We left Surfer's Paradise at around 7:20am. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff to do today since Brisbane was our next destination, and it wasn't that far away from the Gold Coast area.

So we thought that on the way to Brissie, we could make a quick stop to Mt Tamborine National Park. It was supposedly the first national park gazetted in Queensland so we thought some of the waterfalls here must be good. I couldn't wait!

It was still Mother's Day weekend so we expected the picnic areas to be a little busy (if yesterday was any indication).

At 8:10am, we arrived at the car park for Cameron Falls. As we had predicted, there were already quite a few cars here (though there were plenty more spaces left to fill).

We immediately got started on the walk after examining the signs to see if we did indeed arrive at the right place (which was the case). But before we descended down into the 1-hour return trail, we took a look at the panorama along with other onlookers.

Afterwards, we proceeded to walk into a well-forested path. It was a sunny day but the shade from the forest kept us from getting too sweaty.

Nearly thirty minutes later, we got to a lookout platform providing both a panoramic view as well as a view of Cameron Falls. We were somewhat looking against the sun, but the falls had disappointing flow. But we figured disappointing waterfalls were nothing new considering our last trip to Australia. So it was time to put this one behind us and move on to the next one.

At 9:15am, we returned to the car park and proceeded to head to Witches Falls. About 15 minutes later, we were at the car park for Witches Falls, but given the disappointing flow of Cameron Falls and the length of this walk (at least an hour), we decided to pass on it.

So we slowly made our way towards Brisbane, but I thought it would be a shame to visit only one disappointing waterfall in the Mt Tamborine area. So we went looking for Curtis Falls, which we saw from postcards was a short waterfall but had nice scenery and character. Unfortunately, we managed to miss its trailhead during our drive.

Disappointed, we figured we'll just check out Cedar Creek Falls, which we saw was on the way to Brisbane from where we were at on your GPS software.

At 10am, after overshooting the turnoff, we finally got to the car park for the falls. Fortunately for us, someone pulled out of a parking spot just as we got there. I say we were lucky because the parking lot was packed! I guess Mother's Day weekend is taken quite seriously in these parts.

Anyways, we went past the throngs of people picnicking and BBQ'ing (that smell of grilled meat really made us hungry) and quickly made our way towards the viewing platforms of Cedar Creek Falls.

Unfortunately, our views of the falls were disappointing because either trees were blocking our line of sight or the hill got in the way. Meanwhile the view from the very top wasn't that great (as expected). We could've gotten better views if it weren't for the extension of the restricted access area.

I'm sure the authorities had their reasons for extending the restricted access area so we opted to settle for our subpar views and returned to the car park by 10:30am.

We were a little waterfalled out at this point of our Australia-leg of the trip (we were going to Africa in another week and a half) so we figured perhaps we'll make a brief visit to JC Slaughter Falls in Brisbane and then call it a day (in a waterfalling sense).

At 11:40am, we made it through the city traffic and arrived at the busy Mt Coot-tha Reserve. Indeed, like other parks this weekend, this one was quite full with Mother's Day picnickers.

We eventually found a car park spot near the JC Slaughter Falls trailhead.

From there, we walked past the picnickers, followed the signs, and eventually made it to the falls.

Unfortunately, JC Slaughter Falls was bone dry! I knew it was a bad sign when we didn't hear any water in the neighboring creeks. I guess it wasn't meant to be despite there being heavy rains and floods during the Australian summer. Indeed, it was reminiscent of that feeling we got going to a dry waterfall in Victoria two years ago.

We returned to the car shortly after noon and checked into the hotel in the CBD of Brisbane about a half-hour later. As planned earlier, we decided to call it day for waterfalling and just enjoy the city (even though we knew many places were going to be closed with this being a Sunday).

We were going over 700km north to the beef capital of Australia - Rockhampton. So we knew it was going to be a long day of driving. We figured we might stop by a couple of waterfalls along the way, but if the hikes were too long, then we might be pushing our luck in terms of arriving at Rockhampton before dinner (and more importantly before it gets dark and the kangaroos are out).

At 8:45am, we made it to the Mapleton Falls car park, which was quite a bit of a detour inland from SH1. With this waterfall, it was merely another one in a string of the rather disappointing waterfall sightings continued from yesterday. Indeed, this waterfall had a disappointing viewpoint from its top with apparently no official way to get to the bottom of it by trail. It was too bad because this waterfall was quite tall, but the view from the lookout platform was impacted by a tree that happened to grow next to the waterfall which blocked the line of sight. It was definitely a difficult waterfall to view.

20 minutes later, we were back in the car and proceeded to head towards Kondalilla Falls thinking our luck might be better over there.

At 9:20am, we were at the quiet car park for Kondalilla Falls. The GPS software was off in guiding us to this falls so I was glad I followed the signs instead of listening to the software in this instance.

Julie and I spent a few minutes walking on the trail before a sign caught our attention. Apparently, there was construction work being done on the trail and it prevented us from getting to the best view of the falls. I guess it was just bad timing and it wasn't meant to be for us. Chalk this up to another one in the string of disappointing waterfall sightings...

At 9:40am, we were back in the car and proceeded to backtrack to the SH1 then continue north towards Rockhampton. It was pretty much a featureless drive and there were plenty of moments where traffic was stopped for road construction. But those delays were never too severe (maybe 15 minutes tops).

We picked up a lunch of crab sandwich and beef/oyster meat pie at Gin Gin a little after 1pm. That provided some much needed energy.

At 4:25pm, after nearly 7 hours on the road, we finally made it to our accommodation in Rockhampton.

Since Rocky was north of the Tropic of Capricorn boundary, it definitely felt warmer and a bit more tropical in these parts. There were even a few pockets of thundershowers.

Fatigued from the long day of driving, we looked forward to trying the famous beef in a nearby restaurant. The portions were huge and the dollar was weak. So sharing our main was a no-brainer. It still stuffed us nonetheless!

The uneventful drive went on for almost the next 5 hours. We kept ourselves busy listening to Triple J to pass the time. By now, we were quite used to listening to the brekkie team and then mornings with Zan Rowe afterwards.

When we weren't listening to Triple J, Julie and I struggled with whether we should take the inland detour to see the Wheel of Fire Falls and the Araluen Cascade. We were still a little waterfalled out so whether or not to head straight for Airlie Beach (skipping the waterfalls on the way) was still a hard decision to make.

Eventually, we managed to seize the moment and take the detour inland to the Finch-Hatton Gorge. It looked like it had rained when we got into the reserve. With a pair of minor stream crossings and some muddy spots, I was a little worried about getting stuck here if we happened to be caught in a downpour. There were rain clouds surrounding the area. Even still, the car park was quite busy for a place as obscure as this!

Just before noon, we started walking. We expected to be here for a couple of hours, but with the threatening rain, I hoped we wouldn't be here for much longer than that. Nonetheless, it was a bit hot and humid here and the rains (at least the threat of them) would cool things down.

The songs from the birds in the forest kept us entertained. One sounded like a flute. Another sounded like it was shooting lasers or something!

About 20 minutes into the hike, we reached a fork. But before we entertained any thoughts of continuing towards the Wheel of Fire Falls, we were met by a closure sign and barricade. Apparently, the floods from the summer monsoons made trail conditions a bit dangerous. Chalk that up to yet another disappointment in a string of disappointments!

So we salvaged a visit to the much smaller (but still pretty) Araluen Falls.

By 12:50pm, we were back at the car. It started raining hard at this time.

As we left the Finch-Hatoon Gorge, Julie and I were famished and had ourselves some award-winning meat pies at the Pinnacle Hotel. The pies were very good but also very hot. We had a hard time trying not to burn our mouths as we ate.

After our hearty lunch, we tried to find our way back to SH1. However, somehow we missed a turn and we kept going around in circles past some road construction near a single-lane bridge. I'm sure the workers there recognized us after seeing us pass by three times!

Finally at 3:50pm, we arrived at our motel in Airlie Beach. With still some daylight left in the day, we quickly unpacked our belongings and got back in the car 15 minutes later intending to see Cedar Falls, which was nearby.

A little after 4:30pm, we arrived at the car park for Cedar Falls. There, we met a group of Germans who had swum there and were on their way out. That was about all that broke the silence because the falls weren't flowing (well, it was trickling).

Yet another disappointing waterfall. I guess the recent rains didn't do much for this one.

At least we were comforted by the thought that we were going to take a break from waterfalling and relax on a Whitsunday excursion tomorrow.