National Parks 101, plus a bit of history

While sad to leave the Blue Mountains it was getting wet and cold and we were excited about the next phase of our journey, which would take us into some National Parks we hadn't visited before.

Warrumbungle National Park

So, we pointed the Prado and Ulysses (yes, the Ultimate has acquired a handle: Di came up with the name; Tennyson's poem her inspiration) north, with our projected day's drive taking us into Warrumbungle National Park. The day started out fine enough, and it was reasonably sunny for most of the morning as we rolled along through coal mining country and past a couple of major coal-fired power stations.  Lunch was at Mudgee which is surrounded by vineyards. Despite temptation all around, we didn't do any wine tours but just stopped for a quick sandwich in the town itself, as we wanted to take advantage of the dry skies. However, almost immediately upon leaving Mudgee the rain started and came down quite heavily for about an hour. That part of the country didn't actually look very dry but it looked like the farmers wouldn't mind a bit more rain on their paddocks. By the time we rolled through Dunedoo and past Merrygoen (which is actually off the highway before you get to Mendooran, but I like the name of the place so thought I'dl slip it in) the rain had eased off considerably. There was a nice looking rest area on the river at Mendooran that we contemplated stopping at, but we were pretty keen to get to Warrumbungle National Park, so on we pressed.

What a sad, sad sight the park was. I had forgotten about the terrible bushfires that wiped out the park, so we were devestated by the sight that we were confronted with when we arrived in late afternoon.

Here's one image that Di took as we drove into the park on the road from Coonabarabran:

Total destruction as far as the eye could see. It is thought that the fire started from a lightning strike. It burned so hot that in most places even the large trees have yet to show any sign of re-sprouting. Apparently the black pines that abound in the area burn so hot that they have been totally wiped out. The ecology of the area has been radically altered and it will be many, many years - perhaps centuries - before the area might resemble what it was like before the fire.

Although we weren't planning to do any climbing here, we had so much looked forward to having a walk amongst the spires which make the area famous. Not to be. The park was closed to camping.  The ranger station was totally destroyed and so were the camping areas. Here is the sign that sat at the entrance to the former park headquarters:

I think that maybe only limited walks might have been re-opened but there were no staff around at all. As it was getting pretty late, we thought we better find somewhere to prop Ulysses for the night, we retraced our route back towards Coonabarabran as we'd noticed a nice-looking picnic spot by the river just about ten kilometres out of town. There was a  sign up saying No Camping, but it was late, and we weren't really "camping" just parking for the night so we pulled in and popped the top and nestled in for the night.

Mount Kaputar National Park

Our next day was a short drive north to Narrabri and then on up to Mount Kaputar National Park to camp at Dawsons Spring campground right up near the top. This was the first time we'd gone into a place where one is permitted to take camper trailers but not caravans, so we felt a bit smug towing Ulysses up the steep and winding road. It was a cool and damp ten degrees when we arrived early in the afternoon, not too surprising when we realised that we were at about 1400 metres above sea level! Here's the camping tag we had to put on when we arrived and set up camp:

After getting Ulysses in place and having lunch where hot soup featured heavily, we went for a walk.

Do you like this photo of Di?

That's how misty it was when we started our walk! You might just be able to make out some cables reaching into the sky on the right of the photo. They support a large communications tower that services quite a large area on the plains below. Interestingly, the small area where the tower stands is excised from the park. 

The mist gradually lifted during our walk, so we could see the forest for the trees. And quite a nice forest it was: very reminiscent of Tasmanian sub alpine forest, despite being a lot higher than most of our sub alpine terrain:

There are some interesting small critters in this park, especially the snails, butterflies and PINK SLUGS. 

Unfortunately, we didn't see any pink slugs but they are there. Jane and Sharon, a couple of cycle tourists who pulled into the campground later in the afternoon did see some alongside the road as they made their way - slowly - up the mountain earlier in the afternoon. Here is an image I found on the net:

Apparently they grow to about 20 centimetres, so about the size of a pretty decent-sized sausage ...

... there is also a species of carnivorous snails that are also found in the park that cruise along, dieting on their vegetarian cousins. Although both the pink slug and the carnivorous snail are related to other similar creatures, they are also both endemic to the Mount Kaputar environs. Apparently it has to do with Kaputar being uplifted from the surrounding plains about 23 million years ago due to volcanic activity. You can find out more on this page of The Age newspaper's online site.

As the sign above suggests, many of the trees in this forest have been scribbled on by invertebrates that inhabit the forest. Here's an example:

Caught a bit short, here's Di again, about to nick off into the (more private) woods with a bit of nature's toilet paper:

Isn't she the happy one?

It looked like the storm that we'd experienced the previous day may have reached this far north, as we saw this freshly created bit of destruction:

In amongst the deeper forest we spotted this mushroom that had pushed its way to the surface:

Tiny gum nuts and leaves were widely spread in more open areas below the trees:

Surprisingly (to us at least), there were actually quite a few large Grey Kangaroos in the area around the summit. Here's one checking out the toilet block:

Overnight it cleared right up and the temperature plummeted. Before we headed off we wanted to do the short "nature walk" near the camping area, and we were really glad we did. It's a terrific little walk that goes past Dawsons Spring, featuring a wonderful section of boardwalk that wends its way through the forest below the spring:

... and winds its way up the slope out of the forest:

...  and out into the open where it was quite frosty:

Of course it was cold because the skies had cleared, which meant we got some great views as we descended to the plain below.  Near the top there is a lookout that affords this view of one of the cliffs:

But lower down there was this lookout with a great name ...

... and the view below and one of the lesser crags is quite good ...

A little lower there was a view of another impressive crag:

Once we got down onto the flats we had a good view back past some sunflowers to Mount Kaputar:

And here's a look at our little travelling home:

Myall Creek

It was a fantastic day for a drive, which was good because we had some territory we wanted to cover to get to Girraween National Park over the border in Queensland. We picked the most direct route we could find, which included about 50 kilometres on dirt roads between Delungra and Ashford. 

However, before we left Bingara, south of Delungra, what really settled us on taking this direct route was that it would take us past the Myall Creek Masssacre Memorial site. This appalling event was only one of countless such massacres that took place in Australia's colonial history. What distinguishes it is the fact that some seven of the perpetrators of the massacre were found guilty and punished by hanging - the only time that the perpetrators of such a massacre were brought to justice and made to pay for their crimes. 

When I discovered we were in the vicinity I felt that we really had to visit this site of national significance. Thanks initially to the persistent calls of one man and then the joint  efforts of Aboriginal and European Australians a walkway has been built so that the people who were slaughtered will be remembered, and as an act of reconciliation.

Here are some photos that tell a bit of the story:

When we decided to invest in our four wheel drive and camper trailer, it was so we could see more of Australia. We wanted to try to connect more closely with the immensity of the country, and were thinking primarily of the landscapes and environments that exist within those landscapes. We weren't thinking so much of the story of the people who have inhabited Australia, but one of the real blessings of moving around the place the way we've been doing is that we experience moments like this out of the blue.

Girraween National Park

After we had lunch at Myall Creek we continued our journey which by this time was taking us in a northwesterly direction through some lovely rolling country towards Tenterfield, the last town before crossing the border into Queensland. We'd been to Girraween National Park before and were keen to stop in again. It lies in an area called the Granite Belt along the border between New South Wales and Queensland. The landscape is somewhat reminiscent of the east coast of Tasmania, although of course not coastal. I say "reminiscent" but it still is quite different. Here's some photos to give you a bit of a glimpse:

Di by a rock pool

Another rock pool

Some clown on a boulder

Di in the Granite Arch

An explanation of the processes that created the arch

Forest and rock

We can't seem to resist taking pictures of gum trees. Here's a craggy old fellow with some beautiful bark on him:

The base was hollowed out and we thought this little nook around the other side would be a perfect hidey-hole for our grandchildren to snuggle into in a downpour:

Again, as at Kaputar, we saw lots of big Grey Kangaroos. Here's a rather large joey getting a morning snack from his mum:

 We don't have any cockatoo photos from this part of our journey, but Di was delighted to have her first spotting of a Red Wattle Bird. For those who aren't familiar with the habits of Wattle Birds, they are honeyeaters. Here's a few photos Di snapped just a few steps from our campsite. You can easily see why it has its name:

Here, Now

From Girraween we drove on to one of our favourite rock climbing destinations for a brief stop here at what climbers refer to as Frog Buttress, but what the Queensland National Parks call the Mt French section of the Moogerah Peaks National Park. We've climbed here five or six times now and wanted to at least stop in for an overnight camp on our way north, even though it was a little out of our way. We love the area, and have done some hiking as well as climbing hereabouts. The little town of Boonah in the valley below is a friendly little settlement. As things turned out, we did squeeze in a short half day of climbing yesterday. (One of us was too tired to want to do any more than that!) We started off with Di leading a short but steep little 18 called Gladiator. How many (nearly) sixty-three year old grandmothers in Australia are still leading grade 18 (about 5.10a in North America) cracks? She cruised it. Here is a photo of Di following me on a route called Plume, just one of the hundreds of terrific climbs at this great crag:

Today we had a quick trip into Brisbane to see our son Simon and have some lunch with him. Although it would be fun to have another day's climbing here, tomorrow we'll continue north as we'd like to take our time getting to Cairns. We'll let you know how that turns out in the next post. In the meantime, here's a map of the route of this section of our trip ...

... and an overview of how this stage fits into our journey up the east coast of Australia to Cape York from our home in Tasmania:

On we go ~ "beyond the sunset"

Cheers!

Doug and Di

On to the fabulous Blue Mountains!

Before we left the Point Perpendicular area, we had a day of stocking up supplies, doing the laundry and a bit of sightseeing in the local area. Just mundane things, really. But we did have a fish-and-chips-fix at a place called Pelican Point. There were lots of pelicans. Di took a bunch of photos but I think this is probably one of the best:

We decided that we'd like to travel by backroads as much as we could on our way to the Blue Mountains. When we looked at the map, going via Kangaroo Valley and Bowral seemed to fit the bill. Here's the route we took:

The road up to Kangaroo Valley was steep and twisty, a great route for a hard bike race I thought to myself as we wound our way up into the hills. Much to our surprise, a large group of extreme skateboarders came streaming down through the bends past us. They looked to be having a whale of a time. Moving at quite a pace, they must have thought there was some risk of coming off as they were all wearing substantial protective headgear. Very impressive!

There was some beautiful farming land between Kangaroo Valley and Bowral (and beyond), much of it tied up in large, very affluent properties by the look of it.  In fact, some of the houses we glimpsed, along with their impressive grounds and entrance-ways, spoke of absolute bagfuls of money. 

Speaking of impressive grounds, we were blown away by the Chevalier College as we entered Bowral. Their grounds were estate-like in size and very well-groomed, so much so that Di decided to check out the school on the internet.  It's a Catholic college owned by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and looks like it would be a pretty good place to go to send your kids if you wanted a nice, religion-based education for them - but maybe not given the linking of this school to child sex abuse in the Broken Rites investigations. 

Bowral is much more well-known as being the home of "The Don", aka Sir Donald George Bradman, Australian sporting hero and icon in the peculiar world of international cricket. Regarded as the best batsman of all time, Bradman invariably comes up in conversation when a new batting star emerges on the international scene. If you're mad enough to listen to the cricket on the radio when out working in the garden or the man-cave, sooner or later you're bound to hear the term "Bradmanesque" bandied about. Hmmm. Seem to be on a bit of diversion here ...

On to the fabulous Blue Mountains, eh! We arrived at Mount York early in the afternoon and set up the camper. Here's what she looked like when we finished:

Just the basic set-up for this stop as there are lots of trees around and the evenings are pretty short. As there wasn't that much daylight left by the time we finished we decided to have a bit of a look at the crag with the view to doing some climbing the next day. Once we started exploring we discovered this was the site of the first road built through the Blue Mountains.  Constructed over a six month period from July 1814 to January 1815 by convict labourers under the direction of William Cox, the road they built improved access to the interior for farmers and graziers. Much evidence of that early work remains. Here fence rails were set into the rock face, apparently to keep stock from falling off the cliff ...

... as this sign attests:

The next image shows a gutter carved into a rock slab to divert water away from the road ...

... and we can,t be sure, but these steps may also date back to that time:

We did go climbing the next day at Mount York, and did five pitches, ranging in grade from 14 to 18. Actually it was a bit demoralising, as we found the grading a bit harder than what we'd been doing at Mount Arapiles. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable day out. The route with the best climbing was something called "The Obituary", which the guide warns as having been the scene of a number of fatalities. That seemed rather strange, as it was a very well-protected crack. The route with the best name was something called "Currawongs and Chocolate Cake". (There's usually a story behind the name of a climb, and it would be good to hear this one).

The next day we decided to take ourselves off to Mount Boyce to do a couple of easy, five-star classics. The first was something called "The Eyrie", probably so named because of the wonderful belay in the cave just below the top. This is one of the views from there ...

... and, looking the other way:

After we climbed The Eyrie, we did a route with another great name: "Another Man's Juliet".

Here's a photo Di took of me just starting the crux, which was steeper than it looks here:

That was a Friday, and we'd arranged to meet with a bunch of other climbers for a Blue Mountains farewell to Bob McMahon. Some great stories were told and too much grog drunk: the perfect send off. Di and I felt rather under the weather the next day and  not fit at all for climbing, but okay for a bit of Blue Mountains sightseeing and a couple of short walks. After a late start we cruised around to the very scenic Perry's Lookdown. Here's a photo from the top:

Even though it is late autumn, there are still lots of native shrubs in flower. Here's a Heath Banksia ...

... and a Hairpin Banksia (there are heaps of these about):

From there we strolled to the nearby Anvil Rock ...

... and a cave-like feature that seems to have been shaped by wind erosion. If you look closely you can spot Di in the lower centre of the photo:

During our slight exertions, Di felt the need for a little lie-down ...

As you will see from the next photo, the seat is a lovely memorial 

to a woman who lived a long time and loved the bush:

I'm not sure I care to be around for the ninety-four years old Joyce managed, but I'd be very pleased if someone put a seat like this up on Mount Wellington somewhere for folks to remember me by.

When we returned to camp that afternoon, Di went for a wander around the the crag and took a number of shots that show the wonderful work the Blue Mountains Cliff Care is doing around the base of some of the more popular routes to prevent further erosion. Here is one of them:

A little while later she got this picture in evening light of the Explorers Monument ...

... and this beauty of a majestic gum tree:

After our day of R & R we felt much restored and decided to head to Mt Piddington for  a couple of days of climbing, which is regarded as having the greatest concentration of quality, moderate routes in the Blue Mountains. And what a terrific time we had! On the first day we did three five-star classics - including the fabled "The Eternity". In case you're interested,

I've just found this amusing Youtube video made using a GoPro camera on a stick:

The next day we were a little tired, so we did some easier routes, but still of great quality. One of them was the fantastic Tombstone Wall. Here's Di leading up the arete after the traverse:

And another photo of her on an under-graded slab called Sincerity:

Unfortunately, the next morning we awoke to find that Di's iPad Mini had died, and that our so called Telstra "Ultimate" Mobile Modem was also playing up. Fortunately, there is an Apple shop in nearby Katoomba, the main tourist destination and historical centre of the Blue Mountains, so we drove down the road and dropped off Di's iPad. Had it not been "personalised" with an engraving, we could have had a replacement the next day. As it is, we're hoping to have it back tomorrow. If not we'll have it forwarded to us in Cairns. Next stop was down the western slopes of the mountains to the nearest Telstra shop in Lithgow, the hometown of Marjorie Jackson, aka "The Lithgow Flash". 

A helpful technician reset the device with the latest software, 

which seems to have solved the problem (fingers crossed!)

The next day we thought we'd investigate the James Bond crag in the Megalong Valley, which the guidebook promises has "all day sun in winter". While it's not quite winter yet, it seemed to be a good bet for copping some sunshine. No dice. As it turned out the forecast was a bit skew-whiff and we had cloud cover most of the time we were at the crag. Not to worry; another day, another good day of climbing! We did eight pitches - albeit some very short ones. However, we did a lovely three pitch route called Honey Ryder. It was a really sweet climb that largely followed an arete. 

If Katoomba is the tourism centre of the Blue Mountains, Blackheath is certainly seems to be "Climbing Central".  If the weather's good, rock jocks rendezvous in the carpark here before heading off for a day on the rock. The greatest number of crags are scattered around Blackheath and nearby Mount Victoria, which lies just a few kilometres to the west.  Actually, the town is a hub not only for climbing but for outdoor activity in general. There are lots of great tourist walks nearby, some of them nature-based and others suited to the history buff. The Blue Mountains Heritage Centre is also located here.  By the way, you might not have known that the Greater Blue Mountains Area is listed as a UNESCO Natural Heritage site (I certainly didn't), but after spending a week and a half here it is easy to see why. Di was quoting a website a little while ago that stated there are more than 1000 known species of plants in the area. They include the famous Wollemi Pine, one of the world's oldest and rarest plants. It was rediscovered in 1994 after only being known via fossil records, and less than 100 trees exist in the wild (although it is now being propagated commercially). When you put that on top of the incredible geological maze that is the Blue Mountains, no wonder it's rightly regarded of global significance. The area is a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts, with plenty of bushwalking, canyoning and, of course, climbing to be done. It is also very popular for paragliding, and we spotted two paragliders up in the sky just a couple of hours ago. There is even a local club based here in Blackheath. Here's a Youtube video shot in 2008 which gives you a look at the local environment from the air:

As an aside, Blackheath also bills itself as the Rhododendron Town, and they hold a Rhododendron Festival each year. And there sure are a lot of huge old rhodos around the place.

Well, back to our story. After our day visiting James Bond, we rendezvoused (not in the Blackheath carpark!) with Bruce Cameron, a Blue Mountains climber we had met a few times before with Bob McMahon and re-connected with at Bob's funeral. He was also at Bob's Blue Mountains farewell, and we'd talked about getting together for a climb. He suggested a day out at The Fortress to climb a long easy route called" Tom Thumb", which involves about an hour approach and three abseils of about 50 metres. Sounded like a great day out, so we duly met up at the Leura Mall, a trendy little town just east of Katoomba which just happens to be the jumping off point for The Fortress. After a 20 minute drive we found ourselves at the trailhead. A popular hike for bushwalkers, The Fortress Ridge Track has great views. Along the way Bruce introduced us to the Mountain Devil. Here it is  in bloom ...

... but it really gets its name from the cone it leaves behind:

Surely you can see the two horns and long, pointed beard of the devil?

As we neared the route down to our abseil station, Bruce pointed the direction we were headed:

 Forty minutes into what the guidebook says is a 75 minute hike (Bruce walks fast) we found ourselves at the top abseil. Here's a picture of Di and Bruce ready to rap into the abyss:

Bruce had climbed Tom Thumb a number of times before and was happy for Di and I to do all the leading on this ascent, which was very generous and a real treat for us. I led the first pitch and then Di got on the second pitch, which at about 40 metres long was a real beauty. Here she is negotiating the crux, which occurs early on the pitch:

I got the short but fun third pitch:

Bruce took this snap of us somewhere along the route:

There were six pitches in all, and I got to lead the last one. Here's Bruce coming up to the top ledge  from where we first abseiled:

It's a fair way down, isn't it?

And here we are all at the end of the route, happy and not even too tired:

We were on a mission to get a coffee before Bruce headed for home, 

so he set a cracking pace yet again:

Along the way we got some great views of a number of impressive cliffs. There is just so much rock here, and access can be a bit of an issue, so some of them have yet to be visited by climbers. Here is one such crag:

On the drive back to Leura, we were amused to see this very tame Galah, also known as the Rose-breasted Cockatoo strutting around as if it owned the place:

However, that was nothing compared to the gang of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos that seem to have taken over the coffee shop strip in Leura. We've never seen anything like it. One shop owner had to shoo a cockie away so she could take her sign down before closing up. While we were having coffee another bunch of them were strutting up and down on the window sill of the cafe, eyeballing the snacks of the patrons. Had there not been glass separating us, food would have had to be surrendered I am sure. And, when we emerged from the cafe, a couple of the cheeky beggars were ready to swoop had we had any hint of a snack in our hands. One bold fellow stretched towards me from his perch as if to say, "What? Have you nothing for me you miserly snob!" Amusing and a little disconcerting at the same time. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera handy to illustrate these antics.

During the course of the day, Bruce had suggested we do the Grand Canyon Walk while we were here in the Blue Mountains. As the next day was our scheduled "day off climbing" we decided it was an opportune time to do just that. And what a delightful discovery! We'd put it right up with the best short walks we've ever done, right along with the Dove Lake Circuit in Tasmania for example.

The Parks Service has done and continues to do lots of track maintenance and upgrading. I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

It's clear that a lot of money is being spent on making this walk more user-friendly, which we found very interesting in light of some of the track work being done on a select number of iconic walks in Tasmania. There is no doubt that our island state needs to keep investing in park infrastructure if it hopes to compete with other places in Australia to attract tourists interested in exploring natural environments. The Cape Hauy walk is one such attraction. We've heard some locals express incredulity at the investment parks has made here, but it sure makes a lot of sense to us.

Yesterday we went climbing at Cosmic County, yet another great Blue Mountains crag. We did three terrific routes and would love to get back there another time. Which leads me to the finale of this post. We've decided to continue our journey north tomorrow, as the weather is meant to take a turn for the wetter initially and then become quite cold after that.  We may stop and have a quick look at Warrumbungle National Park and Mount Kaputar before heading - via Girraween - to Boonah and Frog Buttress for a few days. Hopefully Di's iPad will be ready to pick up tomorrow, otherwise we'll have it sent on to Cairns.  We'll let you know how that all pans out in our next post.

We've really loved it here in the Blue Mountains and intend to come back before too long. We'll try to get here a little earlier in the autumn so the nights aren't quite so cold, and stay a little longer. I can't speak for Di, but to me the area seems such a great environment that I've said to a number of people it is maybe the only place in Australia outside of Tasmania I could seriously contemplate moving to. 

Finally, sorry we don't have a photo of a kangaroo for this post. We did see a couple boxing on our drive back from Cosmic County yesterday, but by the time we stopped the car, turned around and got the camera out, they decided to stop their fisticuffs. C'est la vie, eh? So that's about it for now.

See you next time ...