This was published 5 years ago
Kondalilla Falls National Park guided hike, Queensland: This is how to bushwalk in style
By Craig Platt
Walking on Sunshine (Coast): Kondalilla Falls National Park.
I love a good hike. Exploring nature, challenging myself and letting my mind run free of the stresses of city life – it's the grand appeal of heading out into a national park or coastline and just walking for hours on end, without distraction.
But I have my limits. Hiking? Yes, absolutely. Camping? No.
For me, there's nothing better than finishing up a long day's walk with arriving at a room with a warm, soft bed, a marble-adorned shower or bathtub, and a hot cup of tea.
Kondalilla Falls.Credit: Joint copyright Larissa Dening
And that's exactly what has greeted me at Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
We've just finished an 11-kilometre walk. While not a particularly challenging one, it's undulating hills are gentle, so while tired at the end of the day, I'm not suffering any pain in my legs. It's still a fair old trek.
We've spent our day following trails through Kondalilla Falls National Park, just 40 minutes from the beach on the Sunshine Coast. Our guide Steve Grainger, from Tropical Treks, has great knowledge of the flora and fauna of the area, explaining how the forest has been formed over thousands of years. The impressive bunya pines, a long-time source of food for local Indigenous people, loom above the canopy. The tree's cones contain nuts similar to chestnuts and its status as a food source saw the area designated as a reserve until 1860.
Perfect way to end the day: Narrows Escape.
At this time, its protected status was removed, opening the way for land clearing and grazing. This lasted until 1945, when the region was declared a national park and the recovery has seen more than 600 species of plants and animals, many of them endangered, return to thrive again.
It's not a place for arachnaphobes to dwell at night, with Steve pointing out the tubular burrows of trapdoor spiders, with their hinged coverings, dug into the edges of the trail. Beneath one of the larger trees, we also note several holes surrounded by webs.
"Those are funnel webs," Steve tells us. We decide to move on quickly.
We stop off for a packed lunch at Flat Rock by the Obi Obi Creek, a tranquil spot where I'd be tempted to take a dip if the weather was a little warmer. From here, our final destination is the impressive falls for which the park is named. The water from Skenes Creek flows over a rockface here, falling 90 metres in a beautiful cascade.
Before heading to our accommodation, we stop at the nearby township of Montville for dinner. The tiny village of about 900 punches above its weight when it comes to food and wine, with several well-regarded cafes and restaurants in town and the nearby Flame Hill Vineyard offering local produce for lunch. We eat at Wild Rocket, a modern Australian spot that's part of local brewery Misty's and that offers fancier versions of pub favourites such as pork belly, lamb shanks and bangers and mash (see wildrocketfood.com.au)
From here, we head home for the evening at Narrows Escape. The retreat offers just six rooms – though they are actually all self-contained, private villas.
I'm told they are popular with couples and it's easy to see why – these secluded rooms in the rainforest are set some distance apart from each other, so there's no need to worry about your neighbours peeking in on you if you leave the blinds open while hitting the spa bath. The only peeping toms are likely to be bush turkeys.
And that's about as wild as I want to get at the end of the day.
Trip Notes
Hiking there
Tropical Treks runs a variety of guided walks around the Sunshine Coast hinterland. See tropicaltreks.com.au
Staying there
Rooms at Narrows Escape start from about $300 a night, depending on the length of stay. See narrowsescape.com.au
More
The writer travelled with assistance from Visit Sunshine Coast.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.