Stairway Falls (Lamington National Park)

It is summer in Queensland and with the recent rain we've had, what else is there to do other than seek out waterfalls and swimming holes. Kerrie into action and we have a plan. Not your normal kind of plan (as usual) but a good one. The plan was to walk part on and part off-track in Lamington NP.

We left the car close to the Duck Creek Road turnoff (about 2 km from O'Reilly's) and planned to go down Bull Ant spur. As soon as we left the road we were on track following the pink tape. But not all roads lead to Rome, or in this case 'Yerralahla' (blue pool), which was our first destination. The tape was not following the spur, and we had to make an early adjustment to get back onto course. Once on Bull Ant spur proper, going was quite easy with a steady downhill for about 2.4 km to 'Yerralahla'. The blue pool water looked inviting, but we decided to only stop for morning tea before heading 2kms downstream towards Stairway Falls.

We tried to follow the old track to the left of the creek but soon found it easier and more interesting in the creekbed. Instead of trying to keep dry feet, Kerrie decided, stuff it, it is much easier just going straight through and not worry about wet feet. I opted for trying to keep my feet dry, not sure for how long or how wise this was going to be. With water levels up, walking was fun, Kerrie sloshing through the water and me trying to rock hop. Occasionally we picked up the old track on either side of the creek, which definitely was easier going.

It took us about 1.5 hours to walk down the creek (from 'Yerralahla'), but we were blown away by Stairway Falls. They were in full swing providing two levels of swimming holes. Of course, we had to use both pools and we spent quite a bit of time there also having lunch. We were the only people there and only met one other guy, going the other way, on our way down.

Knowing we had quite a bit of a hike back we reluctantly left the falls and traversed back up the creek, which now was a lot faster, as we knew better route choices. It only took us just over one hour to get back to the 'Yerralahla' blue pool swimming hole. And yes, I kept my feet dry. From here it was 5kms uphill on a graded walking track. We passed a few more waterfalls before popping out at O'Reilly's. To complete our loop we had to walk another 2kms along the road to get back to our car.

This had been a most enjoyable walk including amazing sights and swimming. Perfect for a hot summer's day.