Natural Bridge

About thirty minutes' drive north of Mount Warning, across the Queensland border, is a place called Natural Bridge which we had heard was worth a visit some time.  Yesterday we didn't really want to stay at the caravan park with two hundred school children so we decided to make that our destination.
The drive alone is worth the trip.  I don't think I'd ever tire of looking at the rolling green paddocks with grazing dairy cattle and horses, sugar fields and banana plantations, all set among stretches of rainforest against a spectacular mountain backdrop.
Just before the turnoff to Natural Bridge we spotted a big python sunning itself by the side of the road.  It was coiled up, but we estimate he was probably at least three metres long and ten centimetres thick. Philip stopped the car to allow me to take some photos, and was a bit perturbed when I got out to get a good close-up shot.  He has seen photos of an olive python swallowing a wild pig and is not convinced that carpet pythons prefer smaller meals.   This one only moved its head slightly to look at me and didn't even slither into hiding as the others I've tried to catch on camera have done. 

I have been impressed with the information provided for visitors to the National parks we've been to.  natural Bridge was no exception.  What would have been a lovely walk through beautiful rainforest became a rich learning experience thanks to the strategically placed boards which provide information about the area's geology and encourage the visitor to look, listen and observe.  As I walked, i was reminded of the lines from Dorothea Mackellar's poem:

...Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

"It looks like a rock puzzle all fitted together," said Esther.

Eventually, after crossing Cave Creek and climbing many steps, we arrived at the Natural Bridge which gives this national park its name.  The track took us into the cave under the waterfall and then over the rim for a view from the top.

It had been a cloudy day from the start, and as we walked the sky became gradually darker.  Just as we reahed the car park the spatters of rain began to fall.  When we pulled in at the Natural Arch cafe a few minutes later it began to pour down in sheets and we ran into the cosy building for shelter.  The owner told us she was just about to take a batch of bluebarry muffins out of the oven... 

The children had a Devonshire Tea.

The cafe owner cafe to see us off at the door and asked Arthur if he'd seen the dinosaurs on the hill opposite...

We were thankful for the annexe when we got back.  Not only was it very wet outside, but it was the coolest weather we've had for a while.  When I came into the caravan to read the children a bedtime story I found them in their winter pyjamas, snuggled up in the big bed.  Arthur looked up with a cheeky smile from behind Philip's reading glasses and said, "I'll read a story for YOU tonight, Mum!"

One of several Shirley Hughes books I picked up at a market a few weeks ago.