Rocky Crossing Walk: Barrington Tops National Park

{The rocky crossing walk is an easy 16km round trip that we did in just over 5 hours easily. Most of the track is pretty flat with only a few steep spots. Because it is a rainforest the track was wet and slippery and probably is all the time, so proper shoes are needed.}



This weekend was a weekend of quite a few firsts. It was the first time we have been camping, the first time either of us have ever camped in a state forest site where you just turn up and pitch a tent, the first time we have been to Barrington National Park, the first time we have used our sleeping bags and the first time using my polarising filter. I didn't use it that much actually because the forest was really dense and there was not much light around most of the time.

So this was sort of a last minute weekend away idea. We didn't have any plans for the weekend because we are trying to save for our trip to South America so I decided it would be a great time to go for a nice long bush walk. The only problem was the walk I wanted to do was a 2 hour drive away and 4 hours out of your day is a huge chunk! So we dusted off the tent and borrowed a portable stove from a friend and headed up on Sunday afternoon. I was expecting the 4 free campsites to be packed. But we had ours all to ourself. Except for the car that drove past about 8 times at about 6pm. They stopped in the first time past and asked if we knew where something was... Nope, sorry. Why not give up hey? 

Anyway we got to our camp site and noticed the car was just a tad muddy. It had been a bit drizzly for the past week or so and the roads were pretty mucky. 

I left Brandon to set up the tent while I got the dinner stuff ready. I had already set the tent up and taken it down in the lounge room the night before anyway. 

We opted for a little bit of luxury with the mattress off the sofa bed instead of our thin self inflating mats. I also packed the feather doona (that we never use because it's far too hot) along with our sleeping bags because I had no idea how cold it was going to be. Lucky I did because I forgot the pillows and so a sleeping bag became our pillow. 

After we had our camp set up we went for a wander across the road to the little stream that was very close. It was quite nice and it made a great background sound for sleeping. Brandon started trying to make a little fire just as it decided to start raining so I headed off to get dinner on the go. Surprisingly the fire went not too bad even with the rain and lack of newspaper to start it and I had a couple marshmallows just in case it died while we ate tea. The rain eased a bit at about 6pm and we toasted some more marshmallows before looking at each other and wondering what to do since it was dark and wet and we only had a tiny tent. It was the earliest I have ever been in bed! 

I believe it was on the second toilet run in the middle of the night that I said to Brandon, "If I ever decide camping would be a good idea again, remind me of this." That's the only downside to staying at a little campsite with minimal facilities, no lighting anywhere.

I was sure we would be up at dawn, especially since we were in bed so early. But it was 7:20am before we were dragging ourselves out of bed to make some baked beans on toast for breakfast and throw together some sandwiches before driving from the state forest where we camped just over the edge of the national park boundary to our track spot.

Just before our walk

The signs were actually really good on this walk. They even showed you where the side tracks to the river were. This was the longest walk we have done so far at 16kms. We accidentally did the Blue gum loop track because it's not really a look track, it dumps you out about 500m up the road from the car park and so we took the longer way where we ended up joining the rocky crossing walk with the blue gum loop. We didn't do the last 1km of the rocky crossing walk because it just goes up to a picnic spot. I should warn you there will be a lot more photos to come.

The picture of the map we took in case we needed it

Can you spot the lion head

 The first side track was to the lions rock. There was a pretty big log stuck in the waterfall above the rock.

Keeping on walking, a fair bit of the track was dappled with light

A hole in the canopy from a fallen tree

Capturing the sun through the trees

The next stop was the pool of reflections. It wasn't particularly reflective but it was still pretty. Until Brandon slipped and both our water bottle fell into the stream rapids. He yelled out to me but I had no idea what he had said so he had to run down to the next lot of little rapids and got a bit wet fishing it out there.

My water bottle floating away

Fishing the water bottle out

On the track again a few bridges had fallen down

Make shift bridge

Brandon at rocky crossing

The final stop, and our lunch stop before heading back, was rocky crossing. It was very pretty, the best spot by far. I really wish I had brought the connecting for the camera to my tripod, but I didn't realise it wasn't attached so I had to make do for slow shutter speed photos. Most ended up pretty blurry.

My first go at a slow shutter speed photo of bubbles on the water surface.

Crystal pool

On the way back along the short part of the Bluegum loop there was a detour because part of the track was closed. So we took another detour to Crystal pool. It was not that impressive and also there was a child that had just pooed her pants there so we didn't stay very long.

We also SAW an actual real live Lyre Bird digging around in the leaves. Brandon saw it run across the path and then we crept up and watched it through the trees as it scratched around like a bush turkey. I was pretty stoked. 

Overall it was a great weekend and we will be back to do the Gloucester tops walk.