A PLACE YOU’LL FALL IN LOVE WITH
GET some New Year’s perspective with a visit to Purling Brook waterfall.
Celebrate (or commiserate) on the year that’s been and the year to come with your own free falls festival and take yourself to a higher plain.
Perched atop the Springbrook Plateau, Purling Brook Falls is the jewel of the World Heritage-listed Gondwana rainforest of this National Park.
Spectacular waterfalls and cool ancient forests await you on this walk through fragrant stands of New England ash, ancient lepidozamias, colourful hakeas and dazzling wildflowers to the stunning waterfall on Purling Brook.
While there is a lovely and easy lookout to the falls just 100m from the Purling Brook Falls circuit trailhead, the true fun - and challenge - is hiking the whole thing.
At 4km and about two hours total walking time, it’s not too long, but it is quite steep - especially on the way back up.
But the reward of diving beneath the falls at the pool resting on the floor of the valley is well worth it.
Although this is normally a circuit (as the name suggests), lasting damage from ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie means that the eastern section of the track is still closed - and likely will remain so until the end of March.
Instead, begin your walk clockwise and then return the way you came - which does mean an awful lot of stairs. No, it’s not quite the same … but it’s still pretty damn magical.
And maybe 2018 will be the year you return to do it right. #newyearsresolution