Lamington NP - Lost World though walk from Green Mt
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 15.51 mi
- Elevation gain
- 4,918 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 4,944 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,855 ft
- TrailRank
-
70
4.1
- Min elevation
- 3,855 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- one day 3 hours 5 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2132
- Uploaded
- September 17, 2013
- Recorded
- September 2013
near Darlington, Queensland (Australia)
Viewed 11426 times, downloaded 279 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
I conned the Mrs into an overnight hike traversing the Lost World massif from Green Mountain to see the flouring orchids and to get out of working around the house for the weekend. Access to the Albert River valley was gained by following the Morans falls track and around to Castle Crag for the first views. To descend the Castle Crag cliffs, drop down the steep northern grassy slopes 100m back from the end of Castle crag. However, only descend enough to follow the base of the cliffs around to join the ridge proper. This is harder than it sounds. The grassy slope is loose rocks camouflaged with long grass, considerable care and scrambling skills are required. On the ridge while descending to the Albert River, locate a suitable ridge to ascend to the lost world ridge (or follow my gpx). Accessing the river can be tricky due to lantana. Where we hit the stream and to the south seems to be the best. Further north the lantana thickens considerably. Cross the river and follow a grassy ridge steeply up to the ridge then follow this ridged south-east onto the Lost World plateau. There are two main cliff breaks and both can be negotiated on the eastern side with moderate scrambling. We left Green Mt at 1300 and with a slow descent off castle crag and ascent of the lost world ridge lead to us getting to camp an hour after dark. This a tough hike for the distance, allow a good 6 hours with through packs. There is a nice small camp for a few tents with running water at the top. However, water can not be guaranteed after long dry periods. There was a good water flow after a few months of dry weather. The course through the lost world and the upper ridge up to Mt Worendo is through thick rain forest or bush, all off-track. Good navigational skills are required. The Ridge from the lost world Mt Worendo was thick with flowing dendrobium orchids, the beginning of September would be optimal. From Mt Worendo follow the Boarder track to Echo Point camp and join the graded Albert River Circuit. If you have the energy I recommend turning left on the Albert river circuit to see the prettiest part of this circuit. However, this adds 5km and a heap of elevation loss and gain. The Mrs wasn't at all keen on this option.
Waypoints
Intersection
3,668 ft
Albert River Trail Head
Panorama
2,589 ft
Castle Crag Lookout
Panorama
3,235 ft
Echo Point
Campsite
3,317 ft
Echo Point Camp
Car park
3,079 ft
Green Mt
Campsite
2,454 ft
Lost World Mt Worwendo Saddle Camp
Summit
3,514 ft
Lost World Summit
Summit
3,839 ft
Mt Worendo
Comments (19)
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well done mate
Hey,
Thanks for putting this up. I did this hike over the weekend and I enjoyed it. It was challenging but fun. We took a fair bit more time to do the first day than your recommended time of 6 hrs. Though, I had 6 people along with me on the hike and we were travelling slowly with a few navigational mistakes.
No problem Stubot, glad you enjoyed the walk. If you are tempted to do it again I would highly recommend the alternate route up to black canyon. Did you see many flowering orchids or were you a little to early?
Hey, we were a bit too early. However, I could see what you were talking about. There was a huge number of orchids about, but none of them were flowering. It would be nice to see them in bloom.
Are there any other good walks you know of near Brisbane that you would Highly Recommend?
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5 did this Oct long weekend 2014. Took 3 days with Rat A Tat as the second night. A truly wonderful walk heaps of orchids in flower everywhere you looked. Brilliant !!!!
Just came back from doing this loop. Lot's of orchids, lantana :( , views, challenges.
Another fantastic "Shatkins weekend"!!!! :)
This is the third one this year for my boyfriend and I. We actually did the loop in reverse combining your hike with Marklav's.
Thank you sooooooo much again for posting and sharing your hikes.
Gaby and Andrew
Awesome Gaby, I was up there recently and got attacked by jumping ants at the camp site hope they didn't find you.
Ants were a problem in 2014, just next to that big tree down across the camp area east of the water spot.
Must have disturbed the nest. Not jumping but definitely aggressive and bitey.
No jumping ants luckily!!!
But we camped at the campsite between Mt Worendo and Mt Razorback. We didn't make it to the one on Lost World next to the creek. We started hiking after 10am on the Saturday.
We did end our hike with a couple of ticks each!!!!!!
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Did this loop over the weekend. Set off around 1pm Saturday afternoon and planned to overnight at the Lost World camp but I was caught in a storm just as I descended off Castle Crag; a good downpour, some hail, lots of lightning but fortunately out of most of the wind coming from the south I had check BOM weather warnings earlier in the morning but they predicted the storms tracking much more easterly. Wrong. They ended up wrecking havoc on on the Sunny Coast.
Anywho, no problems following the rest of the route on the sunny Sunday. Loved the ridge walks either end of the Lost World plateau, not so much the lawyer vine. Finished up at 5PM.
About 10 hours walking all up. I'd probably try this as one long day sometime.
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This is a great walk though very difficult due to the amount of lantana encountered on the southern side of the castle crag spur. This slowed us down substantially and the planned ascent on Mt Razorback had to be postponed for 12 hours - we didn't want to attempt the cliffs when it was dark. We camped at the boundary of the national park on the northern branch of the Albert River.
Also the trail along the northern side descent, off Castle Crag to its most westily point, was quite eroded in places. I reported this to the rangers at Green Mountains.
I would strongly suggest the inclusion of a couple of lengths of good rope - as you "should" as a standard part of your walking kit - to help negotiate the cliffs when you are carrying a full backpack. I also told my scouts by good rope I mean 6M of 6mm kernmantle. This can be purchased from most good outdoor stores. It can also be sourced from retailers who sell safety and rigging equipment.
Anyway, if you have good skills in navigation and happy to turn your back to the lantana to push your way through I highly recommend this walk.
God Bless
Warrigal
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Very difficult trail. Both because of the steepness of some sections (coming down off Castle Crag) and because of Navigation.Definitely doesn't see much traffic at all and there was not even a faint goat track for significant portions. Rain forest sections heavily overgrown making for a very slow pace.
That said: Wonderful views along the way and definitely a fun challenging hike to test your metal on.
Despite it being a very dry period (Nov 2019) the creek at Lost World Creek camp was flowing very well and in the future I would count on it as reliable.
Take the GPS Track and a way to view it on your phone, a Topo Map and a compass. Know how to use them.
Attempted this route on 14.3.20. My gf and I had to turn back whilst attempting the descent from Castle Crag, it is very steep and very crumbly, especially with overnight packs. Not a route for the feint hearted!
We instead approached from Mt Worendo, descending the ridge to the saddle. Still a tough hike through thick rainforest with loads of lawyer vine.
Weather predictions were inaccurate for our visit, it was surprisingly cold for mid March! Did the entire return in rain and strong wind, we were as soaked and cold when we returned to the carpark at 8.30pm.
If you wish to make a longer 3 day walk-don't take the Castle Crag start, head down to Luke's Bluff, then the Commando Trail , over Moran's Creek and toward saddle the Lost World. Rock hop up the right branch of the Albert River till yo get below the the Lost World saddle. Scramble up to the saddle camp site-with the option of taking water. Camp night there-in spring there are fireflies (as well as the orchids)!
Next day with day packs only, rock hop up the Albert (right branch) past Red Rock Gorge and to the incredible pool with Thunder and Lightning Falls- you may see a Lamington cray- back to Saddle that night.
Next day, up to and the Main Range-less difficult to navigate ascending- I managed in a white out???... yes, bizarre- but it was quite daunting on the flat sections in try rainforest , so a compass bearing at the start is a must, trying to stick to spine of the ridge.
Apart from that you will not ever do a more rewarding 3 day walk with wilderness, speccie views, rainforest gorge walking with magnificent waterfalls and the amazing plant and wildlife there.
Cheers. Easybeat.
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Great trail description, plan and accuracy (thanks!). We did this in October 2020. We found that significant erosion on Castle Crag meant we could not get onto the terraces and had to descend to Moran's Creek (we would not recommend the direct descent as a route as it has significant bluffs and down climbs on dry waterfall sections). We also found - to our great disappointment - that erosion on the superb western razorback of LW was degraded to the point where we were not comfortable carrying 18kg packs. We had climbed on the razorback 30,23,20 and 10 years ago (twice each) and this time regarded the section below (of?) the 1974 fatality to be rather sketchy due to loose rock and grass holds in dry dirt. Similarly, the path to the north of the first bluff has some collapsed sections where the only footholds are loose dirt on a 45 degree slope, and this a short 2-3m steep slide to vertical cliffs. We found the Castle Crag section (we were off route) and the western razorback (on route) to be significantly less safe - due to erosion - than Logan's Ridge on Barney. The "climbing" moves are not harder, but the exposure and increase of risk from loose rock, dirt and grass were greater. This in no way meant to be a criticism of the author of this well conceived and accurately recorded route. I will be interested to hear other walkers accounts of it in the future.
Following on from Barney and the plaque: Heather Easton was going to spend that fateful weekend with friends
on North Stradbroke Island.
However she decided to walk Lamington with her brother and friends. They descended into the Lost World from Mt. Worendo and camped in the saddle overnight.
Their intention was to head DOWN the northern razorback-perhaps it was morning mist or a stumble, but it is a difficult
ask getting down there. That is how Heather tragically fell.
I revisited the Lost World in 2016 after I had been there twice before. Relayed the story of Heather to my two friends who are Queenslander.
Turns out Jan, the wife of my mate Dom, was Heather's best friend in '74 (just finished school) and was the person she was to go to Straddy with!
Tragic trail and a grim reminder of the care to be taken when ascending/descending particularly with packs.
That is why these forums are so helpful and useful.
Cheers
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I followed this trail last weekend (11 Oct 2020) as a day walk with a mate. It's been very dry and we encountered the same erosion on Castle Crag that BarneyMaroon commented on, making the descent very difficult with lots slips and falls and time lost re-ascending to access the ridge from below Castle Crag. Similarly the ascent from the Western Razorback to the plateau was quite slippery with loose dirt under foot, in places almost like a sand-hill. The creek / spring on the plateau was reduced to a few still puddles.
The plateau itself is spectacular. In particular, the summit of Mt Razorback, a trackless Antarctic Beech forest, is worth the effort to get there despite the absence of views.
We ended up just past the summit of Mt Worendo when we lost the sun, which made progress to Echo Point quite challenging. If we didn't have Shatkins GPS file we'd probably have had to make it an overnighter. We finally located the trail about 500m from Echo Point.
Do-able in a day, but it wasn't an easy day, and I'd recommend avoiding the descent from Castle Crag as it is becoming quite treacherous.
TheRealForry: We finished the 3 dayer on Sunday (11th). Glad you didn't lap us - it could have got ugly. Also pleased that your take on the route regarding safety was similar - I was worried I was getting old and over-cautious.
srightsol: Thanks for info - certainly would really really not want to down climb that section now with a pack on. I also thought your April 2020 take on the route was a good suggestion (vastly improved by hindsight).
This Gps route should be removed. This is a potentially fatal route. I assessed the descent down from castle crag today and it is suicidal. I would confidently say the chance of slipping would be 50% to almost certain death. The slope consists unstable soil, loose dry grass with exposed cliffs. One slip and your dead or at best severely injured with a long walk through difficult, trackless terrain to effect a rescue. Do Not attempt to descend off the side of Castle Crag, there are other options to get to Lost World Plateau. 6 hrs for the total route, is ridiculous! More like two nights three days. Please take this route down before someone is killed.