Day Seven of a Camper Holiday! - Border Ranges National Park

The Camper parked at Sheepstation Creek camp ground.

Waking up and listening to the rain on the camper roof was disappointing. Our original plan was to return to Canberra via the Pacific Highway stopping around Byron Bay, Wauchope, and Newcastle.


Yet the rain was not so bad: the day was warm, and we were in beautiful rainforest surroundings.

The path crossed the creek many times.

X and A had got up early and gone for a walk, leaving me and E to sleep in. When I emerged, X had returned and so declared himself my tour guide. We walked the 2 kilometre track to the Brushbox Falls lookout.

Green everywhere. Green leaves, green moss. Gorgeous!

The track took us across a large, shallow gully, and it was interesting to note the variations in the forest - initially the forest had sparsely spaced trees with a grassy undergrowth, and as we crossed the bottom of the gully, the trees formed a dense canopy, making a muddy path in the cold air.

A strangler fig.

The path crossed the creek several times, and then went up a muddy slope.


With my limited knowledge of rainforest habitats I was able to point out a few features to X, such as strangler figs living their parasitic life on another tree, and luxuriant layers of moss growing on fallen timber.


The lookout consisted of a wooden platform built in the side of the hill.

X's favourite waterfall photo.

The falls were lovely, and I took the opportunity to try and experiment with camera shutter speeds to achieve different effects - slower speeds resulting in a silkier appearance of the water, and greater depth of field.


We wandered back to the camp ground, and sheltered from the rain in the communal camp kitchen where we checked the weather reports. Wet weather all along the New South Wales coast meant that we needed to move further inland to stay dry.


Staying in Sheepstation Creek would be lovely, but it was simply too wet to go on longer hikes with the kids.


After some research and deliberation, we decided to break camp and fossick for Sapphires.

A Wren checks in on us at the camp kitchen.