On 19-20th November, Matthew Ray and I drove to O'Reilly's/Lamington National Park to complete my Squire's Hike. After getting stuck in Schoolies traffic, we eventually arrived at O'Reilly's and set of on the track just after 3pm.
The walk to Bithongabel bush camp was pleasant but rather uneventful. The steady stream of day-walkers completing their days walking soon came to a stop the furt
her into the bush we walked. After about 45 minutes, Matt and I stopped to
look at a big tree, have a break and look at the map. Having arrived at camp at 4.30pm, we set up camp before walking down the track a little further to Toolona Lookout. From there we had a
lovely view of the valley (and mobile reception!). We walked back to camp and started co
oking dinner around 6pm. Dinner consisted of
dehydrated mince, salsa and burritos, whilst dessert was marshmallows and Lady Grey tea (courtesy of Matt, naturally). During the meal,
Matt noticed that we were surrounded by glow worms, which we took some time to look at. I
tied a few knots - using my little piece of ribbon
because we had no rope. The sun now well and truely set, it was decided that it was time for us humans to also turn in for the night (though we did remark that 7.45pm w
as a rediculously early bed-time)! also had to porve my campcraft skills to Matt by
I woke up at 7am, started packing up camp, then woke Matt up soon afte
r. Breakfast, which was Up'n'Go, muesli, tea and apples, was had and camp was soon completely packed. Just before
leaving camp, Matt noticed a couple of Eastern Rosellas, which were very beautiful to see. We left camp at 8.15am, a whole 15 minutes ahead of schedule - or so we thought. When we arrived at the Treetop walk (which Matt had never
done before), I noticed that it was 8.30am, which was impossible because the walk from camp took 1h30. As it turns
out, I cannot read analog clocks early in the morning, a problem that caused us to leave camp a whole hour earlier than planned. (As it was, it was a good mistake.) The Treetop walk was very exciting, as was the climb to the top. The view was quite spectacular/relaxing (as relaxing as one can be
~30m off the ground)! Continuing on our way, we were able to complete the short remainder of the hike quickly and exited the forest just after 9am.
All in all, it was a lovely couple of days. Thank you to Matt for driving and a good weekend!
