I noticed this track in December 2020 when I camped here on the last night of this three day bike ride from Morisset to Windsor. Not so hard this time, just an excuse to get into the bush. I had the park to myself the whole time I was here. I did encounter a goanna and several lyrebirds. Little else to report.
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| Mill Creek Picnic Area |
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Grass Trigger Plant (Stylidium graminifolium) |
Pindar Cave is in the Brisbane Water National Park. As I was approaching the cave I could hear water dripping but not see the cave due to the dense bush, all of a sudden there it was in front of me, an immense cave formed from the overhanging sandstone. My photos don't convey the enormity of this cave.
After having a look around the cave I continued on to Pindar Falls. I couldn't find a way to the bottom of the falls. All I could see here was the stream disappearing over the top of a cliff.
I sighted some Glossy Black Cockatoos, these cockys are spectacular with the red bands on their wing and tail feathers, and they are not very common.
The path went through dense scrubby bush with many kilometres of brushing against the foliage. I was not surprised to find a tick trying extract blood from my leg later that evening.
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| Flannel Flowers (Actinotus helianthi) |
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| Purple Flag (Patersonia sercea) |
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| Kariong Brook Falls |
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| Approaching Pindar Cave |
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| The Cave |
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| Native Bottlebrushes (callistemon) |
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| A small pond near the cave |
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| Spectacle Island in the Hawksbury |
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| Joining the Great North Walk |
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| Interesting erosion of the sandstone |
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| Looking towards Gosford from Staples Lookout |
Mt William Summit from the east. I was lucky to be able to do this trip, it was the first clear day after the torrential rains which resulted in flooding of South Eastern Australia. The track was very wet and slippery. Mt William, (Duwil) at 1167 metres, is the highest peak in the Grampians (Gariwed) and Western Victoria. Some of route I took was on part of the recently opened Grampians Peaks Trail, a 13 day 160Km trek.
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| Mt William from Kalymna Camp Site |
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| Kalymna Falls |
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| Joining the Grampians Peaks Trail |
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| On the Grampians Peaks Trail |
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| Serra Range, Victoria Range on the horizon |
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| L to R Lake Muirhead, Sugarloaf & Major Mitchell Plateau |
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| Approaching the Summit |
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| To the East |
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| Canary Worm (Fletchamia sugdeni) |
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| On The Summit |
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| Mt William from near Moyston |
This time I set out to have a look at Big Horse Shoe Bend, and Wine Glass Tor. I got as far as Big Horse Shoe Bend and turned back. Wine Glass Tor is on the top of the cliffs on the eastern side of the Shoalhaven River. Getting to the Tor would have required crossing the river and the climbing Backbender Buttress, an additional five hundred metre climb. Too much water to cross this time. I was happy to turn back at the river and miss out on Backbender, maybe another day.
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| From the top of Assay Buttress |
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| Further down Assay Buttress, the Shoalhaven peeping through the gloom |
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| Looking down stream |
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| Fungi |
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| Cross here to access Backbender Buttress |
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| Big Horse Shoe Bend |
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| Upstream towards Little Horse Shoe Bend |
Taffys Rock is named after Dorothy Townson who passed away on a bushwalk in Tasmania in 1948, after being bitten by a snake. More details here if you are interested. The first four kilometers from the Cowan station is along this section of the Great North Walk. The rest of the track is a spur heading East from the Great North Walk, terminating at Taffys Rock. The rock has great views in all directions, particularly of the Hawksbury River mouth and Lion Island.
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| Jerusalem Bay |
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| Govett Lookout, trees now block the view |
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| Hardenbergia |
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| Moss on Taffys Rock |
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| Lion Island from Taffys Rock |
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| The Pacific Motorway |
Stats,
distance: 15.8Km
moving time: 3hr, 9min
This run was virtually up and then back down the Lapstone Monocline, adjacent to where the Grose has cut a gorge through the monocline. The Lapstone Monocline is the first rises of the Blue Mountains after travelling west across the Cumberland Plain. The path I took was fire trail to the Trig on Grose Head South, the track from the Trig west is single track, it goes all the way to Winmalee.
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| Native Boronia it may be the "Sydney Boronia" (ledifolia) |
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| The trig on Grose Head South |
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| Looking North into the Grose |
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| The Sydney CBD can be seen over the Cumberland Plain |
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| Debri from the recent floods |
Poloma Cave is less than fifty kilometres from the Sydney CBD, in the Royal National Park. The cave is formed by large overhanging rock formations, the entrance is wide and open and not in any sense a tunnel, unlike a most other limestone caves.
Some say, our Royal National Park was the first in the world, it was proclaimed 1879. The other contender to be the oldest is Yellowstone National Park in California. Which is the oldest depends how the start date is defined.
About a kilometre along the Uloola Falls Trail from the Waterfall Station, is the memorial pictured below. On the third of November 1980, five volunteer firemen perished here when their fire truck was caught in a bush fire.
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| Along the Hacking River Valley |
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| Limestone formations |
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| Palona Brook |
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| A small waterfall along the Couranga Trail |
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| Memorial to the Fire Men |
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| Directions to the Cave |
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| Where I crossed the Hacking River |
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| Palona Falls, near the cave |
