Day 33: Heading North

December 17, 2010

We decide to spend a second day at the Carrington Falls campsite and explore the area. We picnic at the falls, a 90 meter long tail of cascading creek, edged by silky smooth black rocks that have spent thousands of years receiving this hammering. Afterwards, I walk the longer trails, exploring the rim of the canyon that snakes through the Budderoo National Park. Thick wooly clouds are gathering overhead, but it’s still warm enough to warrant a swim in Blue Pool when I return to the campground.

Carrington Falls

Rim walk in Budderoo National Park

Around 3 o’clock it starts raining. A summer rain, it should only be a quick shower. But it lasts for several hours while we huddle in the tent reading books in the dim light. When the sound of rain on the canvas roof lightens I venture outdoors to assess the situation. A stream of tan-coloured water is running down the campground road, straight under out tent and out the other side. Everything is miserably wet.

The next morning is still cool and damp but the sides of the tent are at least dry. A check of the weather report says rain is still forecast for the north, but the temperatures are hovering around 30˚. We decide to turn north.

Yesterday during the showers, we pored over the map trying to find some clarity in our indecisiveness. It could be possible to avoid the tourist route by hopping from national park to national park until we meet the South Australian border. Going across the Nullabor  to W.A. would be a last taste of the outback. We’d be home in a few weeks.

But when we start looking at the Queensland map, our appetite is whetted again for adventure. It may be foolish heading into a tropical summer exacerbated by a wet La Nina weather pattern. But it’s territory as yet unexplored – and possibly our last chance to visit it.

With the beautiful Blue Mountains as its backdrop, there’s no way around Sydney except straight through it. We spend another two hours on urban streets, avoiding toll roads, and working our way through a maze of streets that eventually leads us to the Pacific Highway out of the northern suburbs. It’s an amazing road, cut through the solid rock hills of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The amount of dynamite used to scour the topless tunnels we drive through is mind-boggling.

We decide to avoid the congestion experienced two days ago on the southern coast road and stay inland. We follow the Buckets Way through green rolling hills and small country towns, both reminiscent of the English countryside. The history of the early settlements is written on the old buildings of the English named towns: Weismantels, Stratford, Stroud, Gloucester. We set up camp late in a grassed reserve on the edge of tiny Barrington next to a gently flowing creek that feeds into a swift flowing river.

Barrington camp