I got an early start to the O'Reilly entrance of Lamington National Park. The drive was memorable to say the least; the road was single lane in many places with countless blind hairpins along the steep grade. As I climbed from the valley bottom, the landscape changed from dry deciduous forest to lush rainforest.

O'Reilly's was a lovely retreat centre with colour birds noisily congregating everywhere I looked. The sun was trying to peek through the mist as I chatted with the volunteer at the visitor centre; his recommendation was that I do the 17.5km circuit to Toolona Falls and return along the Border Track. 

My first stop along the trail was a small detour to Elabana Falls.

The trail followed the creek for quite a distance, offering occasional viewpoints of other waterfalls along the way.

Coming up the trail from one of the waterfalls, I was startled by a Lamington Spiny Crayfish clicking and snapping at me. The trail kept gaining elevation into temperate Antarctic Beech forest towards an escarpment that was fully obscured in the heavy mist and rain. As the trail flattened out, my pace increased to a steady run. It was definitely preferred to hike this trail clockwise, as the second half was much easier and gently downhill. 

Here is the video recap of the hike:

At sunset, I headed over to Rosin's viewpoint to take a photo as the clouds cleared.