Labor Day long weekend - May 2019

What do you do when you can string together 5 days away from the office? That's right. you hitch up the caravan and head off somewhere.

This time we headed to the Border Ranges Nat Park - less than 100 klms away from us, but still far enough for it to be a complete change of environment.

So, we set off mid-morning on Thursday and headed for Beaudesert and Rathdowney and then the Lions Road over the ranges. That road was a bit of an interesting one as it twists and turns and we came across quite a few uphill sections that were rated as a 19% incline. The turbo in the Pajero was working overtime on those!

When we got through the border and into NSW we found similar declines ahead of us that gave the brakes something to think about, and just before we reached the Nat Park we saw a sign (for people heading north) indicating that the Lions road was not suitable for caravans or trailers - a shame we didn't have a similar sign on the QLD side!

We finally arrived to find a wet, muddy and dismally dark camp site with nothing but clouds above us. On the positive side, the place was well laid out and the facilities and all fire pits were clean and ready for use.

We set up and then went for a walk along the Rosewood Loop. It was wet and slippery and constantly dripping so we cut the walk short at the Palm Forest Walk, checking out the creek and the spot where the old cedar getters carved their names into the rock that they used as a loading platform for the cedar logs.

It was not the most pleasant walk although that was down to the weather and not the place, so we retired back to the van, lit a fire and cracked the first beer/wine of the day.

The next day, after a leisurely start, we decided to take a drive along the road through the Park and check out some of the sights.

We drove upwards, ever upwards, and soon found ourselves driving through the cloud on a surprisingly grippy and well maintained dirt road, It's a dense forest with walls of tress either side that occasionally break open for a view, and the first one we checked out was the Pinnacle.

After a gentle uphill walk of about 200 metres we popped out at what is a stunning view, Well it would be if you could see anything - the cloud we drove through, mirrored by clouds above us sandwiching us in mist, just covered everything most of the time. Occasionally a hole might open up to allow us to see something below, but mostly it was just like we were floating in the clouds.

The view to the left

The view to the right

And a panoramic shot of a few tree tops and clouds.

The paths were all pretty good (slippery tree roots prevailed in some areas though) and this gives you an idea of what they looked like and the denseness of the forest.

So we drove on to the Blackbutt Lookout hoping to have better luck there.

and the answer was no - if anything it was even mistier and muddier.

I'm not sure what the lasting impression might have been, but it wasn't of the view! 

We thought then that we would try for something even higher to see if we could get above ALL the couds and we headed towards the Border Loop. This walk is right on the QLD/NSW border and is as high as you can get around here. The air had cleared of cloud/mist and. although the sky was still concrete coloured, we headed off on a walk. We got maybe 100 metres when it started to rain and then it got heavier so we returned to the Pajero as quickly as we could and only just got inside before it seemed like the air was mostly water and the wind whipped it around.

We gave up on the walk.

Somewhat disheartened we drove to the nearest town, Kyogle, to check out the pubs and enjoy a couple of drinks out of the mist before heading home to watch a movie while it drizzled outside before stepped out (as the rain stopped) to light another fire, cook dinner over the fire and relax.

The weather forecast we had seen before we left had Saturday as an even more miserable day so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it was sunny and nice so we headed out to do a few more of the walks around the Park.

The first of them was called the Red Cedar Loop so we trundled off. It may have been sunnier outside the forest, but it was still wet and muddy inside it, but the occasional shafts of sunlight lifted our spirits and we walked on happily.

We found the tree which is estimated to be over 1,000 years old and it is pretty impressive. Check out the pics below:

One thing that a rainforest always has in abundance are fungi and this was one of the most unusual.

From the Red Cedar Loop we continued round to the Brindle Creek walk to see the stands of Antarctic Beech trees.

The walk itself was not especially exciting (more dense rainforest), but the creek was a magical place.

That was enough for the day and we went "home" to relax and chat.

Sunday was another gorgeous day and we decided to repeat the walks of the Friday, but this time without the clouds and the pictures below sow what it looks like when the sun is shining. 

The above is the view from the top of the camp site.

Yep - this is the Pinnacle Lookout and you can see the whole of the volcano's caldera with views across to Mt Warning (the original centre of the volcano) and beyond that to the Pacific Ocean.

The Blackbutts Lookout gave a similar view, but from a lower perspective - doesn't the top pic of Mt Warning look like a sleeping person's head? 

So what else to do but head off to Kyogle (via a different track than before) and celebrate the sunshine and the success of our walks with a beer/wine.

On the way we came across the sign below outside the township of Wiangaree - it seems that the local aboriginal people are the "Gullibul" mob.

Monday morning and we packed up and headed home. It's been a nice break.

A wander around Northern NSW - April 2019

Having a couple of weeks available to us we decided to do a bit of a loop around some of the northern part of NSW.

The plan was to head down the coast to call into a couple of beachside camps that held fond memories for us, and to do this before the Easter school holidays, and to then escape the crowds by heading inland and looping back towards the north and home in time for Easter.

The weather did not look promising, but we thought we'd take a look anyway. After all, how often are those weather forecasters 100% right?

Well they were this time. We arrived at a riverside camp at Coraki (between Casino and Woodburn) and set up before heading off for a walk and then back to the van for a coffee.

It started raining then and it never stopped for the two days and nights we were there.

It's a good job that the pub, only about 30 metres from where we were camped, was a friendly place with some great food and great prices. Seriously, this pub is highly recommended.

So, we decided to head west and get across the Great Dividing Range to some drier country and aimed the bonnet towards the Kwiambal National Park.

Getting in there was easy enough, although the 20km of dirt road was nastily corrugated in many spots, and the camping area we chose was almost deserted, giving us a choice of lots of spots on the Severn River's banks.

We chose one reasonably close to the spotlessly clean dunny and set up for the next four nights.

There was a fire ban in force so we had no camp fire, but that was no real hardship as the weather was warm and dry.

So what did we do there? Walk is the answer, following tracks around to some lookouts and enjoying the tranquility.

The walks were all reasonably well marked out and lead through a treed landscape that was just beautiful.

We walked to some lookouts that gave us views over different parts of the river. The one above shows a narrow gorge through which the river must boil when it is in flood.

All we saw were pools of water with only a trickle of flow.

Here's Karen looking healthy and gorgeous :) 

And me, looking lopsided - I must find somewhere level to stand next time! 

All the photos above show how rugged is the country through which this river runs. It must be a great sight when in flood.

One of the regular sights in any granite country in Australia are the balancing rocks. The weather erodes any boulder into a ball shape and  leaves it sitting on a narrowing plinth, just balancing and looking like you'd be able to roll it down the hill with a push.

You can't of course, but it looks that way.

This was is about 6 metres high.

Walking back we left the high ridges with their views, but dusty tracks, and walked back along the river bank where it was accessible.

It's a beautiful place here. So peaceful with only the birds for company or the occasional fish rising. 

Karen found herself a comfy rock to sit on and cooled her feet in the water. 

Wildlife - there was a lot of wildlife in this Park with birds, grey kangaroos, wallaroos and goannas around all the time.

We were visited by two goannas (that we saw) no doubt scrounging for food, but each of them scooted up a tree if one of us stood up.

Can you see the one starting to climb the tree above?

Well, you couldn't miss this picture of him. He was about 1.3 metres long so he still has a lot of growing to do. 

 Another day we went for a walk to the MacIntyre River and found that is a similar state to the Severn, pretty dry with just pools of water and lots of boulders that show the power of the river when it is in flood.  

Lots more balancing roacks, but as there have not been eroded over time, just created by the flooding river, they are not as rounded.

One of the marked walks takes you to "The Rockpool" which is an impressive size for a hole carved into the rock, but it seemed to be filled with highly silted water - not going to bother swimming there! 

We moved on from Kwiambal with some great memories of a cracking Park, but also with a number of sand fly bites that were to irritate us for days and weeks afterwards.

We headed south, calling into Inverell for supplies, to a free camp at a spot called the Bundarra Lions Park.

This is a spot on the Gwydir River that is just a couple of klms from the town of Bundarra (with a great pub) and with a set of decent flushing toilets and water. 

We picked a spot on the bank of the river close to an old friend of ours (we met her here a few years ago) and relaxed into life in the slow lane. 

The sunset sky was spectacular.

This was our setup.

A closer look and from this pic you can see the river a couple of metres below us. 

We stayed there just three nights as, apart from walking the couple of klms into the town to visit the pub (great food and very friendly) there isn't much to do beyond relaxing and reading a book. 

So we packed up and headed off through Armidale to the Wollomombi  National Park where we set up and then checked out the walks.

The pictures that follow show some of the walks and the views, but they can't capture the sheer beauty of the place. 

From here we headed off to Nymboida where we camped next to a creek and then to Brooms Head where we found a spot in a beachside van park (with only intermittent rain) so we stayed and enjoyed a more traditional beach mini-break.

The pictures tell the story of the place and the walks we took.

Yeah - it's a beautiful place and (considering it was Easter) not too overcrowded.