A place where you can walk amongst the sleeping giants in Australlia's high country; a place where you can have a panoramic view of the surrounding regions throughout the seasons and feel like being "on top of the world". Cathedral Rock National Park is one of these places in Australia, and one of my favourite park to explore in Northern New South Wales region. With it being only one hour away from Armidale, the capital city of the New England High Country, is an added bonus.
From Armidale, heading towards Coffs Harbour along the Waterfall Way, you will see the sign-post showing the turn-off to this beautiful national park on your left. Follow the dirt road about 8km in, and you will reach Barokee Campground and the starting point of the walking track to reach the top of Cathedral Rock. Conventional vehicle access is mostly fine with care taken, however, I wouldn't recommend attempting to access the area with a normal car during or after recent rain as the road can be badly washed. Barokee Campground is a small, but nice and secluded site to stay over night, however, be aware that there is no online booking for them, so first come first serve only.
The track starts on the right hand side of the metal plaque shown in this photo above, by follow the yellow dotted Cathedral Rock Loop Track. If you feel like having a physical challenge or sharpen your existing rock scrambling skills that day, I definitely recommend walking the Cathedral Rock Summit Track, which I think it's only about a couple of hundred metres extra. You will have an entirely fresh but excitingly new perspective to this vast transcendent land that we walk on everyday. A few people that reached the summit before me, lingered for as long as they possibly could, before they can pull themselves to go back down. For safety reason, I recommend to attempt the entire summit track if you have a basic to intermediate rock scrambling skill, as coming back down is actually harder than getting up, contrary to people's believe.
About 10 minutes into the track, passing all the flat grasses and wet lands, you will see piles of rounded rock mountain starting to appear. The scenery shifts so suddenly, it felt like an incantation has been broken, as I walked through the invisible barrier, to unveil this giants' kingdom that have existed for millenniums without us knowing. I felt like I need to quieten my steps to not wake up these sleeping giants, which was such a great moment to experience that laughter burst out. I did this walk at the end of December, so the weather was a bit hot, I would recommend doing this walk during Spring or Autumn when the wild flowers bloom. The track was a bit overgrown then, but nothing too difficult to navigate. If you would like to be safe,I would recommend to wear gaiters to avoid any snake bites.
Follow the track that slowly winds uphill, until you reach a park bench chair on the right, the summit track starts shortly after it. I cannot remember whether the turn-off was sign posted, but it is sharp right turn-off from the loop track. The track starts to head uphill straight away, there are markers along the track on the rocks and trees, so keep an eye out as the track becomes less and less obvious, eventually, you will end up scrambling over boulders until you reach the final sections where the metal chains are. The first section of the chain helps you to walk along the cliff-hanger path around a boulder, and the second oneto haul yourself up a steep side of the final rock-face. Once you get over the slight fear of height, they are all pretty ok to navigate. I do not recommend climbing the summit if there is any chance of rain as the rocks will become a slipper slide then. As I was doing the final section where the second metal chain is, the dark cloud started rolling in, so I had to do the hard thing of convincing myself to turn back around. Another excuse to revisit the area for me! Apparently on top of the final rock, there is a seat shaped like a "throne", what can be more attempting than this?
If you have sufficient time, you can complete the whole loop and explore all the other smaller rock mountains that chaperone the trail. You can also take the longer walk to Woolpack Rocks further into the park, however, it's quite a distance, so please be aware of time. You can also access Woolpack Rocks via Native Dog Camp Ground at the other end of the park, which would shorten your walking distance. I couldn't offer you any information here, as I have yet to go there myself, but I've heard that it's definitely worth a visit.
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