The Shoalhaven, Big Horseshoe Bend - September 2022

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. 

From the top of Assay Buttress

Further down Assay Buttress, the Shoalhaven peeping through the gloom

Looking down stream

Fungi

Cross here to access Backbender Buttress

Big Horse Shoe Bend

Upstream towards Little Horse Shoe Bend

 

Stats, 

distance: 17.2Km  

moving time: 2hr, 44min  

Elevation: 552metre 

Taffys Rock - August 2022

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.

.

Jerusalem Bay

Govett Lookout, trees now block the view

Hardenbergia

Moss on Taffys Rock

Lion Island from Taffys Rock

The Pacific Motorway

 

Stats,  

distance: 15.8Km   

moving time: 3hr, 9min  

Elevation: 718 metre

Grose Head South from Yarramundi - July 2022

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.

Native Boronia it may be the "Sydney Boronia" (ledifolia)

The trig on Grose Head South

Looking North into the Grose

The Sydney CBD can be seen over the Cumberland Plain

Debri from the recent floods

 

Stats, 

distance: 12Km  

moving time: 2hr, 1min  

Elevation: 586metre

Calories:823

Polona Cave - Royal National Park June 2022

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.

Along the Hacking River Valley

Limestone formations

Palona Brook

 

A small waterfall along the Couranga Trail

Memorial to the Fire Men

Directions to the Cave

Where I crossed the Hacking River

Palona Falls, near the cave

Stats, 

distance: 22Km  

moving time: 3hr, 35min  

Elevation: 486metre

Calories:1582

Great North Walk - Congewai to Cabans Road - May 2022

Another section of the Great North Walk. The track head for this section is adjacent to a tributary that drains into the Hunter Valley. So not that far from Newcastle. The route this time involved passing through private property and a solid climb in the Watagans National Park, to the telecommunications tower on the ridge. I disturbed a deer in the national park and further on a slender snake. I suspect the snake was a type of whip snake.

A landslide on the other side of the valley

I turned back at the comms tower on the ridge

The Track Head

Stats, 

distance: 9.2Km  

moving time: 1hr, 49min  

Elevation: 488metre

Calories:635

Marramarra & Smugglers Ridges - April 2022

Today I checked out the Marramarra Creek camping ground. The camp ground is 'walk in' and very basic, the only facilities are picnic tables, fire pits and a long drop toilet. No campers or hikers to be seen today. 

Years ago there used to be an orange grove on the creek flats where the camp ground is now situated. The orange trees persisted for many years after the farm was abandoned, National Parks have recently removed all of the fruit trees.

Smugglers Ridge as it's name would suggest, is reputed to have been secret route for smuggling contraband during colonial times. Marramarra Creek is navigable for small vessels from the Hawksbury River.

Marramarra Ridge Track

Who can spot the CCTV camera

At the creek end of the Marramarra Ridge Track

Wading through a Marramarra Creek tributary

The Tributary

Marramarra Creek from Smugglers Ridge

Start & Finish

Stats, 

distance: 13.6Km  

moving time: 2hr, 21min  

Elevation: 382metre

Calories:911

Mt Beckworth - March 2022

The pine tree on the summit of Mt Beckworth is a land mark visible from a significant area of Central Victoria. The locals often refer to it as the "Lollipop Tree", it was planted in 1918. 

Today my first encounter after leaving the Cork Oak car park was a disused feldspar mine, a small tunnel with its entrance blocked by blackberries. I couldn't find any details about this mine online. Some of the uses of feldspar are in paints and ceramics. The Beckworth State Reserve is mostly granite and decomposed granite, feldspar is constituent of granite.

The Lollipop Tree is just visible in this picture, taken from the park access road.

The Lollipop Tree up closer

A Tangle of Ancient Box trees

Looking toward Clunes & Bendigo

Ancient Box Tree

Blackberries over the entrance to the feldspar mine

Looking towards the summit from the Cork Oak picnic ground

Stats, 

distance: 13.3Km  

moving time: 2hr, 15min  

Elevation: 655metre

Calories:1011