Ewen Maddock and Cooloolabin Dams

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I WAS back out in the village just before first light, capturing the street lit buildings as blue light started filtering through the thick cloud of the overcast sky. The cloud parted in time for the golden light of the rising sun to filter through.

From Mooloolah, I headed back to Ewan Maddock Lake, heading up Tunnel Road to one of the side entrances the trail. The lake was full due to all the recent rainfall, and with the completion of the dam upgrade during which the lake had been drained to half capacity for about a year.

Parts of the track were boggy from having been flooded nearly two metre deep in the flooding earlier this year, and still far from drying out with the persistant rain of recent weeks. I followed the track going around one of the circuits before heading back to the dam and doing the boardwalk and circuit there. The track had survived all the rain very well.

From the dam I continued heading north back on the motorway up to Yandina and heading westward up Brown's Creek Road to an entrance into the northern end of Mapleton National Park. A gate blocked the access into the park along the Bottle and Glass Road. I walked along this dirt track rising moderately onto the range through the dense cedar forest charcoaled from a bushfire through here about a year ago.

As the track rose and followed the top of the ridge, it passed several breaks, all named after alcoholic beverages - Stout Break, Port Break, Brandy Break and Beer Break. The track rolled over the top of the 250 metre high Mount Bottle and Glass before descending a little. The descent was short lived though as the road started ascending steeply up the side of a rocky rise for about quarter of an hour before reaching the top of the ridge reaching a junction with the gravel road leading to Glorious Point a long way off to the right, and descending towards Lake Cooloolabin to the left.

Rain briefly fell out of the thickly overcast sky for a few minutes as I descended the road towards the lake. After another half an hour the dense bush, now rainforest, cleared to the shallows of the lake and a few houses on the outskirts of Cooloolabin Village.

I followed a track along the side of the lake, with parts being grassy dam walls between the natural outcrops blocking most of the lake. A gravel road followed above the track, heading across the front of the lake and towards Mapleton Forest Road which I had followed from the other direction about a week ago.

After following the track for about twenty minutes I reached the headlands where the track I had followed last week appeared. I followed this track to the lookout over the lake and rested here as the thick clouds passed overhead without any rain falling. I rested here for a while before starting the hike back towards Brown's Creek.

The hike back was a lot easier with just a short climb from the lake to the junction, then a long downhill stroll with Brown's Creek being at a much lower elevation than the lake. The track had been very quiet all day, but three people passed me as the moderately steep section near the end started. Rain started falling shortly afterwards as I descended towards the end of the track. Once back at the car moderate rain fell, so I stayed here watching the rain until the sky darkened with the somewhat uneventful sunset. It was almost completely dark when the three people I had seen earlier returned, with one small torch between them and no rain weather gear. They continued walking along the road no doubt being locals.