Wednesday 13 February 2013

1 February 2013 – Bald Rock to the Gold Coast (and our ten year wedding anniversary)



No school work today – yippee!  Seeing as though we didn’t get to swim yesterday we drove to another nearby area ready to take a dip.  It was called Morgan’s Gully (still in Boonoo Boonoo National Park) and was a much calmer part of the river.  What a way to spend the first part of such a special day!  The kids were a bit hesitant to get in the water to begin with but once they were in, it was hard to get them back out.  The pictures probably don’t show, but the water still had a bit of strength to it in parts even to the point that there was a small waterfall flowing over the rocks.  It was such gorgeous and serene surroundings, and not a soul in sight.  Heaven!!  We spent some relaxing time in the refreshing water before I decided to walk down a rock that the kids had been playing and running along.  However, my water shoes are obviously not as “grippy” as the kids and I went for a big fall landing on the point of my elbow and on my backside.  My elbow is still sore and bruised nearly 2 weeks after the fact but it is improving.

Upon leaving Morgans Gully we headed for Bald Rock National Park in the hope to climb Bald Rock.  This rock rises to a height of approx. 260 metres and is the biggest exposed granite rock in Australia… so we went to climb it.  We had two choices, the Bungoona Walk which was the more gentle 2.5kms to the top or the Summit Walk which was around 1.3kms and headed straight up the smooth side of the rock.  Josh chose – we were taking the summit walk!!  I was a little nervous scaling the side of this rock, especially having the kids in tow and having such a smooth surface to move along.  We would walk a bit of the way up and stop to rest before continuing.  At each stop, the sights became prettier but also much scarier.  One wrong move and you would simply roll….. no doubt, all the way to the bottom!  Upon reaching the summit, the views were absolutely stunning with a 360 degree view of the landscape.  We were way above the never-ending trees of the national park but funnily enough we found a small gap in the trees where we could see the top of our parked caravan (we had the kids binoculars with us).  After a quick snack and lots of negotiating with Josh, we took the Bungoona Walk to return to the base of the rock.  It was a stunning walk and one which even Josh was glad we took.  A few wallabies took us by surprise on the way down by jumping out in front of us and scaring us half to death, but there were also many and varied sized boulders leaning and hanging above us on the path down and the bushland simply surrounded us.  As pretty and adventurous as our walk was, I can’t deny that I was extremely grateful to have all made it down safely.

We spent the next few hours back in the car bound for the Gold Coast.  We took the dirt road thru to the Lindesay Highway and the surrounds were by far prettier than taking the main road.  The bikes were still inside the caravan though so it may not have been the wisest of choices.  Fortunately when we got to the other end, everything was still intact thanks to the many ocky straps Josh had used.  The saddest of the sites on this trip was the effect the recent floods had had on these areas.  We saw many disrupted river systems as well as a few roads that were quite badly damaged and really felt for the locals in some of these areas.

Upon arriving to the Gold Coast, it was pretty late in the day and we set about making ourselves at home at Treasure Island Caravan Park.  Josh in particular was pretty tired from the events of the day as well as the hours of driving so we didn’t head out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our anniversary but instead headed to the restaurant in the caravan park for a quick buffet.  Although the food wasn’t great, having my family right by my side is exactly all I needed.





















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