It is no secret that I love to get out into the countryside. It is how I relax, destress and unwind from life in the city. It can get a bit tricky with "real life" getting in the way though, but I try to get out as often as I can.

Also no secret, but I often head to the Scenic Rim for my escapes into nature. The Scenic Rim region is brimming with beauty and natural wonders. I really can't get enough of it! Lake Moogerah, Mt Greville, the Main Range, the Steamers… It’s truly wonderful.

Mt Barney is in there, I promise!! Olympus OM-D E-M1 MkII

But this time Andy and I went a bit further south.

Girraween National Park is a beautiful piece of our country near Stanthorpe in Southern Queensland's Granite Belt region.

Andy trying to stay dry on a quick photo stop

The region is quite high in altitude, between 850-950m, so there are also a few vineyards in the region. But, more importantly, it also means it is generally a fair bit cooler than down on the coast haha.

But the National Park… Girraween is a pretty big place. I have only seen a really small part of it. This particular trip was only my second time there. Funny enough, the first time was with Andy too.

This time, however, we decided to spend the night and camp there. We booked a campsite at the really well maintained Castle Rock Camping area in the national park.
The aim was to camp, hike, take photos and make video content. Unfortunately much of that didn't happen.

I currently work weekends a lot in my day job, so having a completely free weekend is fairly rare, so this meant we just had to go when we could. And, unfortunately for us, the only weekend that I had free just so happened to be the start of the big wet season..

It rained a large majority of our drive there, we got a break when we set up camp, and then it started raining again while we were hiking.

Hiking in the rain doesn't really bother me. It can be refreshing and pleasant. But it can make it very hard to take photos and make video, especially because I was using my Hasselblad for stills. It is an old, fully mechanical film camera with no electronics at all. But it isn't "weather sealed". I feel like a small amount of water is ok with it. There are no electronics to fry. But continued exposure could definitely cause issues.

And my video camera is, of course, the wonderful little Sony ZV-1 compact camera. I have been told it has reasonable weather sealing, but, to be honest, I find this hard to get my head around. It has a lens that moves in and out any time you turn it off or on. I don't know, maybe it is, but I wasn't willing to risk it. So Unfortunately we didn't get much at all.

The first Hasselblad shot of the trip. The creek bed heading to the Junction. Fujifilm Pro 160NS film

I did, much to our delight, manage to get the drone up briefly though.
I managed to get some nice footage along the creek bed to the area known as the Junction.

After this we decided to head back to camp.

We had been planning to hike up the Pyramid that afternoon, but we felt like it was a little unsafe in the wet. It is literally a fairly steep, open granite slope. It can be a little slippery and sketchy in the dry. In the wet we'd likely be asking for trouble. I know many people would still do it, but with heavyish packs full of camera gear, and families at home, we figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

So we reluctantly headed back to camp to have a beer and relax a little. The rain did stop shortly before sunset, but it was a bit late to really head out hiking again.

With the break in the rain I sent the drone up from camp. I got some nice photos and footage in the evening, so it was worthwhile. We got some really nice colour in the sky, even though we weren’t at the top of the Pyramid to enjoy it.

The days last light in late spring in the Granite Belt. DJI Mavic Air 2

During the night it poured with rain, and was super windy. A little water got in the tent and we felt like it might blow over, but it survived. It was definitely an experience! And the affordable OzTrail tent exceeded expectations!

Awakening a bit before sunrise we found it heavily overcast, so went back to bed. Sadly there was no sunrise in paradise this trip.
We got up at a bit more reasonable time and decided to head for a short hike before making our way home.

We packed down and head up to Castle Rock. The hike probably only took us an hour or so, but the view was wonderful! We didn't have amazing light, being that it was mid morning, but we sat at the top for a bit, took a couple photos and had a snack, just enjoying the natural beauty of the Girraween area.

The forest bounces back after bushfires. Kodak Ektar 100

I am very keen to head back out and camp again with some weather a little more conducive to video making as I really want to make a vlog there!

Biiiig stormfront coming through as we headed home. Olympus OM-D EM-1 MkII

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this short blog! And I hope you like the couple I photos I got :)

Nathan

Girraween Getaway