Into the Mountains : Day 4 of the road trip

Tenterfield sits 1000 metres up on the Great Dividing Range. It is Australia’s most substantial mountain range and the third longest land-based range in the world. It stretches more than 3,500 kilometres. Tenterfield is surrounded by numerous National Parks and one of the most popular is Bald Rock National Park. It features the largest exposed granite monolith in Australia, 260 metres above the surrounding bushland, Bald Rock is a massive granite dome 750 metres long and 500 metres wide, the largest exposed granite rock in the Southern Hemisphere. Those are the impressive statistics I read and today we are going to see and experience it.

I have to admit that we are past the age for energetic rock climbing so I was pleased that there were 2 routes to the top. One, I was told, is very steep and 1.2 kilometres almost straight up. The other winds gently around and through the bush and boulders and is 2.5 kilometres. That is our sort of walk.

It starts with a gentle track winding through lush green ferns on every side. The light is radiant, lighting up all it touches and sending rippling shadows across the track. Jack strides ahead while I slowly follow taking so many photos.

Not many wild flowers at this time of the year, but in spring the undergrowth will be a blaze with them, but I spot a couple of paper daisies gallantly surviving the cooler  weather of autumn and this strange face peers at me.As we get higher shallow steps lead us round piles of granite boulders. Jack climbs up to study this large clump of rock orchids. I can imagine their beauty in spring when they flower, I have a small clump in our garden that dazzle me every year. This is what Jack is reading…Information boards were placed to explain what was around us. They say it so much better than me. So now we are entering the area called “granite titans” I love this descriptive term. Just look at them, they are overwhelming and so grand in stature…

Look carefully at the above photos because we are in them. They tower above us covered in moss and lichen. They are quite intimidating.

But what a change in size as we round another corner. The smaller rocks are scattered so prolifically around here that passers-by have gathered them up to create cairns, small sculptures, a gathering of little gnomes, calling to me”take my photo”…

A gap in the trees, rocks and bushes reveals that we are now quite high up. The going has been so gentle and easy it is a surprise to see how high we are.Suddenly we come out of the bush and onto the bald rock.

We feel on top of the world, as though we are invincible. We have had all this beauty to ourselves not having seen another person. But now we meet up with 2 Canadians they have been up the same way as us but now they are going down the steep, quick and, I think, quite dangerous way. I take their photo as they disappear over the edge.We have made it, very slowly, but with time to really absorb our surroundings. It is breathtaking.

But what goes up now has to go down. But we are going back down the way we came up.The light has faded and no longer suitable for photography, so it is a faster trip down. Until, suddenly, we hear a rustle in the undergrowth. What is it? We stand with bated breath, maybe it is a wallaby, or some small bush creature. I wait with camera at the ready. Then I get a fleeting glimpse and catch a blurry picture as the 2 birds scuttle off into the bush. Look at what I caught. I think it is the very elusive and shy lyre bird. Can anyone identify it for me?What a satisfying ending to the day. But as we drove home I was brought to a stop by this…