We have learned that if there is an opportunity to take a quick break, and the weather looks good, then we jump at the chance to take a short break to recharge our batteries, ready for the busy times that are ahead, with the Easter school holidays.
So where to go? We are fortunate we LOVE the bush and being in an area with amazingly beautiful landscapes and forests and so many National Parks, we have lots of choices.
We chose the crisp and cool Gibraltar Range National Park as we have been meaning to get in there for years. A change in climate from the still-warm beautiful Byron Shire, was welcome for us.
Simon knew that the area had been heavily impacted by the terrible bush fires two years ago, in fact he didn’t want to see the devastation until it had grown back to some degree.
The campgrounds are great with flush toilets, cold showers and fairly private campsites.
It was only about 30% full so there were plenty of sites to choose from.
The bush walks are amazing, traveling through open eucalyptus forest with huge granite boulders and clear mountain creeks, special basket swamps that had some very pretty flowers and gullies of beautiful Tree Ferns, leading to the rainforest with fertile red soil. With the difference in habitats there are different species making it a very interesting National Park.
We talk about climate change as a problem we will have to deal with in the future. It’s devastating to see Gondwanaland rainforests, that have been here for over 50 million years, that were severely burnt in the 2019 bush fires. This has not happened for many thousands of years because rainforest does not usually burn. The rainforests were always the fire refuse for humans and wildlife and this helped the bush recover quicker - built in resilience. The open eucalyptus forests have recovered quicker than the rainforests because they are designed to burn but not with a super hot wild fire. A lot of rainforests have been lost and will never grow back, reducing fire refuses and making it more difficult for wildlife to find shelter during fires.
We returned to the Northern Rivers region after this restful 3-day break, recharged and ready for the busy season. We have so many exciting things in the pipeline, with a new video about to be shot for Tourism Australia and an incredible Easter season ahead.
The local community are in full swing supporting each other through the recovery from the recent floods, and it's a privilege to be part of such a wonderful community, and the fact that we're so lucky here in Ocean Shores (our residence) and the Brunswick Boat Harbour (our moorings) to not be affected by the floods, we're very grateful for.
We look forward to welcoming you on board to see our beautiful river, recovering after the floods. Click here to read about the impact of those and our first cruise post-flood.