WOW! I said that a few times today during our visit to Blackdown Tableland National Park. Chances are you’ve never heard of it (we hadn’t), but this national park has some stunning features. When visiting some locations, the Atherton Tablelands for example, you are surrounded by rainforest just to get there and expect to see beautiful waterfalls – their reputation and surrounds proceeds them.

Rolling up to the Blackdown Tablelands, you’re in red dirt country and you see this dry eucalyptus looking place….

Don’t be fooled….. hidden up there are some amazing unexpected treasures, here is an initial teaser…..

*Warning: this post is picture heavy, even though I’m only showing a small fraction of the over 600 photos taken! You can click on any photo to see it a little larger.

It is a steep run up the side of the tableland, to reach the first lookout, Yaddamen Dhina (Horshoe lookout).

A few km’s along a dirt road took us to the Munall campground. There we started with the 2.5km Goon Goon Dina (Culture Circuit). It was a nice walk through the bush – not that dissimilar to Daisy Hill State Forest (for readers from the southside of Brisbane), but a little greener and with a nice little creek running through it. The aboriginal artwork along the rock walls musta been the ‘modern’ version – using spray techniques….

Then it was on to the Mook Mook track, a 2.4km return trip. We did not get far before the first ‘wow’ of the day occurred. Unfortunately it was hard to photograph. I’m also regretting not buying an additional large sensor camera like I was thinking (the small sensor loses detail, particularly in high contrast settings like most of these).

Just a little further along:

Finally we arrived at the lookout:

The last walk of the day was to Gudda Gumoo, and it is well worth the extra drive down the goat track (I’ve some video I’ll try to upload tomorrow). To get to the falls is a 2km walk from the carpark, mostly downhill (and of course a 2km walk uphill after!). The national parks brochure lists this as a ‘difficult’ walk, though that is a stretch. It is a well formed track – just uphill that’s all!

We returned to the base of the tablelands and set-up camp on the side of the road leading into it. We all had a great day, surprised by the natural beauty of the place. It was lovely sitting out in the red dirt, watching the sunset, as Daniel cooked our steak and sausages!