Jumanji in the Jungle
Or Maybe It Just Felt Like That
Normally, I write about travel experiences to encourage you to travel to a destination or promote a specific experience. This essay is just a funny story about a recent camping trip that I wanted to share with you. It is mostly comprised of the raw words from my travel journal, rather than an edited version more suitable for a travel guide. I hope it makes you laugh as much I did.
One of the things I like best about Australia is the great friends I have there. When I was younger, I was part of a university exchange program that had me studying at Griffith University in Brisbane. After only one year, I made such incredible friends that they are some of my dearest friends, almost forty years later.
As part of my recent ten weeks in Australia, my Brisbane friends decided to go camping at O’Reilly’s Campground in the UNESCO World Heritage Lamington National Park. This story is about that experience.
The camping weekend was booked six weeks ahead and included eleven friends, mostly from our university group back in 1986.
My friend Karen and I were booked into a glamping-style safari tent with a wooden floor. It came equipped with beds and bedding, chairs, and electricity, and it turned out to be surprisingly spacious once we stepped inside. The others in the group had booked regular campsites but with rain expected, they also switched to safari tents. It was a good decision.
The weekend was supposed to be fun, with laughter, campfires, and an incredible view from the mountain.
But this year in Queensland, Mother Nature decided to have a different agenda. She decided to not just rain, but to release torrential, record-breaking, inland lake-creating rain as well as Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Brisbane. (Several months later, it is still raining in Australia!)
The week prior to the trip, I kept looking at the weather forecast wondering if the camping experience would go ahead.
Late Friday morning, I received word from the group that it was still a go and we would make the most of it. All eleven of us were willing to embrace nature and have a fun weekend.
Since I was staying in Surfer’s Paradise, Karen from Brisbane would pick me up along the way. The plan was for her to leave Brisbane around 1:30 PM, pick me up on the Gold Coast around 3 PM and proceed to the campground. We expected to arrive around 4:30 PM, just in time for “happy hour”.
With it being a rainy Friday afternoon; however, traffic leaving the city was horrendous and we did not leave the Gold Coast until almost 5:30 PM.
We set the name of the campground into the GPS device and proceeded to follow directions. We arrived at the destination by 7:15 PM only to discover, that where we were was not the final destination. We were slightly lost. We still needed to climb up the mountain to the campground.
By now, it was dark, still raining and now foggy. Visibility had decreased and both of us just wanted to get there. We were tired of the drive and the reduced visibility. And our bladders were starting to ache. Our pre-dinner cocktails and snacks had been enjoyed without us and now we just wanted to get to the campground.
Once we realized we were lost, we called another friend who advised us that we were still forty-five minutes away and the worst of the drive was yet to come.
That was an understatement!
For those forty-five minutes, the uphill road was wet, dark, winding, and foggy. In many areas, the road was barely one lane wide, with dramatic cliffs on either side although we could not see them. Perhaps this was best. We drove between 20 and 40km/h as we inched up the twisting side of the mountain. Periodically, toads and rats ran across the road in front of us causing us to startle. It made us feel like we were in some sort of edition of Jumanji where different levels of surprise and challenges would jump out at us.
The further up the mountain we climbed, the more jungle-like the rainforest became. The large gum trees hugged the side of the road and made the drive a bit scary due to the hairpin turns, blind corners and switchbacks. If it wasn’t the trees on the side of the road, it was rocks.
Signage throughout the drive contained various warnings of rockfalls, kangaroos crossings, water on road and on-coming traffic. There were some sections where the road width was reduced due to a previous rock slide destroying the other half of the road! Luckily, my friend had a sporty car that hugged the roads so it made the drive feel slightly less treacherous. Still, every corner made me cringe and the fear of skidding over the cliffs at the next bend was terrifying!
As we got closer to the destination, the roads became even narrower with vines hanging from the lower branches, brushing the car in some areas. In the dark, it felt like the car was a ball zig-zagging through the trees trying not to bounce from right to left. The gum trees became the guidance markers for the road, there was no room for error. A little too fast or a turn too wide and we would be wedged in the middle of the road, blocking escape or rescue from anyone else.
At almost 8PM, we were very tired and silly and started giggling at ridiculousness of the rainy, foggy, twisting roads. On the final stretch, the song “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac came on the radio and the two of us burst out laughing. The beginning bars of the song sound like tribal drums playing making it ironic as we drove in the depths of the rainforest at that precise time. We wondered if this weekend was a test and what else would be thrown our way.
Eventually we arrived at the campground in one piece and looked forward to our stay in a safari tent. To our relief, the tents were very comfortable although the steep, slippery path to get to the tent was just as adventurous as the drive. Visions of us sliding “ass-over-tea-kettle” made us more giddy than we were in the car. We knew that once we were settled, our nerves would relax and we could enjoy our stay and our friends company.
The remainder of the evening was spent with our group of friends reminiscing about university days and treasuring the fact that we have maintained such close relationships for almost forty years. It just goes to show you what you can achieve if you put the phones down and talk to the people around you. Without making an effort all those years ago, this fantastic experience could not have happened.
Sleeping in the tent was a wonderful experience and waking up listening to the sounds of the jungle birds was very special. Rainbow Lorikeets, Crimson Rosellas, and Australian King Parrot were just some of the birds in the forest. The constant drivel of rain was not as much fun, but I suppose it drowned out any other sounds of the rainforest.
We were hoping the rain would let up the next day to give us the famed views from this vantage point. But alas, no such luck. Rain and fog shrouded anything that lay beyond a couple hundred feet.
In the afternoon, the time had come to say our goodbyes to our friends and start the trek down the mountain. My friend and I decided that we wanted to do this drive in the daylight this time.
But I’m not sure if the drive was any better!
In the daylight, we could see the road, but we could also see the deathly cliff edges! One wrong move or a slip would send us careening off somewhere several hundred metres below, ping-ponging between tree tops. Although we could see the road, were were slower at recognizing the oncoming cars at the last minute. At least in the dark, the cars headlights gave us warning of the impending vehicle and time to prepare and move further to the side of the road.
The surprises of our jungle drive kept coming as we descended.
Our tally was three waterfalls streaming across the road, two wallaby’s daring us to skid to a stop if they darted out in front of us, and two minor rockfalls that were not there the previous day when we drove up. As we drove around the remnants, I hoped the remainder of the mountain stayed where it was and would not create a new slide as we drove through.
The final challenge was a closed road due to raging flood waters over the bridge. As they say in Queensland, “If it’s flooded, forget it!” We quickly turned around and asked the GPS to find an alternate route back to the city.
Once we made it down the mountain and back onto the highway, we both let out a sigh of relief and felt proud of ourselves. We braved camping in the rainforest through the rain and conquered our own Jumanji-style challenges.
But, in spite of the obstacles, the weekend turned out to be one of the best and most unforgettable outdoor adventures I’ve ever had.
Have you had an experience that was both wonderful and terrifying at the same time?
Enjoyed that 😀 What an adventure 😜 Love 'Tusk' by the way!
What a trip!