Days 10 to 12 - Yuraygir National Park

We finally bid goodbye to Bogangar and headed off down the coast to Yuraygir National Park. We decided at random to stay at Illaroo camping ground, nearby to Minnie Waters. This spot would have to take the prize for the most picturesque site of our trip, with our tent directly overlooking the ocean, and set up perfectly for spotting whales. Still no luck, though.


We went for a wander along the beach southwards towards Minnie Waters.

 

When we reached a headland overlooking the Minnie Waters bay, I was excited to spot more dolphins playing in the waves. We spent a pleasant chunk of the afternoon watching them splash in and out of the water, and trying to capture a photo of them (with limited success).

 

We enjoyed the reflected light from the sunset over the beach by our fireside, then turned in for the night.

The next morning we went exploring, starting with a drive into Minnie Waters. We were following a random road up along the coast and lamenting the distinct lack of whales, when suddenly there appeared a puff of water in the distance. WHALES!!!! We ended up seeing probably half a dozen of them at various points along the coast. There were also more dolphins frolicking closer to the shore. Maybe the ocean isn't so bad after all?

We drove to Wilson's Headland and enjoyed the coastal walk between Boorkoom campground and Wilson's Headland Picnic Area, spotting more whales along the way (it was a slow walk with lots of photos...). 

 

  

We rounded out the day by driving further south to Wooli, treating ourselves to fish and chips for lunch. Ryan was eyeing off the breakwater at the river inlet as a likely spot for catching fish - and after lugging our fishing gear around all this time without once actually wetting a line, we bought some bait and made plans to return with the high tide in the morning.

Fishing the next morning proved somewhat less than fruitful - Ryan caught a couple of small Bream, and I came away empty handed. By this time, the call of home was becoming ever stronger, and we decided to pack up and high-tail it 600km down the highway back to Sydney to give ourselves a long weekend at home. Once Ryan realized that he might make it back in time to play basketball that evening, the race was on. We actually made it home with minutes to spare, and he dashed into the house, grabbed his gear and took off in the car before I had even gotten out of the BT. Happily, his team won that night :-)

I was also pleased to discover that my fish had survived two weeks of neglect...

 

Day 9 - Border Ranges National Park

Still based in Bogangar, we drove out to Border Ranges National Park on Monday. We made a short detour to Hanging Rock Falls along the way - another random blip on the map that seemed to warrant further exploration. The falls themselves were quite small, but the pool they cascaded into was more impressive. Apparently it was formed from a lava tube. No-one knows quite how deep it is - divers have been down as far as 20m, with some estimates that it could be as much as 100m deep. Apparently also quite a few kids have seriously injured themselves or died from the rope swing dangling above the pool. Still haven't figured out how it got its name though...



We continued up into the National Park, making our first stop at Bar Mountain Picnic Area. From there we walked 2km through the rainforest to a lookout which afforded an awesome view out to the west.

We also stopped at Blackbutt's lookout to have lunch while enjoying the view out towards Mount Warning and the valley below.

Then finally, we came to the Pinnacle (the real motivation for visiting Border Ranges). Ryan had been here as a teenager, and had always regretted not climbing the Pinnacle (apparently the lure of cold pizza in the car was too much for him, and he retreated while his Dad continued onwards). From the lookout, there was an amazing view of the Mount Warning caldera, but the Pinnacle itself was not visible at all. If anyone from the NPWS happens to be reading this - we enjoyed the view from the lookout, then returned to our car like the responsible young adults that we are. You should stop reading now.

I wasn't entirely sure that the Pinnacle even existed, although Ryan distinctly remembered seeing it from the lookout, and watching his Dad disappear down the track through a gate in the fence. I guess the trees had grown a bit in 15-odd years. We could just make out a faint track leading downwards from the (now very securely-fenced) lookout, so we jumped the railing to investigate a bit further.

What was left of the track headed steeply downwards through dense bush and required a decent amount of pushing/crawling/climbing through the undergrowth, often disappearing altogether. With steep drops 2m either side of where we were, though, it wasn't difficult to keep in the right direction. The initial goal was to simply catch a glimpse of the pinnacle, but then (of course) once spotted, we HAD to climb all the way to the top.

Surprisingly, the climb down the spur from the lookout (pictured below) was actually much steeper than the climb up the pinnacle itself. From the top, we were completely surrounded by views out over the caldera (single photos do not do it justice).

  

Then we followed our tracks back to the BT (slightly relieved to find the lookout just as deserted as when we left it), and headed back to Bogangar.

Days 7 and 8 - Bogangar and Lamington National Park

The weekend we spent with Ryan's family in Bogangar. We also visited Mick and Ness to deliver baby Lucas's quilt which had been carefully wrapped up and stowed in the BT for the trip so far. Apparently it rivals Craig's fishtank in terms of eliciting wide-eyed baby-awe :-) 

We also enjoyed fish and chips by the beach in the hope of spotting a whale (Ryan promised me I would see whales on my first winter trip to Bogangar). No such luck, unfortunately.

 

We walked back up to the headland in the evening for another attempt at whale-spotting, but also to enjoy the sunset. Still no whales, but the light-show wasn't bad.

The next day Craig drove us out to Lamington National Park. We did the obligatory tree-top walk at O'Reilly's, but decided to forego the bird feeding (something about having half-a-dozen parrots perched on me, trapped in a fenced enclosure surrounded by people taking photographs didn't quite appeal...)

Of the kilometres of walking tracks branching out from O'Reilly's we decided to walk down to the two closest waterfalls - Elabana  (pegged as the iconic waterfall of Lamington) and Box Log Falls. This still turned out to be an almost 8km walk.

 

 

The views all along the road up the mountain to and from O'Reilly's were also quite impressive. Craig spent half the drive down trying to find a good spot to pull over so I could get a couple of photos (not easy on the narrow, windy road), and I was rewarded with some nice shots out over the valley. Thanks Craig :-)

We called into Natural Bridge on the way home - an impressive rock formation with a waterfall pouring through the hole in it's roof. Apparently you used to be able to swim in the pool (people would even jump down the waterfall), but it's now all very much fenced off.

 

 

And then back to Bogangar for another home-cooked meal, hot shower and a night in a warm, soft bed :-) 

Day 6 - Bald Rock

After camping two nights at Bald Rock, we finally climbed the rock itself. I was constantly amazed by how big and high it is, yet you never get a glimpse of it from any of the surrounding roads, or even the campground below. We walked up the long way and down the short - which took us directly over the edge of the rock face in the picture below.



The rock itself is striped in shades of grey and reddish-brown and the bulk of it is not fully appreciated until you are almost at the top, when you emerge from the scrub and are suddenly greeted by an expanse of stone. It goes without saying that the views were incredible.

 

 

 

 

After we made our way back down, we packed up camp and pointed the BT towards Bogangar.

Day 5 - Girraween National Park

We left the tent set up at Bald Rock and drove up to Girraween National Park to climb the Pyramid. Ryan has been here lots of times, but he did tell me that the first time he visited with his family (aged around 10) he was too scared to climb and instead waited at the bottom with his grandmother (awwwwwww...).

 

We tailed a group of school kids most of the way, and when we reached the rock itself, we found them climbing directly up the steep face (in groups of three, holding hands). We elected to take the marked trail around to the left. This still involved creeping across the exposed rockface with any slip promising a long slide over the edge (not helped by the still-present slippery morning dew in the shadows).

The views from the top were spectacular (as expected).

 

We looped back through Tenterfield, then decided to take a look at Basket Swamp National Park. Ryan remembered visiting here as a kid and finding a waterfall hidden along a 4WD track (which also happened to be overrun with naked hippies at the time). He was sure that we would never be able to find it, and I think he was a little disappointed to find "Basket Swamp Falls" clearly marked on the signpost at the entry to the park.

It was possible to drive to the top of the falls via 12km of pretty rough dirt, but the road to the bottom was barred with a locked gate. Fortunately it wasn't a huge distance, so we simply jumped the gate and walked down. I was glad to find that we had the place to ourselves (not a hippie in sight).

 

We also stopped in at Boonoo Boonoo Falls on our way back to Bald Rock. There was a series of cascades over a long expanse of broken rock, then a massive fall into the valley - unfortunately the views were quite limited, so that we could only glimpse parts of the water through the trees. The lookout down into the valley was quite spectacular though.

 

With dusk approaching, we made our way back to our tent at Bald Rock and braced ourselves for another evening of terror at the hands (paws) of the evil quoll. Our friend never showed, but this time we had half-a-dozen possums for company. We've never experienced so much wildlife at a single campsite.