Boyd River Camping

It had somehow been ten years since I’d visited Kanangra. Many of those years I was living interstate, but now that we’re only two hours’ drive away it seemed like a visit was well overdue. Joel’s birthday straddles the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and has become a traditional camping weekend. It’s a good time of year to dust off the camping gear and head for the bush as the weather warms up. This year we decided to stay overnight at Boyd River Campground.

We headed off on Saturday morning, laden with gear, and drove out to Jenolan. While not intending to do any cave tours this trip, we’d promised the kids a little walk around Blue Lake to look for platypus. The platypus spotting was unsuccessful, but the birthday cake was good! It was late morning by the time we wound our way up the steep road which eventually heads south towards Kanangra Walls.

The campground at Boyd Crossing sits just above Morong Creek, with pretty campsites tucked away among the snow gums. It has the added bonus of a large stone shelter shed in case of poor weather. As soon as we got the lunch things out a curious wallaby with a joey in her pouch came to investigate. Although the sun was shining it was quite a cold day, with the wind really biting as we ate.

After setting up camp and wandering down the creek to look for quartz, we were joined by our friends, Andrei and Christie. Before losing too much more of the afternoon, we drove the short distance to the end of the road and started along the wheelchair accessible walking track. Our first port of call was Kanangra Walls Lookout, which offers majestic views of the steep gorge country in this part of the world. Alex is pointing to Mount Cloudmaker, which at 1164m is the highest point visible.

With the kids feeling fresh and strong, we headed down to Kalang Falls. This track descends quite steeply down a narrow ridge, but it’s only a short distance to Kanangra Brook. I think the only time I’ve been here previously is en route to Kalang Falls Canyon – one of the shortest walk-ins ever!

There is a small viewing platform at the bottom, but Alex and I hopped down onto the rocks for a closer look at the falls. I’ve recently bought a new camera, so I enjoyed using some manual controls for the first time in many years to try and improve my waterfall shots. But I have much to learn!

I was keen to wait at the lookout for sunset and to hopefully see some glowing red colour on the sandstone walls, but it was getting cold and I knew the kids would be getting hungry. So we headed back to camp and built ourselves a nice fire to cook our yummy paella dinner. What a treat!

We woke to a very frosty morning and icicles on the water containers. But the light breeze that had chilled us the previous afternoon had disappeared and left a perfect late winter’s day. After a hearty, cooked breakfast we broke camp and drove back to the Kanangra Walls carpark. This time, instead of heading out to the lookout we took the plateau track and descended a short way to the saddle.

We’d promised Clare that we would do some dancing in the Dance Floor Cave, so she and I gave a brief rendition of the nutbush. There was actually a wooden dance floor built here in the 1890s, so that far-flung settlers could gather and celebrate. The floor itself has long since disappeared, but the large overhang remains a gathering place for bushwalkers seeking shelter and a cosy, camp atmosphere.

Dancing finished, we continued up a short series of steps onto the plateau. This is a magic place of low-growing heath and flat, rocky platforms. The track hugs the northern edge of the plateau, with frequent vantage points providing magnificent views into Kanangra Creek and across the deep valley to Thurat Spires. To the north-east are the legendary peaks of Mount Stormbreaker, Mount High and Mighty and Mount Cloudbreaker, with Rip, Rack, Roar and Rumble filling out the Gangerang Range.

This is wonderful, wild county. And now that I’ve had another small taste, I can’t wait to come back for more. Rather than pushing Clare too far, we just walked about halfway along the tops, where we stopped for a late morning tea in glorious sunshine. We had plenty of time to appreciate the stunted forms of heath vegetation, explore interesting rock formations and gaze across at Kanangra Falls.

Andrei and Christie continued out to the end of the plateau, while we reluctantly turned around and headed back the way we’d come. After descending from the plateau, Clare surprised us all by powering up the 245 steps from the saddle to the lookout track. Maybe it was the promise of marshmallows at the top! By the time we’d had some lunch we were ready to head home, and with a quick goodbye to our friends we were on our way. May it not be so long this time until we return!!