04.01.2023 from Southport to Lamington NP

Once again we wake up way too early, but that also allows us to start our journey early. Our destination is Lamington National Park, 80 km southwest of Southport. The road to the mountainous region is a bad, often one-way, serpentine road, and inside the car, the table and toilet show what they can do. The first short hike takes us to the Treetop Walk, a suspended bridge course accessible via wooden paths. We see ancient Araucaria trees, southern beech trees in a dense, dry rainforest. Birds chirp on the branches, an Australian turkey runs away from us, even though it should know that nobody is going to harm it here. We decide not to climb a climbing tree since the kids want to climb up and that can take a while. The mountain garden is rather overgrown and lacks brightly colored flowers.

In the afternoon, we spontaneously decide to go hiking to the Python Lookout despite the thick rain clouds. The trail is advertised as suitable for wheelchair users, but we doubt its feasibility for disabled people. We hike through a subtropical rainforest, which is currently going through its summer phase. We see the impressive strangler figs that press, restrict, and eventually kill their host tree from above. What remains is a strangler fig through which we can see because, as mentioned, the host tree has died. An interesting business model. It's raining at the lookout, but that's okay. We hike back the same way and see some funny birds that respond to our imitation and the running away turkeys. We stay here for 2 nights and will continue hiking tomorrow.