Tewantin to Brahminy

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STARTING from the centre of Tewantin, I hiked along the road over a low hill descending to the Noosa River. A long line of cars were waiting for the ferry, with numerous drivers reducing their tyre pressure ready for the busy Teewah Beach. There was no queue for hikers, so I headed straight onto one of the two cable ferries crossing the river. There has been some talk of putting a bridge across the river, but always meeting opposition as this lower part of the river was part of the unique Noosa Everglade wetlands.

I paid my dollar as the ferry loaded with vehicles and slowly crossed the river to the other side where an equally long queue of vehicles were waiting to return across the river. I hiked along the side of the road with a track being noticeably absent though most people hiking the Cooloola Great Walk would walk along here to or from Tewantin at this end of the track.

After about two kilometres following the sealed road through the forest, I reached a side road which I followed briefly before it ended at the southern end of the great walk. It will be all walking track from here.

The walk had started off sunny, but low cloud had by now completely covered the sky. I followed the track through the scrubby wetland forest acrid and burnt from a recent bushfire.

After rising over a very low hill, the track descended to cross a bridge over a small stream before coming out of the forest to cross a heathland swamp. The track was initially a narrow boardwalk over a couple of small streams before following what had once been a sandy firebreak road towards the beach now about a kilometre away. Much of this track was flooded with black swamp water due to a lot of rain falling earlier this week. Wherever the track was flooded though, a side track diverted around it through the heath.

Eventually I reached the beach road, crossed over and continued along the walking track over some low white sand dunes to reach the beach. A gentle sea breeze nicely cooled the air temperature as I descended down the steep bank to the wide beach. A family passed me heading towards Tewantin having almost completed the great walk from Rainbow Beach. Looking south along the beach I could see across the mouth of Noosa River to Noosa Beach and the forested headlands. Looking north the large hump of the Cooloola Sandmass rose above the beach tapering off to the north towards the hidden Double Island Point.

I followed the beach northward with the tide a fair way out. There were a lot of hoof prints and droppings from horses which often go through here. It was not long before I reached the Noosa North Shore Camping Ground. It was very full but I had made a booking for the next camping ground at Brahminy Walkers' Camp on the sandmass, still a long way away.

Once passed the camping ground, I reached a small stream where the great walk track followed upstream for a short distance before cutting through the thick scrub. I followed this crossing the vehicle entrance to the beach. Once across the road the track started winding its way around the speargrass covered dunes through an eerie forest of dead windswept trees.

The track continued for about eight kilometres over the dunes, sometimes going through dead forest, sometimes sheltered by dense scrubby forest, and sometimes passing through recently burnt forest. The dunes ran along a long strip between the busy beach and the vast heathland swamp of the Noosa Everglade. When the forest was thin, I could see across the everglade to the ridges of Wahpunga Range (which I had hiked along earlier this year) and the darker Mothar Mountain. The cloud gradually cleared to completely sunny blue sky.

I finally reached Teewah Village, the track rounding the back of it with little sign of the huts in the trees. I crossed over one high dune before steeply descending to Teewah Landing Road, a closed dirt track linking the village to Lake Cootharaba. From here the track started climbing the base of the Cooloola Sandmass initially passing around a small lake before reaching a junction from where it rose moderately as the sun fell low in the sky.

Rising on the sandmass it was not long before I started getting spectacular views across Lake Cootharaba and the flats of the everglade with the orange sun now getting low to the horizon. The track continued swinging around passing another junction to the top of Mount Seewah (which I was planning to do tomorrow). From here I continued along the main track passing a sign saying I was entering remote territory. The track continued through the scrubby forest rising to the top of the ridge and winding along it, at times reaching the edge of the sand cliff dropping to the beach about eighty metres below.

The ridge dropped a little as the sun set, and shortly after this I was on open heathland gradually rising along the top of the widening sandmass. The sky was quickly darkening, but I reached Brahminy Walkers' Camp before it was dark enough to require a torch.

There were several couples camping at Brahminy tonight, all hiking along the great walk heading northwards. I found a vacant campsite clearing and set up the tent to stay the night. It was a very clear night with Jupiter at its brightest and closest point for the year tonight.