Crowdy Bay National Park, Byron and Mt. Warning

Day 2: After the wine-tasting in the Hunter, we headed north towards Taree, where we were welcomed by a huge storm that caused a blackout while we were shopping at Coles (Mak, Xavi says to consider adding this shop to the Dolphin in-store demos next year!). Somehow we managed to get enough basics before they shut the entire place and, shortly after, we arrived at Crowdy Bay National Park, 300 odd kilometers north of the Hunter Valley, between Taree and Port Macquaire.

After the rain, we set our tent next to some friendly kangaroos and went for a walk in the park. The campsite in the National Park is surrounded by jaw-dropping coastal and mountain views and, despite its name, crowd-free beaches. We’d definitely recommend the campsite, fires are allowed and it also makes a great stopover for our diving friends heading to South West Rocks and the famous Fish Rock Dive.

Brazos en jarra and double rainbow after the rain

Diamond Head

Day 3: the Kookaburras (you have to follow this link if you don’t know what they are) ensured that, despite being on holiday, we woke up with the sunrise as we faced our longest drive yet (430km). A refreshing swim was waiting for us at Byron Bay. For our friends overseas, Byron Bay is a chilled-out beach town (one of our favourites in Australia), very popular among backpackers, surfers and weed-smokers. It’s also famous for having the most easterly point of Australia’s mainland complete with lighthouse (the equivalent to Cap de Creus in Catalunya, vaja).

Great waves for beginners at The Pass – Byron Bay

Once refreshed and about 70kms further on, we set our camp, ate a good steak and finally relaxed at the base of Mount Warning (aboriginal: Wollumbin), in preparation for the climb to see the sunrise the next day.

Fire and tunes at the base of Wollumbin

Day 4: this time we woke up well before the Kookaburras and left the campsite for a short drive to the base of Mt. Warning and by 5am started the ascent in a pitch black and misty rainforest. Thankfully, we were prepared with some bad-ass torches and headlights from Energizer that lit our way up. The walk is a 8.8km / 4hr return so we only had around 1hr and 40min to make it to the top in time for the sunrise. We came across the usual wild life in the form of possums, frogs, giant crickets; however, we were surprised to find a decent sized yabbi/crayfish more than halfway to the top….around 400m above sea level!

We were tempted to have you for breakfast…

The last section of the climb is quite tough as there is a near vertical rock scramble (you need to use a metal chain to climb) for the last 400 meters. The birds were just starting to sing as dawn cracked so we had to hurry the last section to get there. Sunrise at Mt. Warning is special because it lets you see the 1st sunrise in Australia over winter. Cape Howe (also in NSW) claims this honour during summer. We also read that it’s the core of an old volcano… which explains the gassy smells during the ascent (so no, it wasn’t Xavi). We were unlucky with the clouds but still managed to glimpse a few sun-rays…

The view before the clouds rolled in.

Much easier going down than up!!

The final 150kms went quickly (after Sydney’s traffic, entering Brisbane was an absolute dream!!) and we parked the cars back in my parents driveway… feels like forever since we were leaving it to move down to Sydney but really it was just 4 1/2 years ago!

Over the last few days we’ve been catching up with family & friends and are now getting the last bits ready to fly to the Dominican Republic tomorrow!! We’ll keep you posted when the internet gods allow connection..