Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk, Out and Back, Unsupported. Total 104.26km, 3518m elevation gain
I started from O'Reilly's campsite just before 6am on the 2 November 2026 with a full pack, carrying enough nutrition for up to 20 hours and 3.5litres of water.
The first 22km on the Border Track to Binna Burra was very wet, muddy and slippery after all the rain although it improved a bit towards the end. Binna Burra has a tap in the day visitors area that I used to fill up my water, I filtered just incase.
After Binna Burra the single track down into the valley was pretty cool as I run under the cliffs, there was enough flowing water to fill up again after about 7km. After that the track opened up and descended steeply towards Numinbah (I wasn't too thrilled about having to ascent this on the way back!).
The road section was unexpected, the trail directed me through the Nerang river at one stage rather that using the bridge, after all the rain the river was flowing too strongly to risk trying to cross though.
There were a few river crossings before the Wonnoongorra bush camp (no water) that were pretty deep but ok. Just after the camp the track ascends around 900 stairs to Apple Tree Park, that definitely zapped some of my energy!
From there to Settlement Campsite goes through stunning scenery and past Purlingbrook Falls. I did the circuit anticlockwise. Settlement had a tap where I could refill.
The return leg was much the same but with a lot of climbing until late evening when a big storm came through, I waited out the second half of it under a shelter at Binna Burra. From there the trails that had been wet and slippery before were like a river with terrible visibility in the mist so that was super slow.
Overall, the trail was really cool with stunning varied scenery and lots of wildlife, carrying all my nutrition made for a heavy pack, water availability was mostly ok but I had to carry about 4l on the long sections. It took quite a bit longer than I expected with the slippery and wet conditions.