As usual, most people made the drive out to Kanangra Walls on the friday evening to set up camp a short way down the Uni Rover Trail. Unfortunately the weather was not looking particularly promising and some quite heavy rain at one stage during the night which saw a few people (myself included) running from under flies to the less comfortable but more secure shelter offered by the interior of a car.
It started, as all good ski trips do, with Jimi Hendrix. That helped keep us awake for the long drive down to the snow, and we pulled into the Island Bend rest area as the clock struck midnight. The stars were vivid and it was still, perhaps we had picked the right weekend for this big ski trip.
Walking through part of the Sydney Catchment protected area, we were glad to see logical decisions had been made, with earthmoving equipment in use on a road where bicycles were prohibited. After descending on the road through the cliffline, we soon turned off onto the track to Mt Solitary, noting an early blooming Waratah. The track continued to the crossing of the Kedumba River, then the steep climb up to Mt Solitary. We stopped for lunch with fantastic views at the logbook (which has mostly disintegrated), noting only one other SUBW entry. The water levels in the dam also looked encouragingly high.
It was raining steadily as we left Sydney on Friday night. Arriving at the campsite just off the Boyd Range fire trail, Hughie didnt let up in the slightest. In fact it poured continuously the entire night and well into the next morning. For almost three hours we sat in the car before the rain eased slightly and so we set off walking down the Uni rover trail. After a late start we didnt end up making it to the Kowmung and so set up camp along the ridgline midway between Mt Lannigan and Murdochs Spur. A morning reconnaissance mission down to the Kowmung was made by Tom, Dan and Myself in order to collect water and inspect for campsites around Church Ck. Unfortunately we were running short on time and slowed down by the fact that the Kowmung was massively swollen (and thus somewhat difficult to cross) due to the recent rain. This left insufficient time to make an adequate assessment of the area around Church Ck; my brief impression was that it was not as promising as i had hoped from looking at the map. After refilling water bottles and eating a quick breakfast we retraced our steps back up Murdochs Spur to where Denis was waiting at our campsite. The walk back to the car took a little under five hours from where we set course to the Gardeners Inn for dinner.
On a frosty Saturday morning we warmed ourselves by the fire clutching cups of hot tea until the first rays of the winter sun reached our camp. Then we headed up a leafy creek, following a faint track whilst trying to avoid the cold damp fronds of the verdant understorey. Where the creek forked we climbed a ridge which took us into warm sunshine and thence onto a lookout rock from which splendid views back down the valley to Newnes were seen.
We were a bit worried about the weather as we passed through a downpour on the bus on the way to the start. The forecast wasn’t the best, but at least it was dry as Vannessa and I started our trek in the colourful moor lands. We soon reached the pretty Crater lake, that was surrounded by beautiful orange deciduous beech trees (Fagus) at this time of year.
It started with a traffic jam late on Thursday night which delayed our arrival at a damp and drizzly Kanangra walls. Leaving one car at the Uni Rover Trail and another at Kanangra Walls we walked in the thick damp cloud to the Dance Floor Cave and found passable spots to bed down for the remainder of the night.
I’d been wanting to trot down Moko Creek for some time — I can’t think precisely where I heard it, but the rumour went that despite the sound wisdom of Bash The Ridge And Not The Creek, several of the streams running south off the Gangerang Massif are in fact excellent walking, with crystal waters, beautiful cascades, the creekbed comprises extensive and impressive rocky slabs stretching to the far yonder, it’s a fully licensed venue, there are friendly yowies to carry your pack and massage your feet, et cetera et cetera. Clearly worth a look, even if only to disprove the rumours of a wet bar on this Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Four of us met up outside Parramatta station – and headed off to Parramatta River – to where it looked like a bike trail was from my Google Earth observations. Sure enough – we found the trail and rode off along it. The weather was perfect – sunny. not too hot and no winds. Nice. The riding was through parklands – lined with stately gums trees – very pleasant indeed – until the cycle path stopped in an industrial area – and we had to scout around to find the best way ahead. Eventually we regained the path and continued on our way. We had joined up with the old route – and I now knew the way. Easy. At least it was until we hit a big gate across the path. Ahead was an area being redeveloped and the path was temporarily closed. There was a route around it – so we set off – but that was when Stuart got a puncture. While he was fixing it – i scouted around on the other (south) side of the river and saw a new (to me anyway) bike path – that looked good – so we changed our plans and instead of heading along the north side to Meadowbank – we followed a delighful path on the south side which linked up with Bicentennial Park at Homebush. This followed the foreshores past some old docks and past Silverwater Nature Reserve.
Long version: The weather was beautiful and we started walking by 9am, wending our way down from Berowra Station to Cowan Creek and then walking along its banks. We stopped quite a few times to enjoy the beautiful scenery, but still made excellent time. We were most amused upon reaching the Mt Kuringai end of the Cowan Creek section of the walk to find a sign announcing that the track we had just walked was closed!! Perhaps it would be more effective if signs were placed at BOTH ends of the track!?! There is also some debate about the cause of some rustling in one of the bushes we walked past – with varied eye-witness accounts including a lizard, snake, bunyip… and my favourite… the young couple ahead of us on the walk!!!
In the end it was just three of us that managed to escape Sydney on the warm and humid evening of the Thursday before Easter for a 4 day canyoning adventure in the northern Blue Mountains. In keeping with Easter tradition, a change in the weather brought cool and damp conditions for most of the weekend.
My plans of doing a weekend trip to Galong Creek didn’t end up coming to fruition (not for the first time), and so instead a small group of us set out for what turned out to be a fairly leisurely day walk. After meeting at Strathfield station on Sunday morning we drove to Faulconbridge and out to the locked gate on Grose Rd. The walk out to the end of the ridge took about an hour and a half. There are some excellent views from here looking down into the Grose river valley. Returning about 1km back along the fire trail, we took the side track which leads down to the river. The track was in good nick and after some easy rock scrambling we reached the river in time for lunch and a swim. On returning, we arrived back at the car with plenty of time to stop off at the Lapstone Hotel for some cold beers before returning to Sydney. Thanks to those who came along for an enjoyable day of bushwalking.
The inspiration for this daywalk came from Graeme Barrow’s track notes in his book “Namadgi & Tidbinbilla Classics: Tough Bushwalks in Canberra’s High Country.” We based our route on Walk 18, which involves a long road-bash down the Old Boboyan Road, followed by some fire trail bashing alongside Naas Creek in the Boboyan Valley, then a gradual uphill gully bash to the Gudgenby Saddle, finally topped of with a tough scrub bash and challenging slippery rock-slab climb up to the summit of Mount Gudgenby, 1739m. Barrow says this of the mountain:
We drove up on Friday night and on Saturday morning headed early down our first creek and before we knew it, it was narrow canyon followed by an abseil into a small amphitheatre with tall straight coachwood trees scattered around a leafy forest floor. The only disappointment about it was that it ended all too soon, becoming scrubby creek. We crashed and bashed and crawled and lurched with our 3 day packs down this creek for a while until finally it became true canyon once more, and with another short abseil entered deeper canyon and thus became our gateway to the Bungleboori.
Eight keen bushwalkers set off for the Blue Waterholes to spend the Australia Day long weekend exploring the Cave Creek and Cooleman Plain Area. We were very lucky with the weather, with Huey delivering not much more than a short shower on on of the nights. The caves on Cave Creek and on the Goodradigbee River were spectacular and we spent lots of time exploring these. The Cooleman Plain was also quite nice, with Seventeen Flat Creek providing opportunities for further cave finding.
On January 19th Adrian Blake and I drove down to the Geehi to have a look at some of the aqueduct intake stations. Our primary reason for this trip however was to search for the northern end of the “Goat Track”, which siddles around the Watsons Crags Spur from Siren Song Portal to Crags Creek Portal. The regrowth after the bushfires of January 2003 was so thick that we were unable to find any clues as to the whereabouts of the track. It was a very wet walk, with Huey dumping down the full eight inches… We did get some magnificent views though of the north face of Watsons Crags, and in the distance we could just see Reinhold Echidna as he scaled up those precipitous cliff faces.
Namadgi National Park makes up about 45% of the ACT and the beauty of it is that it has plenty of interesting daywalks close to Canberra. I drove out to the old Orroral Deep Space Tracking Station on the evening of Thursday 17th January and the next day walked the Orroral Valley Circuit. It is a 19km walk, along a fire trail for the first half, then along a grassy track for the second half. The nearby Orroral Homestead is worth taking a look at.
This was a tough trip. It was a solo trip, visiting a classic part of the western edge of the Main Range. The route was basically Charlotte Pass to Mt Townsend via Seamans Hut, then across the Townsend Plateau, climbing Mt Alice Rawson and the other unnamed peaks, then following the Abbot Ridge north to a saddle at 1480m, droppping down into Lady Northcotes Canyon, and then ascending the creek to Lake Albina before returning to Charlotte Pass. The whole walk is covered on the 1:25,000 Perisher Valley topo if you want to look over it.
Long version: We started late out of respect for Boxing Day, and did the easiest walk I could find within an hour’s drive of my house – starting with the Challenger track at Kuringai Chase NP (which wasn’t at all challenging), then the Flint & Steel track first to F&S bay and then to F&S beach (also very easy). We ate lunch at the beach – no jaffles or Hammer ‘n’ Tongs, but plenty of Christmas leftovers, and of course the obligatory cheese platter. Then some sunbaking (for those who tan)… or shade skulking (for me) and a very lovely swim before walking back to the cars.
I’d always wanted to have a look around Hidden Valley and on this trip we did just that. The drive from Sydney was via Goulburn and Nerriga, to the park entrance at Sassafras. Only the last 3.5km along the private road slowed us down, with a rather stony 4WD track forcing us to concentrate. Anne and I drove down on the Friday evening, had some jaffles and some Hammer ‘n Tongs, before being joined by Adrian on the Saturday morning. We had some more jaffles for breakfast then got going.