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Gold coast great walk vs Binna burra day trek

PostPosted: Sun 15 Apr, 2018 6:49 pm
by reneescott1990
Hi all,
I am looking to do 2-3 days of hiking over the long weekend in the orielys, binna burra, springbrook region.

I am weighing up several possible itineraries and was hoping to get some opinions on what will be best.

Firstly, is the great walk from orielys to springbrook worth doing? I have tried to find reviews online which mention a long hike along a road in the sun? I am also lacking to find any transport option that doesnt involve dropping a vehicle at the other end driving to the start and then back again to collect the first car from the finish. Seems rather time consuming, though I enjoy one way hikes over several days, having done a few in NZ.

This brings me to my second option which would involve walking the border trail from orielys to binna burra spending the night, doing the ship stern circuit the following day, staying a second night, then hiking back to orielys on the border trail. My concerns for this would be the third day/return not being great as having already walked the trail on day one.

Option 3 involves basing myself out of binna burra camping for 3 nights and doing the coomera circuit on day 1 and the ships stern circuit on day 2. the advantage of this would be that I could bring a larger tent and equipment and not have to hike it with me! I was wondering if you would consider both of these hikes good options? I am unable to reserve camping for 1 night of the trip. Are there any options for bush camping, just pitching a small tent in the shrubbery for that night?

Any opinions on the above 3 options would be so greatly appreciated, especially your experiences with the great walk! Thank you so much again, Renee

Re: Gold coast great walk vs Binna burra day trek

PostPosted: Sun 15 Apr, 2018 9:51 pm
by Champion_Munch
Have not done the great walk, but by all accounts it's pretty unnecessary as the day walks from Springbrook, Binna Burra and O'Reilly's visit all the major features already. If you do the walk, you will probably find the most enjoyable parts can be accessed more easily on day trips anyway.

2nd option could be more interesting by doing it like this:
D1 - O'Reilly's to Binna Burra (via Toolona Creek Circuit)
D2 - Day walk Ships Stern (+side trips - Lower Ballanjui Falls and Dave's Creek both worth doing)
D3 - Binna Burra to O'Reilly's (via Coomera Falls Circuit)
If you prefer to camp away from the hordes, there are bush camping options near the graded track (e.g. at Bithongabel and Echo Point). You could string circuits to visit various features without needing to stay at the major campsites.

3rd option is also good, as you say there are so many excellent day trips from there it's hard to go wrong.

Re: Gold coast great walk vs Binna burra day trek

PostPosted: Mon 16 Apr, 2018 11:49 pm
by dis
If you are comfortable with off-track navigation, you could always return to O’reilys via the middle ridge traverse. This will also allow you to visit fountain falls on the way through.

Binna Burra => gwongoril pool => nowingbil lookout => fountain falls => West Canungra creek => oreilys.

Long day, but do-able. Might recommend doing this on day 1 in reverse then return via the border track on day 3.