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Girraween National Park and Spring Wildflowers · Everyday Hiker

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for details of the most beautiful weekend hikes in Southeast Queensland and further afield?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're in the right place.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Everyday Hiker Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Beck and I'm your host.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Join me and my guest hikers as we share amazing locations, practical tips and guides for new hikers as well as those with more experience looking for some inspiration.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And please, if you like what you hear, follow me, share with your friends, rate my podcast, and send me your feedback.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I did an episode recently called Fantastic Springtime Walks, and I mentioned in it that I was going to do a full episode devoted to Geroen National Park because, in my view, it's one of the most beautiful places to go in spring.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that I had a four-day hiking trip coming up, which I've just finished.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought I would talk about some of the places that I went that was new.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't done those trails before, and also the highlights.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: But just to kick off, Geroin literally translates to place of flowers, and that is really the reason to get out to Geroen at this time of year.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just some logistics to get those out of the way.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, you travel to Stanthorpe to access Geroen National Park.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's about two and a half to three hours from Brisbane, depending which side you're coming from, and you're going via Cunningham's Gap and Warwick.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a choice of places to stay around Stanthorpe, and it really depends on what you're hoping to do while you're out there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you've come purely for the hiking, then I would suggest that you actually want to go south of Stanthorpe, probably about a half an hour's drive towards Tenterfield, because all of the main trails are accessed south.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it will isolate you a little bit from some of the other activities in the area, and there's heaps to do.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to mix it up, you could stay in Stanthorpe itself, that's where probably the most accommodation is, and the most accessible.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to be aware that you might have a little bit of a trip to get to the trails each day.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: On this trip, we stayed in Glen Alpen, which is about halfway.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good compromise because you're 15 minutes from town if you want to go to one of the pubs for dinner at night, etc., and another 15 minutes towards the trailheads on Pyramids Road, so which is where the most popular trails are located.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to camp, there's private campsites around, but the big national park camping in Giroween is down that pyramids road.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple of areas there.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The main one is Castle Rock, and then there's a smaller site, a bit more intimate, called I think it's pronounced Camberwall, which both of these sites cater for tents and trailers.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got a camper van, you probably want to go to Castle Rock.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's Clean Amenities Block.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everything actually out there has been upgraded in the past few years.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: They do have showers.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those quaint bit of fun.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Bring your own buckets so you can heat up the water and have uh they've got a hook and um sort of system that you can pull the bucket up and tip it over yourself to have a shower.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of picnic areas and barbecues, and also it's quite shady in the campsites.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So believe it or not, because of the elevation, it can get quite hot out at Stanthorpe.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh, you know, great um shady campsites for camping out there for a while.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The drawback I would say to camping in these national park spots is that firstly they're pretty popular, so school holidays get really busy.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are can be a bit dusty.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: The roads in and out are gravel and there isn't much grass around the campsite.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So be prepared for a bit of dusty camping.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the other one I guess that can be a deal breaker for some is there's strictly no campfires.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why you might want to look at some of the private sites who are more inclined to let you firstly they may have grass cover, and secondly, let you have a campfire.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's quite a bit of remote camping in the area as well, most of those without good vehicle access.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're into through hiking and remote camping, you can book a number of sites via the National Parks website, and I'll put a link to that on the show notes.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, the main hub of walks in Geroen is from the Pyramids Road.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Bald Rock Creek Day Use area, not to be confused with Bald Rock, which we'll talk about in a little while.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just what the name of the main car park is.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's an information centre here which is really helpful to drop into, uh, get yourself some maps, but also just get an update on local conditions.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So this area is famous for its granite rocks, which are just simply awesome.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's been raining or it's expected to rain, that granite rock can get really slippery.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you probably want to know what the safest ones are to do before you head out, depending on the conditions.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Even around the information centre, which I love, there's so much wildlife.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see kangaroos everywhere, echidnas, um, lizards, snakes in the summer or the spring.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is a nice place to start your hikes each day or end up there because they've got fresh water, toilets, picnic tables, and once again lots of shady spots.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when people think about hiking in Geroen, probably the first one that comes to mind is the pyramid.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's easy to see, it's a unique-shaped rock formation, which funnily enough looks like a pyramid.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's actually two.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the one behind the main pyramid is very tough to walk, it is steep, uh, there is no breaks in the rock, it's straight up sheer rock, and you're only going to climb it if you're sort of elite level.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's greater like a nine.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So most people are going to want to go for that front pyramid that they can see.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's really tempting.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You see it and you think, yeah, I want to conquer that, I want to get to the top.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: There is little in the way of vegetation on the rock, uh, enough that you could stop by, hang on to a boulder, maybe a tree, but mostly it's just a granite rock formation.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: That makes it a little daunting because there's no set trail up there, although you'll see some painted white marks on the rocks.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you have to be comfortable hiking an exposed area where you may not have anything to hang on to.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Look, having said that, the first part is actually probably the sort of scariest bit because you're straight on to going up quite steeply with no support on granite.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: When it's dry, that granite is really grippy.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So as long as you've got good shoes, um, lean down, do whatever you need to do, take poles, but remember to have rubber bottoms on them.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Use your hands if you need to.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you get past that bit, it's a lot easier going.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's another little bit of exposed bit as you get to the top, but um, don't be put off by the first bit of the climb of the rock itself because getting to the top is so rewarding.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful views, uh there's a big balancing rock up there, and the the top itself is fairly flat.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can sit up there, we were waiting for sunset, so you can sit up there and and and watch um the sunset develop, which is really beautiful.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can use it as sort of a navigation center to see the other rock formations around, get your map out so you can identify a turtle rock and the sphinx and things that we're going to get onto.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So really give pyramid rock a crack.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's well worth doing, but come prepared with some grippy shoes and watch out if it's slippery.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is a short walk into the base of the pyramid, um, just winding through the forest.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a natural rock formation called Granite Um Arch, which you can uh spill off to as a little bit of a side track.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: The walk itself right up to the top is only four and a half kilometres.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Despite how short that sounds, you're probably going to take you at least an hour, probably two, because you'll want to stop at the top.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, pyramid done, whether you do it the first day, depending on the weather or not.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, from uh the the next trailhead that you want to head to is the one that is at the top of the Castle Rock camping area.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's a few uh day parks here, but mostly it's for the campers.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you walk through the campsite, and you know, that means you can use the toilet block.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a trail that is going to take you to three main areas.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same trail for the first couple of um kilometres and it's slightly uphill.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a well-graded trail.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's um rock steps on the way up there, and when you reach this junction, you can decide whether you're going to go left to Castle Rock and Mount Norman or right to the Sphinx and Turtle Rock.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk about the Sphinx and Turtle Rock first because that is probably the most accessible trail.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just under eight kilometres return.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would grade it as uh you know high-end beginner, low intermediate.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's quite accessible for most people who are prepared to do a bit of a bushwalk.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really rewarding uh hike to do if you want to get some really uh spectacular rock formation.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you continue your sort of elevation on the way up there, and the first one you come to is the Sphinx, and it is a large uh granite boulder with another one, uh smaller one resting on top, so the body and the head, and if you squint your eyes enough, it really does look like the Sphinx from Egypt, so hence the name, and you can imagine exactly why it's called that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can sit under those rocks and get a bit of shade and shelter from the wind if it's a windy day, have a bit of a break, morning tea, lunch, whatever it might be.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Turtle Rock is only less than a couple hundred metres away, so you keep going up the trail, and you'll know why this one's called Turtle Rock because you've got a big dome rock for the body and a smaller one for the head.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: As you approach Turtle Rock, there's a sign that says the trailhead ends here, and it does.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: The official trail ends there, and you would turn around and go back.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're feeling it slightly more adventurous, keep walking around the bottom of the turtle body, and you will see a climb up, you know, the spine of it, and it forks in two directions, left and right.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you go left, it gets a bit steeper, that's sort of heading towards the head of the turtle, and it gets quite narrow.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, my suggestion is that you go right, that is a short scramble, it's not um uncomfortable at all to do.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've just got to sort of you know um inch around a few of the larger rocks.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get up to the top here, the sphinx is really close, so you'll get a fantastic up-close view of the Sphinx, makes for great photos, views of some of the other rocks in the area, and behind the sphinx is the pyramid.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll capture it all in one photo.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the Sphinx and Turtle, you're heading back down to the junction, and if you're finished for the day, you're heading out to the car park.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can combine this walk with Castle Rock, which a lot of people do, because from the junction, Castle Rock is only less than a kilometre.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, you're sort of winding through the trail, you get to the base of Castle Rock, and you've got to do that climb up that granite rock.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot less um confronting than pyramid rock, it's not as steep, but and it's easier, sort of wind round, but you get really nice views from the top of Castle Rock as well.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you might want to call that a day.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're super um fit and energetic, you could combine it with Mount Norman because they're all in the same area, but that's going to be a really full day's walk because Mount Norman takes about four to five hours, depending on once again on how long you stay up there.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: But from that junction and the Castle Rock turn off, you would continue to Mount Norman.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now I hadn't been to Mount Norman before, and I loved it.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it is definitely one worth planning for.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if unless you want a long day, you might want to do it by itself or combine it with Castle Rock.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as well marked as Castle Rock and the Sphinx and Turtle Rock and even the pyramid.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you might want to have your all trails running.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a few decisions, particularly when you get to the rock face, of which way to go.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you could tell that some were easier than others.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, and there are some helpful white painted marks again on the rock face, but for my mind, I would have wanted to take all trails out there to Mount Norman.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mount Norman is, like I said, winding continuing to wind up through that sort of bushland trail.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some very pretty um yellow wattles along the way, like really flooding over the trail, which was a really nice start to the walk.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't see those further down at Castle Rock or Turtle Rock and the Sphinx.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: When you get to the rock face, you're sort of you know uh climbing over a couple of elements of it, sort of making your way around and up towards the base of Mount Norman.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: None of them are particularly scary.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're grippy again, uh similar to um pyramid rock.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to have the right shoes on, poles if you need them, like I said, with those rubber bottoms.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And on those sheer rock faces, they you're getting some fantastic views.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you're literally going to try and walk around the whole of Mount Norman, around the base, and including this sort of loop you're doing over the rock now, and you'll get that 360-degree view around.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's giant boulders along the way on these rock faces.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you um make your way up to the base of Mount Norman, I thought this was the loveliest trail that we did the whole time.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: We were there, it's really shady, um, lovely tall mature trees, which you're kind of not expecting to be at the base of a mountain, because you you're almost at the top at this point.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the sun sort of comes through dappled light that made it just really pretty against the rock face as you're walking around the rock face.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's little caves that you can walk through.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is where the wildflowers were crazy.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yellow, pink, white, cream, different shades of yellow, um, that heath, those heath flowers were just everywhere, a real explosion of them.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we were fairly early in spring, so I can imagine that they just develop over time.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what made Mount Norman so special for me.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you get there, there is a geographical feature you don't want to miss, which is called the eye of the needle.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's exactly what it suggests on the top of a pile of big rocks, there's a gap.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost love heart-shaped, actually.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, only if you're experienced can you scramble up those rocks.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're quite big, they take full body stretch and so forth.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But even standing at the bottom, it's spectacular to look through the eye of the needle, and just to the right of it, there's a massive balancing rock as well.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: We saw heaps of wildlife in this area as well, particularly birds, saw a big kite circling.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's sort of what really made it spectacular with Bount Norman.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: When you're leaving the eye of the needle, you can head round a bit to the right and do that sort of loop of the base that I was talking about.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's great spots for sitting on top of large rocks and taking them in the view and other sort of sheltered areas to have some lunch.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you get to that area, there is one last climb right up to the top of Mount Norman.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is once again for really only very experienced hikers.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm told by one of the guys we're with that's done it that there was a chimney chute that you've got to edge your way up, and then there's quite a big gap that you've got to jump over.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So just be careful not to go up that bit if you haven't got the necessary skills to do it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um you might only get as high as we did and below those big boulders.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I loved Mount Norman, as I said earlier, it was a lot quieter than the other trails.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can squeeze it in or you've been to Giroween before, it's definitely one to do.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before you leave the Castle Rock and Bald Rock Day Use areas, there's a couple of shorter walks that you can do.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got some people with you that aren't hikers or you just want to break, um try there's little walks like the junction, Bald Rock Creek, the Weiburber trails that are short, flat, they're following um the creeks.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: You'll definitely see wildflowers and wildlife.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, the best of the shorter, flatter walks would be Underground Creek, which you can combine with Dr.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Roberts waterhole.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: The car park to start these two walks is a little bit further on from Baldrock Creek, so you just keep going.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's called the Dr.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Roberts Car Park.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Underground Creek in particular is a really fascinating series of rock formations.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: The water is cascading down under these large boulders.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get out to Underground Creek, you will be able to see through the boulders.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see the course of the water.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Might not always be running fast, but you'll see where the water is coming through and under these boulders.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you can clamber over the top, jump on them, climb up a bit higher, have a really good look around this whole area.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can even climb up to the rocks at the back and get a bit more of a view.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite different from anywhere else because of this underground nature of the creek.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: We also saw a lot of kangaroos around there.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the way, you will also hit Wave Rock, which is another fascinating uh formation.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: This one, what makes it different, apart from being a shaped like a wave that's breaking in the surf, is that it's yellow and red.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you're used to seeing so much grey with the granite that it's quite a delight to see some different coloured rock formations.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely stop in at Wave Rock and then also head over to Dr.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Roberts Waterhole.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very short diversion, less than a kilometre, I think, or about a kilometre from the car park.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's usually full of water.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're brave, you could swim here, but it's a really nice place to stop and have a break.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's some large boulders, you're likely to see wildlife in this area.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And also these two trails feature plenty of wildflowers, too.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So watch out once again for the Heath flowers, the wattle, um orchids, native orchids, things like that.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's time to leave Geroen National Park.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're the main trails, the real highlights in Geroen.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, you probably need three to four days in this area to do all those highlights.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there is one that I think you shouldn't miss, depending on how short your trip is.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to do it at least once, and that is to climb Baldrock.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Baldrock itself is actually rather large.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's about three areas to it.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's the southern, the west, and then the main summit.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're into through hiking, you can actually hike from Geroen National Park all the way over to Baldrock, stopping and camping in between at one of those remote sites that I spoke about.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're wanting to drive, it's a little bit extra a drive, probably take you a half an hour to get down to the main Bald Rock parking area to access the summit.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're crossing the Queensland border and going into New South Wales.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I mention this is because New South Wales National Parks generally have a fee, definitely in this case here.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So in the car park, you need to pay your fee to go into Baldrock National Park.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And unless you're incredibly lucky, you don't skip this part because you will get caught.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or you may get caught, likely to get caught, might be what I need to say.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um Baldrock itself is a huge granite rock.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is the second only to Uluru in the southern hemisphere.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's about 750 metres wide, 500 metres deep, and at the top where you're going to, it's about 1300 metres elevation.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But don't worry, you're not going to be climbing anything like that.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're already pretty high.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's only a couple hundred metres of elevation to get up to the summit.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there are two ways to get up and down.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: The first way is just right up the rock and straight down the rock.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, there's those helpful white markers.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably as steep as the pyramid, um, but feels a lot safer.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that it's a bit of a lung buster because there's nowhere really to stop and lean on a boulder.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: You well, no, you can stop.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can stop on flat paths.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You probably need to stop, take a breather, look back at where you've come from.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that it's you know there's nothing on this trail particularly, it's just straight up a rock to get to where you need to go.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you might want to think about going up that way and maybe coming down the Bunduna circuit, which is really, really pretty, lots of wildlife, balancing rocks, etc., and a lot more gentle wide round wind round the Side to get up to the Bald Rock Summit.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even at the top of the rock face, you're not there yet.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've got quite a walk, well, when I say quite a walk, a kilometre or so to walk along the top, and it's surprisingly once again quite well forested.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see a bit of wildflowers there, and there are some, you know, so if if if there's water in them, there's some rock holes to jump over, and then you're getting up to the summit itself.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know you'll you've reached the summit, apart from the markers telling you that there's a giant sort of navigational tool in the middle that people like to go and put their hands on and say, hey, I've made it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is a large flat area up the top, which is really great.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's heaps of places to stop, but there's also people like to have a bit of fun with photos, group photos, panoramic photos.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, this is the place to do it.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And because of the nature of the rock, you really are going to get that 360-degree view of the whole area out to Girowen, and the marker at the top will point out what the different mountains that you can see, what features you're looking at.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Baldrock, not to be missed.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Really lovely walk.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I've gone there, people comment on how great it is.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And down the bottom there is a really nice picnic area, so you've paid your fee, you might as well enjoy it.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is popular, but it's really nice and shaded down there.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now you could go and do bald rock in definitely in half a day from the Stanthorpe Giroween area, um, or you could say, Well, I'm going to drive in maybe from Stanthorpe and go through sort of in that region, go through Yuki Road and past the Storm King Dam and get down to Bald Rock that way.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can also either go in or come out via the road that almost takes you to Tenterfield.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do this, and maybe after you've done Bald Rock and you want to head south towards Tenderfield, on that road you'll find a couple of lovely waterfalls to visit and a Bush Rages hideout.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I would definitely suggest make a full day of it and go and have a look at one or both falls and the hideout.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first one, um, so you're going into it's spelt Bunu Bunu, but I understand it's pronounced Banabanu National Park, and you're going to go to the Bunabanu Banu Falls is your first stop.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now these are quite tall falls, they've got a real drop-off.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're not far off the road.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lookout, and I think that's only about 400 metres.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you just want to go and um have a look at the falls from that angle, you can.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can also walk to the top of the falls.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's rock pools there.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I saw kids swimming in them where the water is cascading down and then over the edge.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not um running super fast, like Niagara or something at the top.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite pleasant, you know, sort of meandering down there.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing you can do is you can walk down the trail on the side of the falls and get to the bottom and watch where you're watching the um the full um height of the falls into the water below.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, there's picnic grounds there if you want to stop there if um Board Rock has been a bit busy.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you carry on, you'll come to Basket Swamp Falls in the same national park.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now these are a bit more challenging to get into.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um they are it's a gravel road in.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's recommended that it's four-wheel drive only.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can do a two-wheel drive with clearance.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: You might not feel comfortable driving the whole way in, and there's places where you can sort of pull over at the side, maybe walk in the last kilometre or so to get to the falls.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well worth the effort.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're really different from the Banu Bunu um falls, they're a lot wider, um, and the the height drop isn't as great.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I liked about them is you can get right into the falls.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So top and bottom, you're up nice and close.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a few swimming spots there, it's definitely less popular, so you'll um you might be the only ones there, um, and therefore you might see a bit more wildlife.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so if it's a hot day and you want to swim, it's going to be cold because because it's uh because of the elevation anyway, that might be the place to head.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, if you're heading out on this road, you will see a sign um uh showing you where Captain Thunderbolt's hideout is.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very short diversion, it really won't take you long at all.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You could be in and out in 15 minutes.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think what makes it a little bit different is um so Captain Thunderbolt, the bush ranger, had his camp here, but he used to hide his horses in the caves as well.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a horse cave plus a cave where um uh they would camp and and and have fires, etc.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit different because of the size of the cave, and you can almost imagine um if it's not too busy, you can almost imagine sort of that bush ranger lifestyle as they they go and hide out from the rangers in this area.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you could keep going to Tenterfield, but I think that's a whole other episode.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've already used up enough time because Tenterfield is wonderful, you've got the Sundowner National Park plus about three or four other national parks around.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you're probably going to head back into Stanthorpe.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't want to spend your whole time hiking, and you definitely could, you could spend a week out in this area and do a hike every different hike every day.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: But what makes Stanthorpe so wonderful to visit is its wine-growing territory.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: You will see smaller wineries on the roads out to the trails, the big ones you'll see on the highway, there's some fantastic wineries to visit there.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also it's a food lovers' destination.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a chocolate shop, a cheese factory, a jam works, there's um coffee shops, country pubs.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I even notice there's now a truffle farm operating out there, gin distillery, and if you want other activities, there's a maze, there's a dam to kayak on, there's a whole cycle trail from Stanthorpe down to the wineries.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a beautiful creek in Stanthorpe Town that you can walk along, and if you go at dusk, you might see platypus.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it really is.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and one thing I did on this visit, I went to the Christmas tree farm, which was a terrific stop as well.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Such a Christmas themed destination, but primarily you're going out there to pick your Christmas tree to uh come and pick up for Christmas time.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I really can't rave enough about Geroen in spring.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you're into hiking, um hopefully you can make at least a weekend of it, if not three, four, five days, if not a week, there's so much to do.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just spring, if you go in autumn, that's the main festival time.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you go in summer, there's lots of wild swimming, although it's hot.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go in winter, I think we all know if you haven't seen snow Queenslander, then your best chance at Queensland might be out at Stanthorpe.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link to all the trails I've covered today in the show notes.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I look forward to hearing about your own adventures out to Geroen.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, happy hiking.