We arrived at Springbrook Settlement campground around 15:30 and our pre-booked campsite 8 gave us ample room for our trailer set up. Especially because most of the bollards had previously been removed by someone. Although it was a fine day, we knew that this would change overnight, so we set up complete wet weather formation. This was our first attempt at it and it took about 45 minutes. We were pretty happy with that as it included awning (on both sides of the trailer) and the ensuite (sounds a bit poxy, but we are getting posh in our old age). It was only after we read the park sign that we realised that camper trailers are only allowed in campsite 1 to 4. No idea why, but it had not been an option for us as they were already booked, although 3 out of the 4 were no-shows (I guess this is a disadvantage of having to book online). Not to worry, if the ranger came and told us we shouldn't camp here with a camper trailer, we would just play stupid, which is not that hard for me to do.
It was a beautiful evening with lots of wildlife ranging from pheasants, magpies, little finches, a friendly bandicoot, bush turkeys, and lots more.
After a couple of relaxing drinks, we crashed and were woken early in the morning by light rain. By the time we dragged ourselves out of bed it was raining quite steadily and we were happy to see that our set up worked quite well.
Until Kerrie lowered the tent flap that was full of water onto our mattress. I already was looking forward to sleeping on a waterbed this night.
I was looking forward to my first cup of coffee only to find out that for some absurd reason Endura was mixed in my sugar. I guess it was the ultimate sports dring i.e. coffee with Endura. But the taste was pretty average. Luckily we found a couple of sugar sachets that got me over the line.
Breakfast we cooked at the picnic area and the sausages, bacon, mushroom, and eggs went down very well.
We were going to postpone our "The Cream Track" walk until Kerrie looked up the radar, telling me that the rain would have passed by 11:00. It should have rung a bell when we left at 11:30 and it was still bucketing down. But as my dad says: "rain only hurts you when you are made out of sugar". So we started the, at times slippery descent, down "The Cream Track". The track is well marked through beautiful forest scenery across streams and through ferns. Although we had good raincoats, everything else was totally drenched after 30 minutes.
When we reached the 3km mark after over one-hour walking, we decided to head back and leave the rest for another day. This is when Kerrie noticed her first two leaches on her hands. Kerrie and leaches don't mix well, not that Kerrie is worried about them, but she breaks out in big blotches where they were attached. We got back to the car meeting some cool (literally) cattle on the way.
By this time the wind had picked up considerably and the rain was blowing sideways.
For some reason, Kerrie didn't want our wet bodies in the car and wanted us to change into dry clothes. Kerrie went to the toilet block, but I hate changing in the toilets and as there was no one in the car park I decided to change beside the car. I still had my raincoat on and just had dropped my daks and was about to change my underwear, when a large family group came around the corner. I dived for the car, slammed the door and covered myself with a towel. The family proceeded to get into the car right beside ours and just sit there. So I just sat there, unable to move. Luckily the windows started to fog up. Not long after Kerrie appeared after getting changed and had a go at me for getting into the car with my wet raincoat. But she soon saw my dilemma and provided cover for me to finish getting changed. In the meantime, Kerrie also had found more leaches on herself. This day was not going to end well.
It was still bucketing down and I was hanging for a coffee, but I like sugar and all we had at the campsite was Endura. As there are no shops Kerrie came up with the idea to go to a local coffee shop for a caffeine and hot chocolate hit.
Arriving at a coffee shop packed with pretty city folk in their finery, we stood out looking like two drowned rats. Especially Kerrie got weird looks, but she just smiled back at them. This is when I realised that the bottom of her neck was covered in blood and it was running down the front of her shirt. Obviously, she missed that leach. After a quick clean up with some napkins our coffee and hot chocolate arrived.
With the wind now even stronger, I was getting a bit worried what our campsite was going to be like, but to our surprise, everything was all holding up pretty good. Kerrie ended up with a count of 8 leaches being attached to her and I only had one on my boot. Obviously, Kerrie must have nicer blood. But for some reason, the ticks liked me better. I ended up with three of them.
For dinner, we were joined by a friendly Potoroo. We were now fully rugged up with the temperature sitting below 13 degrees and soon were fast asleep. The bed actually dried out pretty good and I didn't even notice the wet. We were hammered with rain and wind for the first part of the night but woke up to a beautiful clear sunny morning.
After a leisurely breakfast, we went on the Purling Falls circuit, which was closed after you reached the falls due to a landslide, but it was still a nice outing with the waterfalls full to capacity.
Unfortunately, we had to pack up and head back to reality, but armed with another great experience.
Note: If you would like to do "The Cream Track" you have to register on this website http://www.thecreamtrack.com.au/
We started from the top and it is pretty much all downhill (for at least the first 3km). The track is pretty well defined and when we did it there was lots of pink tape marking the trail. As we didn't finish the walk we don't know how long it actually is, but I believe it is about 5km one way, so leave enough time to get back up again.
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
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