When my brother Jim, was living in Brisbane in 2012, he learnt about a trail from the Mt Gravatt Lookout to Toohey Forest. We walked some of the trails in Toohey Forest together, but to our regret, we had never found time to find the longer track and then he was transferred back to Townsville.
It has been on my bucket list since and finally on Wednesday June 4, the Down Under hikers managed not to get lost and found the starting point in a pleasant park, at the base of Mt Gravatt Reserve.
There is a bitumen road that winds its way to the outlook and Echidna Cafe, but we headed into the bush on the dusty trail that soon had our heart rate increasing, as it wound its way up to the views of Brisbane.
It was a hazy view on this occasion, but the decision was made that when showing visitors Brisbane, it would be far more convenient to bring them here, rather than to Mt Cootha.
From here we descended on a track on the southern side of the reserve to the Griffith, Mt Gravatt Campus, with a further descent taking us to a tunnel under the Pacific Motorway to the Toohey Forest
trails. All in all we hiked 16 kms in Brisbane City, in bush, on a very hot winter's day. Rarely did the sound of traffic, spoil our enjoyment of our surroundings.
On our return to the car and to our coffee reward, we agreed with Jenny, that the sensible thing to do would be to drive up to the outlook and again enjoy the view as we relaxed. A fitting finale to another successful walk 'down under'.
How the day panned out:-
Ups and downs
Very little water
Controlled burning
Ruggedness
Balancing rocks
Sheer strength
Lots of nonsense
Hazy morning view
Smokey afternoon views
Agreement that hiking 'down under' is not difficult to take each week!
There is a bitumen road that winds its way to the outlook and Echidna Cafe, but we headed into the bush on the dusty trail that soon had our heart rate increasing, as it wound its way up to the views of Brisbane.
It was a hazy view on this occasion, but the decision was made that when showing visitors Brisbane, it would be far more convenient to bring them here, rather than to Mt Cootha.
From here we descended on a track on the southern side of the reserve to the Griffith, Mt Gravatt Campus, with a further descent taking us to a tunnel under the Pacific Motorway to the Toohey Forest
trails. All in all we hiked 16 kms in Brisbane City, in bush, on a very hot winter's day. Rarely did the sound of traffic, spoil our enjoyment of our surroundings.
On our return to the car and to our coffee reward, we agreed with Jenny, that the sensible thing to do would be to drive up to the outlook and again enjoy the view as we relaxed. A fitting finale to another successful walk 'down under'.
How the day panned out:-
Ups and downs
Controlled burning
Hidden faces
Peaceful, well earned rests
Lots of nonsense
Hazy morning view
Smokey afternoon views
Agreement that hiking 'down under' is not difficult to take each week!
Thank you for dropping by. Do say hello and leave a comment.
Glad you got to hike this trail, and are able to share your journey with us!
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda. It was one of the more strenuous of our recent walks, so our calf muscles complained the next day.
ReplyDelete