Bald Rock, NSW, Australia

I have a confession to make, this post has taken me a while to write, and I have many excuses!  But finally, I said, “Enough is enough Heather, stop making excuses, stop searching for grand titles, and just write from your heart, that is all you need to do.”  So here I am.

On my recent trip to Australia to catch up with family, Rafer’s business partner Bucko suggested climbing Bald Rock.  I had no idea where it was and what it was like, but the thought of exploring a tiny part of Australia with Rafer and Bucko sounded exciting.

After a quick Google search, I saw that Bald Rock is located near Tenterfield which is not far from Drake, where my daughter and her family live. So it was a win-win all around.  From the images I saw it did look kind of steep and not too dis-similar to Ayers Rock.

So where is Bald Rock?

Bald Rock is located within the Bald Rock National Park and is 30 km from Tenterfield near the NSW and Queensland border.  It rises 1300 meters above sea level and is the largest granite monolith in the Southern Hemisphere.

It was about a three-hour drive from Byron Bay to Bald Rock National Park and on the way, we passed through a small farming town of Casino to pick up some lunch, etc. For much of this journey, we drove through farmland and sections of gum trees all the while Bucko recalled many of his younger days hunting and exploring this part of NSW.  He was excited to be sharing this adventure with Rafer and me.

The car park was easily located with plenty of spare spaces and required payment of $8 per vehicle per day.

With our walking shoes on, water and food packed in our backpacks we headed off.  Starting from the car park there were two route options:  Bungoona walk or Rockface walk.  Walking with two males you can guess what we did –  we took the Rockface walk up.  As the name suggests this walk steeply climbed the rockface of Bald Rock.  We followed the white dots defining the best route to the summit of Bald Rock.

As we lumbered our way up,  with lots of heavy breathing I was thankful it was a fine day, not too hot, the rock was dry and I was reasonably fit, no tight thigh muscles for me – shame Rafer and Bucko could not say the same!!

The more height we gained the better the views.  It is always a good excuse to stop (for a breather) and admire the surroundings – to appreciate the environment we were in and where we were.

When we finally made it to the top I got the feeling I was on top of the world.  It had unparalleled 360-degree views and could see for miles – quite spectacular.  What a special place to be.  I wanted to stay a while and ‘just be’ so it was decided we would eat lunch and appreciate the environment.

We descended via the Bungaoona track often stopping to take photos of the huge granite boulders – unbelievable size.  We passed many people walking up this track as opposed to walking up the rock face.

It was a most enjoyable few hours exploring this special area.  If you are ever in this area do make a point of visiting this special place.  Thank you Bucko and look forward to our next adventure!

Local history

For many thousands of years, Bald Rock served as neutral ground for the three Aboriginal nations of the region: the Jukembal, Bundjalung, and Kamilaroi. Bald Rock was considered a boundary by the nations, so meetings and trade could occur on the site without each nation having to journey through the other territories.

Camping ground

Bald Rock also has a campground situated amongst the gum trees with many beautiful shaded spots to erect a tent or park up your campervan.   It has great facilities: picnic tables, barbecue facilities, drinking water, and toilets.

If you have visited Bald Rock and any other places of interest around north New South Wales I would love to hear from you.  Something to add to “my places to visit in NSW”.

Till next time, take care out there, GoldCard Gal 🙂

Additional scenes