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EASTER ADVENTURE 2001 John and I went on an
enjoyable Easter trip inland to Giraween National Park and Bald Rock National
Park. They straddle the Queensland / New South Wales boarder. We set
off on Friday morning about 10.30 am and got to Tenterfield about 2.30pm.
We took our time and noseyed at paddocks of sunflowers and grain, went into Giraween National Park to see what it had to offer before we went back on
Saturday. We stayed in a camping ground in Tenterfield for 2
nights. On the Saturday we first went to Giraween National Park which is
covered in massive granite boulders and mountains. We did a 2 hour hike in
3 hours, due to my slowness and we really enjoyed looking at everything, the end
was all up hill, in fact almost strait up hill, I'm surprised I even made it
. We walked through the Granite A It was about
2pm by now so we went around to Bald Rock National Park which you have to go
through Tenterfield and then up We
then went to a waterfall which was huge, by then it was starting to get dark, it
was only 300 metres to the falls lookout so we took our torche The
next day we had a long drive home through Texas, Inglewood, Milmerran and threw
Towoomba and home. From Tenterfield to Milmerran is a lot of typical brown
Aussy paddocks with very little stock and miles of flat valleys. From
Milmerran to Toowomba is pleasant farming lands with cotton and grain crops and
cattle. So it was a pleasant couple of days away exploring the Aussy bush.
The last of the climb is about a 45 degree slope up granite
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rchway, a massive granite boulder siting
on top of two huge rocks. then we walked on to an area called the
Pyramids. Some people did the hike in about an hour but they must have run
almost and not taken in the scenery. The Pyramids is a huge granite
mountain which half way up goes strait up, it was hard to walk up but actually
harder to go down. I managed to get half way up then we started having to
clamber over great big rocks, by now we are sitting on the edge of an egg shaped
mountain and I am starting to feel afraid of the height. Anyway
after sitting for a while and catching my breath I decided I could brave it
across the edge of the mountain to another outcrop of rocks that looked
safer. I managed to get up to a huge boulder just perching on the edge of
the mountain with John holding my hand, but by then it was too exposed and the height was getting to me and I could feel a second
panic attack almost coming
on, so I decided that better be enough or they will have to winch me off the
mountain in a helicopter. I slid on my backside part the way then with
John holding my hand I got to the safety of a group of rocks. I stayed
there while John went up to the top and had a look around. Apparently I
was only 50 metres from the
top but that would have been too much if I had
panicked up there and not been able to get down. Though I'm glad I got as
far as I did. It was very spectacular. We then went down t to the
rangers hut and asked a few questions mine was how many people have fallen off
that mountain, only 2 on that mountain and 1 of another mountain in the
park, apparently they hadn't stuck to the track. But it would be horrible
to do in wet weather, the ranger said it would be too dangerous in rain. I
was amazed at the number of small children who were taken up with there parents
but if your not afraid of heights I suppose it's ok.
to it. We weren't going to walk up it
after having just done a 3 hour hike but when we got to the bottom of it we saw
it was a strait up granite mountain like the beginning of the Pyramids. So
of we set again, we managed to climb that part and walked over large boulders at
the top to see the other side of the mountain which was a spectacular granite
mountain. It was starting to rain and getting late in the afternoon so we
didn't climb right to the top of this mountain. It is the largest granite
boulder in Australia. We came down through the bush track because it was
starting to rain and I didn't want to walk down the steep granite mountain in
the rain. It was good taking the bush route back though because we was
lots of huge granite boulders perched on top of each other, and wild flowers.
The camera doesn't show how steep.
s and went in, we
got in while it was still light, it was lots a waterfalls coming down through
the rocks in the mountain. We couldn't see the really high falls but it
was getting dark and the lower track had no railings. so we left that
hike. We looked at the swimming hole at the top of the falls, not what we
would like to swim in, rather dark and you couldn't see the bottom. We
then went back to the tent and had a cold night, John said we wouldn't need the
big quilt I had put in, we'd only need our 2 thin orange blankets, well not in
Tenterfield at this time of the year, winter clothes were needed at night.
