In one week’s time, Mikael and I have explored Natural Bridge in Springbrook National Park in full. During the day, in the twilight, and in the dark in the company of glow worms.
DAYLIGHT
Natural Bridge is a 1.2km circuit in Springbrook National Park, an hour from Broadbeach. The road there is just breathtaking. I am a beach girl all the way through, but everything we go to the hinterlands, I am so happily reminded why Gold Coast is THE place to be. You get the best of two worlds. We have the beach 15 min away, we have the rainforest and mountains an hour away inland. It’s unbeatable.
The full circuit is asphalted through beautiful rainforest with intricate trees, circling around running water and waterfalls. Lots of stairs in the beginning, but a very easy trail to follow. Both times we went, first just Mikael and I, and a week later with my mom as well, we saw a wallaby. In the exact same location both times. Our first encounter in the wild. I don’t think I will ever tire of wildlife here. It is magical! And wallabies are so small and adorable!
NIGHTTIME
For our second visit, on mom’s third day down under, we wanted to head back to Natural Bridge, but in the dark to see the spectacle it is most famous for: the glow worms. We took a lap around the circuit, still beautiful, a wallaby in the same location as the week before, but a little bit more dark in the late afternoon. We took another half lap and waited outside the waterfall cave until it got full dark. And while we were waiting, we were very surprised at what flew out of the cave we had been in less than an hour earlier to observe the waterfall. TONS of bats. Not the massive and slow flying foxes we are so used to seeing, but small, and quick ones. We could barely see them. But there must have been hundreds flying straight over us while the sun was setting. A little bit scary to be honest. But so cool!
Please click on the picture to see the very small blue dots which appeared in the cave ceiling once it actually got dark outside.
We left not long after sunset so it might have become more later on. But it was still pretty amazing to see these larvae with their glowing mucus as a starry sky in the pitch dark cave. It was beautiful! Highly recommend if you are in the Springbrook area. Don’t forget flashlights for the trek there and back, and please be sure not to use any light in the cave. Sensitive creatures.
Bemm 