Springbrook - World Heritage (Day 1)

Heading away from the Gold Coast, up toward the mountains was exciting but no where near as exciting once we started the climb to Springbrook. It was like our climb was never going to end. Hairpin turns, winding roads and still we just kept climbing. The anticipation of what we would see once we got up there was like waiting for Christmas morning to see what presents you received.

It was hard to keep an eye out for our accommodation when there was so much forest around us. Of course we missed the driveway but once we turned around all we wanted to do was see if our Chalet was like the pretty pictures you see in the brochures or online. There wasn't anyone at the reception to greet us, just a note to ring a number and talk to Sandy. Very casual up here I thought. I rang Sandy and she told me to grab the number two key from the desk, gave us directions to our chalet and said she would catch up with us later. Yes, very casual but also welcoming. It isn't often you feel trust like that from any human being. We drove around to our chalet and at first I was a little disappointed because it looked a bit aged but once we were inside, the comfort and cosiness overwhelmed me. Yes, it was a little old, it was cold (a fire would fix that) and it was a shame the spa wasn't big enough for two....but....it was ours for two nights and we loved it all the same. I checked out every room: the toilet, the bath and spa, the kitchen (yes, everything we needed was there) and they climbed the stairs to the bedrooms. The main room was beautiful. The bed was made up nicely very comfy too) with towels and a few toffees to top the look off. The huge round window looking over the balcony was spectacular. I loved how you could look over the balcony and see downstairs. Very open but it still had that cosy feeling. We got everything out of the car and while I unpacked, Glen started the fire. A little while later, once the unpacking was done and we had a crackling fire, we thought we should go for a short drive and discover our surroundings. Our first port of call was Purlingbrook Falls. This had two options.....an easy walk to the top of the falls or a harder and longer walk to the bottom. As it was getting on in the day we decided to go the easy way and do more discovering in the morning. The falls were spectacular. Such a long drop (we couldn't even see the bottom). It really felt like we were on top of the world up here. With our fill of Purlingbrook, it was time to get back to the chalet but first we had to find out where the Glow Worm site was as we had our tour booked in at 7pm that evening. As things were so casual on the mountain, all we could find opened was the Fudge Shop. Yum, all those fudges, I just had to buy some. I made sure I brought enough for the girls and the little family in Dalby. The owner of the shop was very helpful in directing us to the glow worms and telling us of other interesting sites to see on the mountain. Once we were back in the chalet, we rested for a few hours before our nightly tour of the glow worms.

The Glow Worms! Before our tour started (Glen and I were the only two in the tour), Garry Maguire (the owner of the property) told us about his reseach on both the glow worms and mushrooms. All of which are luminous. It was nothing like I expected at all. I was imagining these longish grubs that glowed in the dark but they are very miniture indeed. It was most fasinating. I was also expecting these glow worms to be in caves but they were in crevices on a rock wall. Garry told us that the luminous mushrooms only grew in summer so we wouldn't have the opportunity to see them tonight but he did however, have some growing in his reseach station. Once he turned the lights off I was completely amazed. There were these little mushrooms glowing brightly and the more your eyes adjusted to the darkness, the brighter they glowed. So amazing. I was now eager to see the glow worms. Garry led us down this cement path which within a matter of metres became very steep steps where we had to hang onto the rails to decend. I thought....oh no, it's dark and I am going to fall for sure but whew, I didn't. We were led to this rock face where Garry proceeded to turn off all his solar lamps which were lining the pathway. A few seconds and there they were. Some bright and some you could only just see. Just fantasic. We were so enthralled with everything Garry was telling us. How amazing such a tiny little creature could be so resourceful. Garry told us that as it was a full moon we would not see the worms to their full extent. The more moonlight, the less they glowed. Garry was so kind in answering all our questions and let me tell you, there were a lot of questions. Never before had we seen anything like glow worms or luminous mushrooms. On the path back to the house, Garry showed us his mushroom builds (logs piled on top of each other, each drilled with numerous holes filled with fungi) which, come January will shed enough light on his path that he won't need any other lighting except luminous mushrooms. On the way back to our chalet, Glen and I were both quite as we thought about the 'wonder' we had just seen. We cranked up the fire, had our tea and just relaxed once we got back.....a perfect end to a glorious day. We will definately go back in January and we plan to take the girls with us.