15 April 2022 Bald Rock and Boonoo Boonoo

Up early

Cold bleak morning 

This photo shows how high up we had to put the van up to level it off

On the road by 8:30 as lots to see and do today. 

Our plan was to explore the National Parks in this area

Back along the winding track through the property out to the road

Bill opened this gate as it was very muddy either side and he had his boots on. 

There were two gates that we had to open and close each time we went through the property

Beautiful horses along the track

At this entrance I checked the box for maps as I was interested in the lay out of the camping area and found some rough drawn maps so I took a photo and put them back



Out onto the road over the flowing Bookookoorara Creek

And out on to the main road



Our first stop for the day

Luckily there was good information on the notice board for us to work out what walks we were going to do. 

We decided, based on the information on this board that we would go along the Bungoona Walk first

Pretty walk interspersed with rock formations

and lush vegetation 

At a sign explaining about Rock Lillies people had placed stacks of rocks 

I came across these flowers that are near our camp site and saw that one had an interesting butterfly like insect on it

Bill took a close up but unfortunately the insect had flown off

Interesting huge rock boulders

To go through

A few useful steps along the way

and more huge boulders to walk through











We stopped along the way to admire and take photos of pretty flowers

But continued on through and around more boulders









and more pretty flowers 















Not yet at the join with the rock face walk but starting to get amazing views already. Interesting trickle of water flowing from the top

The junction with the rock face walk, still some distance to the top

Continuation of the walk from here was just as picturesque with boulders to walk through and rocks to climb over

Soon we had the summit in our sights..



This is where we came across lots of other people climbing up and down



One last set of boulders to walk around

Before reaching the top

and the taking of the compulsory selfie

We did eventually ask someone else that was on the summit to take this photo for us

After they had left we had the whole summit to ourselves for a brief moment 















Bill managed to catch a photo of a Cunningham skink that is endemic to this area

So then, back down off the rock

With a chance to view its stunning colours

We started back down through behind the balancing rocks

Lichen on the rocks

And bright coloured fungi 

Some really pretty fruits we spotted

and beautiful flowers 

Took a snap shot of our travels thus far, before we did the huge descent

Another animalised rock, not sure quite what we thought this one was


So, this was where the knee wrecking descent started







Finally the last little bit through the bush

Back down in the picnic area.

Being Good Friday there were lots of people around and all the picnic tables were taken.

Fortunately we had brought our own chairs and Luckily I had made some wraps with, would you believe, some salad, egg and cheese that was still OK from 2 weeks ago

Onwards we decided then to proceed on to Boonoo Boonoo

A fair way down the road to the falls

We stopped off at The Platypus viewing platform first would  have been nice to be camped at Cypress Pines camping area and done the walk along to here at sunrise or sunset



We then drove to the end of the road, where we walked down to the viewing platform.

Fungi along the way 

And pretty flowers 

We were in for a big surprise. This was the river flowing over the rocks that we thought were the falls.

Eventually we reached the end of the walkway where the lookout was, where we could see the massive drop of the falls

Way down into the valley





Bill spotted this beautiful flower on the way back up the track 


We decided to walk down to the rock pool but unfortunately didn’t enjoy it as there were some kids there playing loud music and smoking. Bill would have loved to have climbed around on the rocks 

It did look inviting 

We ended up carrying on to Morgan’s Gully

With good views down to the river from the road

Morgan’s Gully- Bill jumped across here

A great view of the join of two creeks here - both flowing

More pretty flowers

Back on the road back to camp we came across this Bike Art Trail

Our next adventure was to find the turn off to Harrigan’s  Lane - a track that Liz, our host from StonePine Ridge had told us about 

We had no idea where this would take us, and no idea what treat was in store
The road started out as just an ordinary track

But got more interesting as we drove on 

Going down and down and down quite steeply

We were starting to get amazing views across the valley

Eventually we arrived at a river crossing

We then discovered that this was the crossing of the Boonoo Boonoo, way below where we had been before, looking at the falls, looking down into this valley!!!

As it was getting late in the day at this point we headed back up to the main road. We measured the distance on the way back to the main road. We had come 10k.

This last creek crossing on the road was Bookookorara creek

We arrived back on the property just as the sun was setting

Cows in excellent condition I might add were wandering across our pathway

Stunning views of the skies as we arrived at the main gate



When we got to the second gate, Liz was there bringing someone in to go to Long Paddock so she asked us if we could show them the way seeing as we were going that way and she still had two meals to prepare for people staying at the accommodation. 

This is the route of our travels from along Hannigans Lane

Sunset at the end of a very busy but fabulous day