Brisbane things to do: Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge, Springbrook National Park, Qld

Determined not to let overcast rain filled skies deter us, we set off on a trip to Natural Bridge, set in Springbrook National Park, Qld. A beautiful spot, about 90km (55m) South of Brisbane, in the Gold Coast Hinterland and not to be missed! Lucky for us, we had barely left the city when the sun came out! Oh Goody, another sunshine packed hot and humid day in beautiful Queensland Australia! Love it! All this while the Northern hemisphere: US and UK, shivers in mountains of snow. Well I guess we can't all be so lucky!

Hinze Dam spillway

En-route we stopped at Hinze Dam, somewhere we had visited before, but didn't even remotely recognise after its major rebuild and reopening in December 2011.

Built across the Nerang River and located in the Gold Coast Hinterland, the dam provides fresh waster for the Gold Coast's growing population of 600,000 residents and their many year-round visitors.

There are not many stopping places for food in the area so if you didn't BYO, take a stop in the Hinze Dam View Cafe, surprisingly good with offerings of homemade fresh delicious scones and cakes, or for the hungry, they can even

cook up a bacon and egg brekkie!

Also good for a toilet break unless you don't mind offering your butt to the open air and mosquito's or, possibly worse, the eco-friendly 'compost toilets' commonly found in many out of the way places. One of those rare times when the thought of being male has a certain attraction!

Take a walk around the grounds or across the dam wall but don't forget to slip-slop-slap! (Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen (30+!), slap on a hat!) - it is hot out there!

A few kilometres further on brought us to the Natural Bridge area, so pretty!

The circuit walk around the bridge is only about a kilometre and lots of stairs down, don't let the stairs put you off, there didn't seem so many back up, perhaps because of the distraction of things to look at.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, OH! ... and when you're done visiting, think about a pie-stop a the Yatala Pie Shop on the ride home!

More photo's on Flickr ...