A week and a half ago my family and I went down to Girraween National Park which is half an hour outside Stanthorpe, very close to the border between Queensland and New South Wales. There we set up camp for a week, enjoying the extremely fine but very cold weather.On the first night out there it got as low as -1 degreese Celcius (about 30 degrees farenheit) but thankfully that was the coldest it got. The other nights it was cold (often about three degrees) but we rugged up warm so were ok lol.
The cooler weather certainly made it ideal hiking weather. There are a number of walks available which are of varying difficulties at Girraween. On this trip I completed most of them, except for a hike out to Mt Norman, which would have taken about three hours each way.
My biggest achievement of the week was climbing to the top of a rock formation called The Pyramid. A few years ago we were at Girraween but strong wind prevented me from completing the climb, in fact I'd had to stop approximately 50 metres from the top! It is a challanging climb but I can now say that I've conquored it lol, with photos to prove it! My brother and I climbed The Pyramid on our second last day there while the rest of the family stayed back at camp, tired out from the previous hikes we'd done.Of note this trip was the variety of wildlife we saw. Even though it was the middle of winter (which means there were very few insects - a very welcome relief lol) I saw/heard a number of birds and macropods. I was even fortunate enough to spot a pair of endangered rock wallabies before they saw me and ran away.
As with any camp ground, we had our fair share of scavengers as well. Magpies and currawongs were happy to steal any food left lying around. What was a big surprise was that the kangaroos would also steal food! This was definitely the first time I'd seen a kangaroo bold enough to come into a camp site when they thought no one was looking and try to steal the bread from the table, and even have the nerve to resist leaving!!
Even at night time food wasn't safe unless packed away where wildlife couldn't get to it, as we had our night maurauding possum friend, who was also conveniently happy to have their photo taken lol.All in all I had a fantastic week and can't wait till I get to return to that campsite, it's one of my favourite places on earth :)
In order the pictures are: 1. Our campsite 2. The night maurauder 3. My brother near the top of The Pyramid and 4. A large rock formation that we affectionately name 'The Slab' as it is literally a huge (up to 20 metres high) 'slab' of rock.
