Riparide Weekend Adventure in Northern New South Wales
When I learnt about Riparide’s mission to inspire people to unplug from the hustle and bustle and get outdoors, I was thrilled when they contacted me to work with them as one of their story tellers. We stayed at the Mountain Top Farm House in Stony Chute, Northern NSW.
Friday finally came and it felt like it would never end. Sitting in front of my desk at work counting down the hours until we jumped in the car to head south to Northern NSW. We had become caught up in the stresses of everyday life and getting away to the Mountain Top Farm House was exactly what we needed!
2pm rolled around and we started our trip down south. We decided to stop at Fingal Headland to watch the sun go down and break up the three and a half hour drive. After battling Friday traffic we made it just in time. The weather had turned and there was a storm front headed our way. This made for an absolutely epic sunset and start to our trip. Every direction you looked the sky was putting on a show. We also caught a glimpse of some whales out to sea and some dolphins playing in the waves near by.
Just as the sun disappeared below the horizon the rain hit and we high tailed it back to the car.
We arrived to our accommodation after the sun had gone down and were greeted with the fireplace already warming up the house for us. The Mountain Top Farm House blew our expectations out of the water. It has a cosy living area, awesome kitchen, dining both inside and outside, three bedrooms and incredible loft space to chill out.
On Saturday morning we cooked breakfast for the four of us so we were ready for a day of adventures. Nightcap National Park was on the agenda! The drive to the park was very rough with the most pot holes I’ve ever driven on. We arrived into the national park and started the 1.4km return walk to Protester Falls. Although it was a short walk it was absolutely beautiful. There was a mix of moss on the rocks, massive strangler figs, tropical rainforest trees and running waterfalls. The surroundings reminded us a lot of Tasmania. We made it up to the falls after many stops along the way and it was worth the sketchy road to get there.
After finishing up at the falls we headed in to Nimbin to find some lunch. That town is definitely it’s own little world. We wandered the streets, found a cafe, ate pizza and headed back to the house.
The rest of the afternoon and night was spent napping in the outdoor hammocks, keeping warm by the fire and shooting some astro photography over the house.
It was an early 4:30am start to be out of the house by 5 and on the road to Border Ranges National Park for sunrise. This was a place that I had wanted to visit for quite some time so I was very excited. It’s only a very short 200m walk to the Pinnacle Lookout which overlooks Mount Warning, the surrounding ranges and valleys below. There was a very crisp breeze when we reached the lookout but that wasn’t the only thing that took our breaths away. The view was epic! The valley was covered in fog and as the sun rose the mountain ranges around us lit up from pink to gold. I really don’t think the photos I took did this view justice. Once the sun had come up and I’d finished shooting it was time to make the trip back home to the Sunshine Coast.
All in all, this was an epic weekend. Thank you again Riparide for having us. To see my story and book our adventure head over to https://www.riparide.com/stories/172-recharging-in-nature