Wallum Heathland Wildflowers

It's the best time of the year to enjoy the beautiful wildflowers that bloom in late winter on our Wallum Heathland. Some of the best areas for walks on the Sunshine Coast to enjoy the wildflowers are Marcus Dunes, and Mooloolah National Park.
Mooloolah National Park has a couple of entrances, one of them is off Kawana Way near the Mooloolah river. The park has several signposted trails, it is usually a bit wet underfoot, but as it has not rained in about a month, we only encountered one boggy section.
We were rewarded for our early morning start with a profusion of wildflowers everywhere.

                                                                       Vanilla Lilly

These were tipped with early morning dew and made for great photos. It took twice as long to do our usual circuit, but we certainly came home with a great set of pictures.

                                                                    Common Sundew

As flowers in Australian nature often very subtle, this is certainly a great opportunity to see a profusion in colour in the Bush.

                                                                    Wallum Dampiera

 Don't miss out as the wildflower season doesn't last long, get out there and enjoy!

Ewen Maddock Dam Track one

Ewen Maddock dam, what a beautiful area. We are so lucky to have walking tracks around this water reservoir. We decided to follow track one, as described in our ebook on Cd " Sunshine Coast Bush Walks" 52 of the most beautiful walks on the sunshine coast, page 64.
The track starts at the rest area off Mooloola Connection Road.
It was a wet day, but that did not matter. Often our best walks are done in the rain and it certainly does not stop us. A poncho seems to be the best wet weather gear as it it as great way to also cover your backpack if you are carrying one.
Track one follows the edges of the dam and gives you beautiful view across the water all the way to the glasshouse mountains.

There are many photo opportunities along the track and the area is rich with birdlife.
When there has been a lot of rain, which is the case at the moment, you may find some water across a causeway, but this is easily forded.

Once we reached the metal gates at Ford Road we return the same way.
We decided to take the trouble to drive on to the delightful little town of Mooloolah where we had our coffee and cakes at the Thunderbird Cafe.

Gheerulla recreation area to Gheerulla creek

A couple of week ago we decided that due to the hot weather it would be great to choose a walk that was cool and shady. We chose the above walk on page 24 of our ebook available from our website: http://sunshinecoastbushwalks.com
Access is through Gheerulla Recreation area in Mapleton National Park. The area on one side of the Creek is used by trail bikes, but when you cross the creek bike traffic should be minimal. As we had such a wet summer the creek was the fullest we had ever seen it, but we managed to hop skip and jump over the rocks to the other side to start our walk.

Once across it was an easy walk along the edge of Gheerulla creek, staying to the left, past the turnoff to Thilba Thalba, a walk we shall have to do in winter as it's a bit of a climb.

The track edges closer to and moves further away from the water, in places following the hillside past tall grasstrees and other times you can stop and rest your feet in the cool water as it flows past rocks and big boulders.

As it was already quite hot at 8am we decided not to do the full walk, but turn back halfway down the track and were back at the car at 9am, ready for a coffee at  Berkelouw cafe in the center of Eumundi.

This bushwalk is definitely our most favourite and highly recommended.

"Short Walks on the Sunshine Coast" now available as an ebook download

The bushwalking book "Short walks on the Sunshine Coast" written by Claudia Williams, Heather Powell and Elizabeth Vacher is now available as an iphone and ipad download via blurb books for $ 5.99
In full colour, with easy to follow directions and handy maps, it is a great way to discover all the Sunshine Coast Queensland has to offer in the way of half hour to hourly walks. Perfect for young families or people short on time that still want to enjoy nature and get away from it all. Press the preview link to see the first 15 pages or purchase by clicking on the booklet itself.

Short Walks on...

A bushwalking guide...

By Claudia Williams,...

Book Preview

Climbing Mount Coolum

The track up Mount Coolum has recently been renovated as negotiating the basalt flow rock formation halfway to the top was hairy to say the least! As this track is very popular with local families, I am sure everyone has been very happy with the improvements. The track up the steeper sections of the hill has been beautifully redone in attractive stone work to withstand whatever the weather might throw at the mountain. Of course once at the top, the view has not changed and is as expansive as ever.

Walking up the first section it is advisable not to stand still as I did to take a couple of photos of a duck in a tree of all things, as the mozzies were fierce!.

However once cleared of the forest  the mosquitoes disappeared. This walk gets quite busy and it is advisable to either start very early or leave the walk till later in the day.
Happy hiking from the Sunshine Coast Bushwalks team!

EMU MOUNTAIN

The weather looked a bit threatening, but we decided to do a walk up Mount Coolum as we heard that the track had been changed. When we arrived at the start of the walk at about 7am (I know, that's late for us, I don't know what happened !) there were about 20 cars parked near the entrance of the walk, well we're used to seeing no one on our walks, we've been spoilt, so we decided to change to Emu mountain instead.

There, to our delight was no one! 

The start to the walk had slightly changed, the road is now a cul de sac, and to park you'll need to turn left onto a concrete driveway at the end of the road as described on our CD:

52 of the best walks on the Sunshine Coast available from our website: www.sunshinecoastbushwalks.com.

It didn't take long to get to the top, but the view was great especially on a day when it was overcast: 

the light was great!

We could see the whole range of mountain peaks of the area from where we were: 

Mount Ninderry, Mount Coolum, Mount Cooroy, Point Glorious and Mount Tinbeerwah.

Coming back down we started spotting a whole lot of flowers we hadn't seen going up, busy as we were with the track. The flowers were small as is usually the case in australia, but beautiful and delicate.

The walk is great to take the kids on as it is not too demanding, the top is also a great whale watching spot during whale migrating season in July August.

We finished the morning with a coffee at the Coffee Club in Coolum opposite the caravan park.

Buderim Palmwoods Heritage Tramway Walk

This short walk (3.2 kms return) is a little gem and perfect for these hot days as it is in the shade and not very long, perfect for a stroll in nature with the kids or the dog in the early morning or late afternoon.
The start is at Telco Road in Buderim. The entrance to the walk has an impressive wheelchair access ramp, and there is a sign that dogs on lead are allowed.
The track is part of a tramway that ran from Buderim to Palmwoods in  early 1900 and has been lovingly restored and maintained by volunteers. It has recently been extended and the entrance now has a great information board and picnic tables and sheltershed.
There are benches along the way to have a rest and take in the history of the track and the lovely surrounds.

Allow at least about 1 hour return for this walk.