Waterfall way – NSW

02/02/18

The weather was not the best today, I definitely didn’t pack for such cold chills.  Today we are going to do a few trips along ‘Waterfall Way’ NSW, this strip have some stunning waterfalls, hiking tracks, cute towns, and lots of history. It was best to camp at Thora so we didn’t have to hike the caravan up the range; this worked perfectly and made for a more enjoyable and faster day trip. Our camp site, Roses Park, isn’t far from Dorrigo so we decided to go to the Dorrigo National Park first where the Crystal Shower Falls and skywalk were. The skywalk would of been amazing if the weather was better as all we could see was fog, but the track to crystal shower falls was great. Amazing sealed and easy tracks to follow, on our way down we thought ‘this is great, anyone could do this’, by the end of the treck we were thinking otherwise. I think being our first big walk/hike we were a little unfit; we did struggle getting up some of those hills. The walk itself is just stunning though, it was well worth it! We saw some amazing old massive trees, some birds, awesome views and of course the falls. It was awesome going behind the crystal shower falls, they had a cute little cave, something not usually able to be experience with most falls.  In total the walk is 6.5km and takes about 2 hours.

We had been struggling for phone service to create our 1^st blog once we had left and let our family know we were all good, so there Zac was, in the thick of the forest on the phone, making use of the coverage. After a quick trip to the local Dorrigo Pub we had to go back to camp as the weather was not so good to continue.

03/02/18

Finally it was time to check out the amazing Ebor falls, this is what I have been waiting for! The weather still looked pretty bad but we decided to brave it and hope that it would clear by the time we got to Ebor, which was an hour from our campsite. On the way we stopped into Dorrigo again as they had Saturday morning markets, we got some farmers veggies and set off for our trip. It was an amazing drive, the green hills and landscapes were stunning to look at while driving, and I stayed awake this time. Once we arrived at Ebor falls it was so easy to see them, you had 2 options, to check it out from the Lower or Upper area. The lower area you see the whole falls, I mean it is just massive. But I did like it from the Upper view, much closer to the action. We did however wish we could go down a little closer, it would be great if there was a small walking track for this.

We ended up also finding at the Information centre a nearby hike to what was called ‘Cathedral Rock’. We thought why not as we are so close, and WOW we are so glad we did. I can’t believe I didn’t find anything about this earlier, it was really stunning and something I would highly recommend. The hike is not massive, it does have a path but it is more outback with some fallen trees to dodge through, which I think made it more fun. Then the hike up to the big Cathedral rock was apparently only 500m but felt a lot longer, not in a bad way, just very steep and quite hard at times. We love exploring like this so it was a lot of fun, there was even a chain to help you walk up the last 2 massive rocks. Then the view, speechless, just stunning! Like nothing we have seen before, so much open landscape with massive rocks/boulders, a truly amazing view. We had packed lunch up there and you could spend ages there, just staring in amazement. Once we took some photos and a couple of Boomerangs we braved the walk down. The only thing I would say would be that they do need a few more direction signs as on the way down we got a little lost and found ourselves on some more difficult, mossy rocks. We eventually found our way back to the path but it is very hard to work out the best way down, all in good fun.

Camp Location:  Roses camping ground, Thora, NSW

Cost =** GOLD COIN DONATION! ** / Max Stay = 48hrs/ Facilities = Toilet, Park Benches, Fire BBQ’s

 Travelled From: Buccan, QLD

Distance Travelled: 422 kilometres

Next Stop: South West Rocks, NSW