Some years ago, I went on a walking to "South Bald Rock" with some scout friends. We took a wrong turn on some unmarked forrestry roads, and ended up at Billy Goat Hill. We had a lovely weekend, but we had kinda missed the boat on South Bald Rock. Before I got back to Australia, mum had put together a trip to go back there, as she'd wanted to go there for a while too. With Helen and Matthew on board, it became quite a family trip, and I was quite looking forward to it, for my first weekend back in Australia. Girraween National Park is a lovely national park on the queensland / new south wales border, about three hours drive west of Brisbane, that our family has been to many times over the years.

We stopped off at the Bramble Patch on the way, and had a nice time tasting berry products and eating waffles and icecream, before heading around to Bald Rock National Park to start our trip there. The weather hadn't been very promising, and well, it kept it's form, and within 20 minutes walk down the track, looking at a three day trip, we were soaked through, walking in pissing down rain. Could have had a better start to be sure, but hey, at least it was warm summer queensland rain. Shorts and a t-shirt, and not really being all that bothered by it.

While waiting for Mum and Matthew, I managed to get lucky and catch a glimpse of a lyre bird which was excellent, but he took off around a bush never to be seen again. And I didn't get to hear any cool unusual sounds, so I never would have known if I ever heard of hiim again. They're not spotted very often, and with such confusing calls, it's hard to know if you're even near one.

The day cleared up a little, and we eventually got to the edge of South Bald Rock, and set up camp on a wide bit of the old road there, and cooked dinner. Tomorrow, we would go and day trip to West and Middle Bald Rocks in the morning, and South Bald Rock, and the illustrious, elusive cave underneath it in the afternoon.

Given that most of my stories in the past have been for at least a partly Australian audience looking at the places I am in the rest of the world, this story tries to show a few more pictures of "Australian" things, for overseas readers. It's felt quite different even just writing about trips in Australia. Hopefully there's still something here of value for all readers :)