Piles Creek Loop

On Sunday we drove down to Giarrakool Picnic ground in Brisbane Water National Park to do a short walk. Unfortunately I had not read that the park gates shut at 5pm, and we arrived at 3pm to start a 2hour walk. On top of that, the main purpose of going walking was to take some photos. I was pretty angry. Well, very angry. Angry at the park for shutting so early in summer (especially with daylight savings!!) and at "hooligans" who are probably the reason the park needs to shut at night anyway.
I spent almost 2kms of the walk crashing, stomping and running my way through the track. Taking my fury out on any stray foliage that dared cross my path. It is a pretty steep and rocky track, and a lot of it was covered in leaf litter. Meaning I nearly slid off the edge of the track, or did slid off and into a tree, numerous times. When we reached Piles Creek crossing I vented my frustration and then managed to calm down enough to take a few quick photos before we had to keep moving so we didn't get locked in the park. There were tonnes of fish in the creek, easily visible from the surface, but hard to take photos of. You can just see their outlines in the bottom right corner on the photo below.

The suspension bridge over piles creeek

Depending on where you read your information, the time for the walk can be anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours (as usual with New South Wales). I usually look up walks on the wild walks website because it has the most detailed and realistic information. Sadly, it mostly only covers walks close to Sydney. It suggested 2 hours and I think this is reasonable, we did it in 1 hour and 40mins. I think leaving 3 hours so you can actually look at things would be ideal. Whoever decides on how they will set out the signs in National Parks is an idiot. In the car park, instead of a large sign with a map of the area showing what walks are where, is an interpretive sign about the area and it's history. If we really must have those type of signs, at least have one side with some kind of map on it so people know where the walks are!

Despite having to pay $7 parking, the track is poorly kept and in places there is very bad erosion. This is really the only reason that an above average level of fitness would be required for this walk. The picnic area is quite nice and the toilet block is clearly where they are spending the parking fee. Sorry about the bitter attitude, I tend to be irritated when an afternoon that was meant to be spent wander and taking photos has to turn into a rushed bush bash so as not to get locked inside a National Park!

On the suspension bridge