Girraween National Park

[phan_TOM]

After returning from a another really enjoyable trip to Girraween I thought I'd better share a few of the
many photos that I've taken there. A shipload of wildflowers going off at the moment attracting lots of
wildlife and making any walk in any direction pretty spectacular, especially when they're combined with
such an awesome landscape.

Massive lumps of granite of all sizes from car sized lumps to multi-storey building sized chunks everywhere.
They're in random assortments from single boulders to gigantic piles that look like a giants playground. Brilliant.

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It was perfect weather for walking, max of around 15°C in the daytime and the ranger told us that saturday night
got down to -2 (not that I could tell, I slept like the dead ), and I managed to knock off a few locations that
I hadn't been to before and got some info for pack walking in the park as I plan to do my first proper multi-day
walk there in a month or so, probably 4 days/3 nights, having only ever done overnight trips before. Pretty *&%$#!
excited about it too but my girlfriend made me promise to take a SPOT or similar device so I hope I can find
somewhere to rent one? Does anyone know where or even if its possible to hire those things around this area?
Anyway I cant wait...

[phan_TOM]

some more images, they have been heavily compressed to minimise the file sizes so I hope they come out ok...

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[phan_TOM]

Climbing the First Pyramid on Saturday morning was more of a challenge than normal because of the wind which
was pretty intense. My girlfriend didn't make it much further than where she is in this shot and ended up hiding
behind the rocks on her right while I went up and had a look. It was exhilirating and the view was well worth it.

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[phan_TOM]

Mount Norman

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[phan_TOM]

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Theres lots of Eastern Grey Roos getting about too & none of them seem too fazed by human presence either which
is cool. Lots of them seem to have young at the moment (some which seem ridiculously too big to still be in the
pouch of very tolerant mothers!) and on a couple of occasions groups of 3 or 4 went happily bounding right through
our camp. I had a moment on one of the tracks when I needed to answer the call of nature, I looked around to see
if there was anybody about and then quickly ducked a few metres into the bush to do the business when I almost stepped
on a hefty male, very close to my height, who stood up right in front of me and growled, yes growled. Magically I needed
to pee no more

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this one was very tame

[cams]

Which campsite did you stay at? I was down there on the weekend aswell.

I measured about 1deg min up the back of Castle Rock campsite on Sat night. Wind was definitely killer out on the open slabs. Great photo's btw, what sort of camera were you using? Looks like you got to some similar locations as we did. I was very proud of my gf for getting up the Pyramid. She was a bit worried because I had been saying it was similar to Bald Rock which we had been up more recently. But it was smaller and the track up more protected than I remembered. We went up on the Sunday. Did Turtle rock and The Sphinx on Saturday.

It really is an amazing place. I had pretty much only visted Main Range/Moogerah peaks all year up until this point. Really makes you appreciate seeing a completely different type of landscape. There is so much to do there aswell. We are planning on heading back in November and doing a multi day walk. My father and his partner did a 3 day walk out past Mt. Norman across to Bald Rock and back a few years ago. So maybe something along those lines. It's pretty hard to get lost out there too with all the great landmarks.

Also planning on doing some climbing and bouldering. I didn't have any removable bolt plates this time which seem to be needed for nearly everything.

[phan_TOM]

G'day Cams, were down in the lower part of the Bald Rock Creek campsite, the one where fifty thousand bowerbirds were stealing my strawberries, seriously they are in plague proportions out there.

What a magic weekend & what a beautiful park. We arrived on friday from the coast and it absolutely bucketed down most of the way. I was positive that it would clear up and my girlfriend was the opposite, I'm so glad it did clear up I love being right (and not walking in the rain)

I can't wait to get back already...

One camera is a 40D which I love because of the image quality, but its a beast to carry around sometimes and the other is a Panasonic FT1 which is great to carry around but has crappy image quality... what do you do? I think with the way that image quality is going with micro four thirds I may have to trade it all in for one of those systems one day. These are taken with both.

[Pteropus]

Very nice photos phan-TOM. Thanks for sharing them. Girraween is a pretty place and is a great park to introduce people to camping and hiking in general.
I too have a 40D and it is an "essential" item in my pack when hiking...along with a couple of lenses, spare batteries, tripod, etc etc...!

[cams]

Currently we use a Pentax Kx (with kit lenses) and more recently got a Canon s95. The Pentax is fairly small for an SLR and we usually take it on day walks. Only take the s95 for multiday ones though. My brother recently bought a Sony Nex5 and has been pretty happy with it.

Very true Pteropus. The hot showers and flushing toilets probably help with that.

[phan_TOM]

Thanks Pteropus, pretty hard place to take too many bad ones & I think it can be a bit too popular sometimes because of the fact that it caters to so many levels of fitness and experience. Partly the reason for me going back for some bushcamping and hopefully not seeing anyone for a few days next time, some real 'wilderness time' eg on the satgurday night there was a large group of caravaners who had brought two 44 gallon drum style fires with them (I found out the next day that the ranger told them it was a no-no to bring your own fires and to only use the ones provided) and had the football blaring over the radio, not my idea of getting away from it for a few days and to top it off they left huge piles of charcoal and ash for the ranger to clean up the next day... noice, but each to their own I suppose... At least on the sunday afternoon most people had cleared out and we did get some serenity for a couple of days which was nice.


The weight of all the accessories adds up Pteropus, I carry a pretty chunky tripod, spare batteries, lenses, a couple of filters, etc too... It can be a drag but at least I know its my fault if I don't bring home a few keepers. If I take the compact, which I mainly bought to take on the kayak, it makes it a lot harder to make images that I'm really happy with but I have discovered that using the 15 or 30 second long exposure mode can produce some suprisingly 'clean' images, you just need to have exactly the right lighting conditions for it to work. Most compacts just have such noisy (and ugly noise compared to the 40d which I can shoot at 1600 iso quite happily) images not to mention lower dynamic range etc that makes it hard to go back to using one after using a DSLR.

I did enjoy a hot shower Cams, especially after a long days walking and to wash off the smoke from the fire... plus I discovered that the 4 minute timer in one of the shower cubicles was busted, wondered why that guy was happy to wait for that particular shower , my Girlfriend was so jealous!

[Pteropus]

Very true Pteropus. The hot showers and flushing toilets probably help with that.

Earlier this year I took a family who had never been camping on their first camping trip. I chose Girraween for that exact reason, that it had hot showers and flushing toilets. I wanted it to be a positive experience for them, so no digging toilet holes and squatting in the bush, or going without a shower for two days

[Pteropus]

The weight of all the accessories adds up .....

My camera gear comes out to approximately 4 kg, and I am looking at adding a new lens in the future. My zoom lens is 700 g on its own! By the way phan_TOM, you posted a photo of the "Posties Tree" in the tree gallery. Can you tell me where that is?
Cheers
Andrew

[phan_TOM]

Oh yeah, but how good is a shower after being grubby for a few days, isn't that a big part of why we do it I do agree though, with taking newcomers to a place that has some of the comforts that we are used to, its a nice way to ease into it so to speak, better than being thrown in the deep end and having a miserable time of it...

[phan_TOM]

I havent weighed any of my camera or hiking gear because frankly I dont want to know I'm sure if I did have a look at it I could pare it down a bit though, may have to do it sometime...

The posties tree is on the Nightcap Track, can't miss it if you start or finish from the top of North Rocks Rd. Couple of my mates camped up there a year or so ago and slept inside it, stayed semi-dry apparently... Its one of those tracks that I try and do a few times a year, mostly on the mountain bike, if you want some track notes or pointers. There is a few variations that you can do, the longest is about 35k's return and the shortest, on a bike, takes only 4 hours at a steady pace... Deep rainforest gullies, wet & dry sclerophyll, montane heath, rocky outcrops, glorious views from the Nightcap Bluff one side down the huonbrook and wilsons creek valleys to Byron and the other side (to the north) over the border ranges and a good portion of the Wollumbin Complex. The track is generally in decent condition except after any substantial rain as it washes out and become very slippery in spots. There is also some off track options down beside some spectacular waterfalls into pristine rainforest gullies if you're keen enough.

[Pteropus]

Thanks for the info phan_TOM. I have done plenty of walking in the Border Ranges and have been up Mt Warning more times than I can remember, but I have never been down to Nightcap. I have often looked at the Nightcaps and said to myself that I will get down there in the near future, and for some reason I haven't done so yet...oh well, sometime in the near future

[phan_TOM]

No worries Andrew, theres always more places to see than there is time to actually see them, I suffer from the same symptoms!!

Its such a stunning day here today, I wish I was out ther now, cheers
Tom