pronounced Young gulla) National Park is by fording a stream. It has the feeling of The Daintree but without the crocs. The Gorge walk winds gently uphill for 900 metres through stunning rainforest. Light shafts through palms and all manner of vegetation struggling upwards. Strangler vines, and barbed ‘Wait a Whiles’ that reach out to catch an unsuspecting arm. Granite boulders wear a coat of green moss. The path forks, one going upstream to ‘The Wheel of Fire’ falls 1100 metres away. Mindful of our fitness, no, feeling our age we choose the shorter path to Araluen Cascades 400 metres below us. A small but pretty set of falls tumbles into a boulder strewn gorge. A whip bird call cuts the air, clear and sharp somewhere in the forest. This is a rewarding walk and although it is short it is more strenuous than it appears, or maybe that’s our age showing once more.
What a beautiful spot and excellent photos! I found some images of “wait a whiles.” Very fitting name, I’m sure!
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Aptly named indeed.
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What a wonderful spot!
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We were told those barbed vines were “Lawyer Vines”, whatever they’re called it’s certainly nasty when they get their hooks into you! Great photos, I especially like the boulders, lichen and tendrils.
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Yes I’ve heard that one too. Colourful names. Thanks they we were well behaved subjects.
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Great photos. Having looked up “Wait a whiles” I can see how those vines got their names. Nasty looking beasts!
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Thanks Peter. Clever plants indeed.
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Another fine post – writing and photos – as good a picture of car spraying through ford as I could wish for myself
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Thanks Derrick. What do you call a Jeep in a Ford? Wet.
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🙂
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Such amazing photos! Lovely place
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Very nice!
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