Kondalilla Falls

All this rain is driving us nuts. Me nuts.

As soon as it starts raining it stops again. When you're ready to go out it starts raining. Then just as you decide it isn't worth it, it stops again. In an endless cycle that can only end in painting, playing music, watching childrens' TV or surfing the internet.

The other day we combined drawing and surfing by drawing pictures of whales while listening to the song of the Humpback Whale on whalesong.net. Discussing it over supper, we foolishly mentioned that it would be nice to go whale watching sometime, wouldn't it be lovely to see a Humpback Whale for real.

In the morning the first thing Eloise said when she burst into our room was "We're going to see the Humping Whales!" What a hot choc moment.

Anyway notwithstanding all that, we haven't actually left Brisbane for two weeks except to go to dodgy railway museums and windy beaches, and this infamous low-pressure system that's hovering around creating all this wind and rain and general unpleasantness looks like it isn't going away any time soon, so with Nicole having a day off today I/we decided to bite the bullet and go out somewhere.

I reasoned that what with al water flowing downhill and there being plenty of water around it would be nice to go and see some waterfalls.

So we trooped off to Montville in the Blackall Range to go and see Kondalilla Falls, about which I knew virtually nothing but I quite like the name.

So after a pleasant drive up there with Nicole at the wheel taking us up into the cloud-bedecked mountainous tumuli of the Sunshine Coast, we pitched up and walked down, and the heavens opened.

Eloise was all right because she has a raincoat, but we adults spurn such luxuries (apart from walking boots) and trudged down into the rainforest before being confronted, if that's the right word, by a lovely waterfall flowing hard into a rocky pool and under a bridge.

Whilst I took happy snaps the others wandered off and in the two minutes a tarried behind managed to lose me completely as the path forked... well I caught up with them heventualleee.

The heavens continued to open intermittently and Eloise, tiring, had to be shouldered as the path dove down into a gully down a set of winding stairs to the head of the main attraction.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, given that Eloise is getting to be quite a lump and not that easy to lug around for protracted periods of time, the path to the bottom of the falls was closed due to erosion and general unsafety so we never got to see the main waterfall.

Judging by how loud it was, and how much mist was boiling up the valley from it, it would have been pretty good though.

Never mind, instead we went back to Montville and had us some coffee, hot chocolate and cake.

"Will your little lady be able to manage a whole mug of hot chocolate?" the man asked. Oh yes she will. Oh yes.