Bushwalking! (July 24-25)

Thursday was another work day; I spent the day visiting St. Aidan's Anglican Girls School in Corinda, a suburb of Brisbane.  This is the school our students are attending for the week as part of our exchange program. I won't bore you with the details (unless we work together, in which case I promise to bore you in person) - suffice it to say that the school was incredible, and I learned quite a bit that I can take back to my own school.

Friday I signed up for a Rainforest bushwalk; bushwalk is essentially Australian for hiking.  The day started early, with a pickup at a nearby hotel. As soon as Ed the tour guide stepped out of the bus to greet us, I knew it was going to be a good day.  Ed was young, energetic, enthusiastic and friendly. On the two hour trip from Brisbane city to Springbrook National Rainforest (where we would be bushwalking), Ed talked to all of us. He asked a lot of questions, and because of that, everyone on the bus got to know each other a bit before the tour began, which was awesome. I got lucky - the people on the bus (from Manchester, Northern Australia, North Dakota and China) were all very friendly and fun, and I knew it would be an exciting day.

Around 10am, we stopped the bus for our first brief walk, through the forest to a natural arch.  During the walk, Ed pointed out a plant to us known as the "Gimpy Gimpy".  This is an Aboriginal name; it's important to note that there are over 500 different Aboriginal tongues, but one thing each of these languages have in common is that in any Aboriginal language, when they want to emphasize the meaning of a word, they repeat it twice. Gimpy is an Aboriginal word for pain - and the Gimpy Gimpy apparently delivers just that.  The large flat leaves of the plant are framed by hundreds tiny, nearly invisible needles that break off into the skin on contact. The pain is said to be incredible - described by one guide as being stabbed with needles dipped in acid.  And it's not brief - the pain can last for up to six months if the needles aren't removed - most commonly now, if someone is unfortunate enough to brush past a Gimpy Gimpy, wax hair removal strips are used to pull the needles.  For the rest of the day, we would walk past several signs warning of the Gimpy Gimpy - I memorized the look of it and made sure to steer clear.

The Gimpy Gimpy - Look out!


We walked further into the rainforest, passing Strangler Figs and Wait-A-While Palms (so-named because if you brush past one, they have tiny little hooks that dig into your clothing, and everyone else needs to wait a while as you disentangle yourself).  Finally we came to one of the first highlights of our walk, the Natural Arch.   I wish the pictures below did it justice, this beautiful bridge made by millions of years of water flow (it widens roughly 1-3 cm every 100 years).  According to our guide, the initiation for the lifeguards at surfers paradise is to jump through the top and down into the water (roughly 3 meters deep).  You couldn't pay me enough! 

We walked further past the arch and climbed toward the top so we could see over it, and on the way our guide stopped suddenly, very excited because he caught sight of a funnel-web spider.  The funnel-web spider is the second most dangerous spider in the world - I already knew this thanks to my very intelligent nephew Calvin, who was filled with information about Australia's deadliest creatures when I saw him on my recent trip to LA.  I got a picture - it's very hard to see the spider but you can see the web alright - I didn't want to get too close.  Ed told us that they've developed an antidote to the funnel-web's venom, but I didn't want to have to verify the accuracy of that statement. 

The funnel web - look where the light is shining

We hiked back to the bus, and then made a stop at a place called the Forest of Dreams.  It was really pretty, similar to a lot of the other rainforest pictures I have; but the coolest part of this trip was a walk through the glow worm cave.  Basically, you walk through this pitch dark cave - and I mean, pitch dark; you have to hold the rail the whole time since you can't see 3 inches in front of your face.  But all around the cave are these blue glowing lights - glow worms, weaving their little silk webs.  It was really incredible; unfortunately I don't have any pictures. They don't allow cameras in the glow worm cave because if a flash were to accidentally go off, the glow worms would think it was daytime and they'd turn off their little blue lights.  Anyway - that was really neat.

Our next stop was another mountain where we were going to have a picnic lunch.  Ed told us to feel free to walk around during the 40 minutes it was going to take for him to prepare our sandwiches and salads.  We walked as a group to the lookout for Purlingbrook Falls - a really stunning view. If you look toward the top of the waterfall you can see a rainbow going through it - I wish the pictures I took could do it justice - it was spectacular to see.

Realizing we still had 40 minutes to kill, I decided to wander off on my own, down a path near the lookout for the waterfall. The path was beautiful, though steep on one side down the mountain; for a minute or two I questioned the wisdom of walking alone, but I figured since there had been lots of people around near the lookout, I'd likely run into others on the path. I took the picture below to give you a sense of the steep drop off the path, though again, the picture doesn't quite capture it.

About a half mile along the path, I saw a huge, black lizard-like creature crawl across about 2 yards ahead of me; I grabbed my camera and tried to get a picture, and although I could see him clearly, the angle of the sun and his position in the shadows made it useless to photograph him.  As I was trying, I realized that I didn't know anything about this lizard and whether or not he would appreciate my trying to take his photograph, which made me sufficiently nervous and I decided to walk on. 

After walking a while, caught up in the amazing views that were everywhere (like the one above)
I realized I had been walking consistently downhill and that I hadn't passed a single other soul, and the path before me was becoming at times difficult to cross because of large roots or vines that grew across it.  I looked at my phone and realized I'd been walking for 25 minutes in this direction. I started to get nervous about being out there alone, and so I turned around and made my way back up.  On the way, another creature crossed my path - a huge iguana - this time just 3 feet away.  I was able to get his picture as he crawled up a tree - look towards the bottom of the tree in the middle and you will see him:

Although I was late, I met up with the rest of the group, and we had a quick lunch before making our way to our final stop.  Ed explained that we were about to go on our longest hike - a little over two hours, down a mountain to a place called twin falls.  He explained that since the weather has been really dry the last 10 years or so, there's really only one waterfall now - but it was still something to see.  We walked quickly, and at times the path was very narrow, covered with heavy roots and rocks.  We asked Ed if anyone had ever fallen down off the paths on these trips - and he replied "yeah, a few people" but did not elaborate further.  For this reason, I didn't take many pictures on the way down, because I was entirely focused on keeping my footing.  I did get this one, just a remarkable view:

Another exciting thing happened - as we were first starting down the path, a huge python slithered across it in front of us.  We were shocked - snakes are supposed to be hibernating this time of year, and Ed said that this guy was absolutely the biggest snake he'd ever seen, ever - here are a few pics, though we had to be quick because he disappeared down the mountain within a minute:

After walking a little over an hour, we finally made it to twin falls.  We hung out down there for about an hour, taking more pictures.  The one below left is me standing on a rock in front of the falls; unfortunately I don't think the falls come out clearly; as with all my pictures, just so much more beautiful in person.  The one on the right is taken from behind the waterfall. 

Finally, it was time to make our way up the mountain.  It was a longer, tougher walk back up, but I really enjoyed it.  Along the way we all chatted amiably and laughed and I learned a lot about these really cool people I was spending the day with, and the places they've visited.  I now hope to one day visit Australia's Northern Territory, as well as Vietnam - which they all said was a must-see.  I took one final picture before we got to the top, exhausted and ready to head back to Brisbane.  It was such an incredible, wonderful day of exploring.  What a beautiful, beautiful world this is.