Australia aggressively markets itself as all sunshine, surf and sand; red rocks, red dust and reefs.  But a visit to the Border Ranges National Park will show another side.

Ancient sub-tropical rainforests of Gondwana clothe the sheer cliffs formed by the eroded caldera of what’s left of a massive shield volcano. They’re so unlike anything else you’ll see downunder they’ve been World Heritage listed.

On my first and only other visit to the Border Ranges National Park I could hardly walk thanks to a strenuous 9 km return hike the day before up Mt Warning – the volcanic plug in the middle of the Tweed Volcano, and first place to see the sun on mainland Australia.

Other than a relentless climb, the walk was straightforward – until I got to the last 400m or so straight up the almost bare rock of the volcanic plug that forms the 1157 metre high summit!

Although the real leg damage was done coming back down.

That’s where I developed my revolutionary mountain-descent technique.  It’s a cunning combination of a death-grip on the chains that marked the track, and sliding down on the seat of my pants.

I dare you to try it sometime!

But it meant that the next day in the Border Ranges National Park, I only saw those attractions within easy walking distance from the car park areas.

Now, nearly 20 years later, and with no major hikes under my belt from the day before, it was finally time to explore the park a little more thoroughly.

We’d already entered a more remote section of the park and walked the Border Loop trail (see below) on one of Australia’s quirkiest road trips – the Lions Road – that cuts through the range to Queensland. But today, we were headed for the the main section of the Border Ranges National Park.

On our first trip, we’d taken the Murwillumbah-Kyogle road from Murwillumbah for about 38 km to the southern entrance. This time, we were staying at Kyogle so we approached the southern entrance from the other direction.  We planned to drive through the park, exit via the western entrance, and return to Kyogle the back way.

We’d woken up to a killer frost in Kyogle that morning.  But the fine winter’s day meant the dirt roads throughout the park were easily navigable and the walking tracks weren’t muddy! And yes, that IS noteworthy in case you’re wondering.

Can you guess why it’s called RAINforest?

While the park isn’t far from either Kyogle or Murwillumbah, it’s too far to backtrack for lunch. Stocking up with enough provisions to affect our fuel economy is easy when the awesome Kyogle bakery is near the Kyogle Caravan Park!

It’s amazing how much bakery food you can eat in just one day, isn’t it? Or is that just us?!?!?!

A few kilometres from the park entrance was the Bar Mountain picnic area and our first walk of the day. The Falcorostrum Loop – named for a rainforest orchid variety – winds through a large stand of Antarctic Beeches.

But who cares about an old tree (or two) when there’s the shy Alberts Lyrebird watching from behind the ferns? Not Pilchard!!

The staggering scenery from the three lookouts on the edge of the escarpment are pretty impressive.  That’s if the 1000m drop down to the Tweed Valley below doesn’t scare you rigid. I didn’t need any signs warning me not to stray off the paths. Even if I wasn’t the world’s biggest coward there’s NO WAY I’d go near the edge without a railing between me and the drop off!

The Pinnacle Lookout is the centrepiece of the staggering scenery with a dramatic and far ranging view down to Mount Warning and the Tweed Valley.

I chose to see the blue haze caused by smoke from a controlled burn in the distance as ‘atmospheric’ rather than ‘annoying’.

It did give my photos a certain ambience, don’t you think?!

After the lookouts, a one-way road loop descends into the Brindle Creek Valley. In the valley is the Helmholtsia Loop walk, named for a stream lily endemic to the region.  Just hope like hell that everyone else on the road a) reads the signs and b) follows them!

This is World Heritage rainforest at its best.  Even if it’s dark and damp under the canopy in a way that sunny South Australia with its wide open spaces isn’t.

We didn’t get to see the view from the Tweed Valley Lookout at the end of the road loop. There was no warning on the narrow road and only a one-car parking bay that we didn’t see until we’d gone past.

And yes, although it’s a narrow, winding, one-way dirt road, we could have just backed up.  But that would’ve been WRONG! Never mind … the view from the road was pretty stunning.

Although it was only mid-afternoon, the shadows were already long and the valleys dark.  The Sheepstation Creek camping area at the park’s western entrance was filling up.

The Palm Forest Walk winds down the – yes, you guessed right – Sheepstation Creek gully.  The trail winds amidst – yes, you guessed right – Palm Trees!  It leads to Brushbox Falls following an old logging road with names and dates from people and times long past carved into the rocky walls.

At what point does graffiti become historic art, anyway?!?!

Once we’d returned to the campground, the smoke from the just-lit campfires was giving pyromaniac Pilchard a little buzz.  But sadly, it was time to leave via the park’s western entrance. As we drove through more spectacular scenery outside the park boundary along the Lynches Creek Road to Wiangaree, then back to Kyogle the sun was setting behind the mountains.

The evening winter cold was setting in too – it would be another frosty night.

Driving to and from the park, sightseeing, hiking several of the shorter loop trails and vantage points AND eating the massive stash of Kyogle bakery provisions was a full day job. To hike any of the longer trails – ranging from 3.5 to 10.5 km – staying at either Sheepstation Creek or Forest Tops campground would have been a better option.

But I’ll save that for my third visit!

Want MORE?

• Border Ranges National Park

• Mount Warning (Wollumbin) National Park
• The Lions Road
• Kyogle, New South Wales
• More Border Ranges National Park Photos on Flickr

The post A Day in the Border Ranges National Park appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

As Aussie road trips go, the Lions Road NSW isn’t the best known. Or the longest. Or even the most demanding! But this 50 km fully sealed stretch of road linking the Mt Lindesay Highway near Queensland town Beaudesert with the Summerland Way near New South Wales town Kyogle is one of the most scenic, unusual and intriguing stretches of road in Australia.

According to me, anyway.

I’ve travelled the iconic community owned and operated Lions road in July 2014 twice.

Once travelling north from Kyogle, NSW to Rathdowney, Queensland; then later that same day back south to Kyogle. The drive itself doesn’t take long if you’re just trying to get from A to B.

But as a self-drive tour, the Lions Road NSW with its eclectic mix of natural attractions, fascinating history and unusual points of interest is as good a day out as you’ll find almost anywhere!

Here are my TOP 7 reasons why!

1 The History

If you want something done, it’s sometimes quicker to just do it yourself!

After government funding for a road roughly following the interstate railway line through the McPherson ranges fell through in the mid-late 1960s, the Kyogle and Beaudesert Lions clubs joined forces to build a gravel road themselves.

Since its official opening in 1973, the communities raise funds for

maintenance and improvements via a donation box at the Queensland/New South Wales Border, and visitors to the area have the option of a shorter, scenic and more direct route south.

The construction history in the area goes back even further to the railway line – a project employing over 1500 people over four years – with one of Australia’s most historically significant railway engineering feats in Australia, the Spiral Loop.

2 The Spiral Loop

To the casual observer, the photo (below) shows a fairly standard landscape featuring a not-unattractive well-forested hill with an jagged-edged mountain range in the background.

But lurking beneath the contours, pixellations and wooded slopes is one of Australia’s most intriguing feats of railway engineering. To reduce the length of the Main Range tunnel a few kilometres north, trains gain (or lose) 20 metres of altitude by passing through the mountain below the lookout twice, completing a loop. Naturally, given our national penchant for clear naming conventions, the whole structure is known as the ‘Spiral Loop’!

According to the Kyogle Council Visitor Information Guide, Neville Bonner (first Indigenous politician) was the first person to travel from QLD to NSW through the main tunnel. When he was a child, his stepfather worked on the line, and Neville was passed through the hole when the tunnel broke through!

Tragically, the daily passenger train from Brisbane generally passes through the loop and tunnel VERY early in the morning. So rather than risk a dark, frosty drive during our mid-winter stay in Kyogle, we planned a Sunday drive to catch the mid-morning goods train – which we would have done if not for a FLAT TYRE! So I leave you with this photo (above) of a passenger train passing the Kyogle Caravan Park instead!

Just as well a visit to the lookout is interesting in its own right, right?!?! Here’s a list of other things to do there (in no particular order):

a) Admire the Scenic Public Toilet!

b) Watch the birds (feathered)

c) Play ‘Spot the Trainspotter’

d) Walk the Border Loop Track!

3 Border Loop Track

From the Border Loop Lookout, the Border Loop Track is a 1.2 km easy stroll through a stand of wet eucalypt forest before entering the dense rainforest of the Border Ranges.

It’s an insight into the difficulties in constructing a railways roads through thick, tick-infested scrub over rugged and mountainous terrain!

4 The Viaduct

At the junction of the High and Low roads, a few kilometres north of ‘The Risk’ – the locality off the Summerland way where the Lions Road NSW starts just 19 km north-west of Kyogle – the Viaduct towers above Gradys Creek. From here, the Low road follows the railway line more closely before re-joining the High Road a few kilometres north.

But for me, the Viaduct is just another compelling reason (along with the Spiral Loop) to make the trip across the ranges by train one day!

5 New South Wales/ Queensland Border

There are a few good reasons to stop at the border. Here they are, in no particular order:

a) Make a donation. All funds raised from the donation box go to the Kyogle and Beaudesert Councils for maintenance and improvements of the road.

b) Check your rig for runaway rabbits! Because bringing a rabbit across the border into Queensland (that’s what EVERYONE wants to do, right?) will attract a fine of up to $44000.

Who knew?!

c) Admire the scenery (see 1st photo above). It’s REALLY worth it! Especially the view looking from the New South Wales side down the range – and extraordinarily steep road – into Queensland.

d) Take a photo or two, or two hundred. And be grateful I haven’t uploaded ALL the photos I managed to take in the few minutes we stopped at the border gate to Facebook.  There’s plenty – read: ‘more than enough’ – here, right?!

6 Andrew Drynan Park

Across the border, down the road and round the corner – actually, make that LOTS of corners and many crossings of Running Creek – the Andrew Drynan Park with its picnic area and campground is a great place to stop and admire the superb scenery.

And a scenic amenities block is one of the BEST reasons to stop! Or is that just me?!

7 Rathdowney

A turn-off to the left just before the Lions Road meets the Mt Lindesay Highway at Innisplain ends at Rathdowney, where we turned around for the return leg of our Lions Road NSW odyssey.

Gateway to the magnificent ranges of the Scenic Rim, including Mt Lindesay and Mt Barney, the small town of Rathdowney is a great base to explore the Rim’s eastern reaches.

But that’s another story!!

Lions Road: Fast Facts!

Name: Named for the Lions Clubs, not Mt Lion, part-way along the road

Start: The Risk, 19 km north-west of Kyogle on the Summerland Way

End: Innisplain, 24 km south of Beaudesert on the Mt Lindesay Highway

Traffic: Over 100,000 vehicles per annum

Distance: 50 km

Surface: Fully sealed

Restrictions:  Please NOTE that some vehicle height and weight restrictions may apply.  Please check before taking this route if you are towing, or if your vehicle is high.

Age: 40^th anniversary celebrated in 2013

Scenic Public Toilets: Two, one at the Border Loop Lookout; and the other at Andrew Drynan Park

Want MORE?

• The Lions Road
• Kyogle, New South Wales
• Rathdowney, Queensland
• Woodenbong, NSW (just across the border)
• Book:  “The Lions Road” (by Jack (JD) Hurley OAM)

The post 7 Reasons to Road-trip the Lions Road NSW appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.