Budawangs ~ 28 June - 1 July 2005
Party: Tom Gleeson, Jacqui Knox, Greg Salway and James Bevan
This trip was originally intended as a harder exploratory journey onto Wirritin Range and the Southern Budawangs. However, Tom's recent illness meant an easier walk to the Castle, Monolith Valley and Corang Peak was more suitable.
We gathered at Redfern station on tuesday morning and loaded into Greg's car. After stopping for lunch in Ulladulla, we made our way down to the long gully entrance to Morton National Park. After a fair bit of packing and repacking, by 2.30 we were on our way. Under overcast skies we crossed the gentle, knee deep Yadboro and headed up Kalianna Ridge. As we approached the base of the Castle light rain began to fall. While sidling it the mist closed in and water cascaded down the conglomerate rock faces. By 4.30, we were all thoroughly soaked, so we gladly welcomed a nice looking camp cave as our home for the night.
Wood was very scarce indeed, and it took us over half an hour to gather enough for the evening's fire. Tom turned the cave into a cathedral, lighting it up with numerous candles. We all enjoyed a pleasant evening by the fire and slept peacefully...well mostly anyway. During the night, Jacqui spotted a werewolf. It frightened her into jumping up and over Greg while remaining asleep. Next morning the mist and rain continued. We climbed the castle and signed the logbook, very disappointed at the non-existent views. We made our way back down, through monolith valley and camped in a splendid cave on the northern side of mt cole next to a thundering waterfall.
Greg and Jacqui by the fire in the Mt Cole camp cave
Mt Cole waterfall
In the morning the poor weather continued. We considered spending the day around the fire, but decided to press on. Waterfalls tumbled off every corner of mt cole and even minor creeks became interesting. Continuing west we dropped into a saddle. As we climbed around Bibbenluke the mist cleared and we enjoyed (for the first time in 2 days!) views back to Mt Cole. For much of the walk around bibbenluke and towards burrumbeet brook, we were ankle deep in water. We were following creeks (disguised as tracks). At each junction, the decision was "upstream or downstream?" We had lunch in a cave next to burrumbeet brook. It was a terrific spot - big enough for a dozen or more...in fact it was so good that we decided to spend the night there. After lunch, Greg kept the fire going, whilst the rest of us did a short trip out to corang peak. As we approached canowie brook it seemed a little wider than expected. I entered - first knee then thigh and eventually waist deep!
Tom and Jacqui in a flooded Canowie Brook
Still, it was nothing compared to what was to come. Despite the rain, the mist cleared enough for us to make out some features and imagine what it would be like in fine weather.
Jacqui and Tom on Corang Peak
The next morning...we saw blue! For the first time in 3 days hughie decided enough was enough. We returned to mt cole and walked to the southern side, up to the saddle between mts cole and owen.
Cairns are in abundance in this area, especially on mt owen. After a while I got sick of them. It was decided that a good old scrub bash was in order. It wasn't too high or thick, so we continued...until some members of the party got a bit &%$@#!* cranky. Greg pointed out that "there was a cairned track on the western side" so we took that option and continued out to the end for lunch. Ginger nuts were produced and all was forgiven. We could see south to beyond currockbilly and east to the sea. The castle and the big tit provided some amusing photo opportunities.
Descending back off mt owen, we followed the gully as far as we could. We were repulsed by what looked to be a pretty nice looking canyon(?). So it was back onto mt owen. We traversed across the top and eventually found a route back down. It wasn't easy following the pad through rainforest gullies, despite all the cairns around. After some dithering we made our way back to monolith valley.
Night fell as we descended Nibelung Pass. By torchlight we made our way back to the base of the castle and descended Kalianna Ridge in good spirits. At the base of the ridge we crossed one, two & three knee deep creeks. Tom - "hmm...I don't remember this". Neither did I. We passed the national park sign and heard the sound of a rushing water. As tends to be the case when it rains for a few days, the river had risen a bit....
Even with the torch on full beam, I could barely make out the other side. It was at least 30 metres across and flowing very quickly. We could have done with Dave Lee and a bit of ferry gliding :) Greg and I scouted around to see if we could chance on a fallen tree or a narrow section...no luck. It was far too risky for even one of us to cross in the dark. It was strange being stranded only a few hundred metres from the car.
We had no option but to sit tight, get a fire going and wait till morning for it to recede. At least it wasn't raining! Greg had packed enough food for an army (thanks Greg!), and we all had plenty of tea, so we were soon warm and happily munching away.
During dinner we saw a torchlight across the other side of the river :? Another group were camping at long gully and planning to ascend the castle the next day. They also had a rope so we planned to tie ours to it and get back in the morning.
After dinner Greg and I headed back uphill to see if we could get mobile reception to call off the cavalry. Even at the base of the castle, there was nothing. However, Greg managed to get a call to his work (via the mobile emergency number 112) and let them know he wouldn't be in tomorrow. On our way back, we were greeted by candles (thanks Tom) and a nice hot cup of tea (thanks Jacqui).
We all slept soundly. By morning, the water level had receded almost a foot. Our new friends threw a rope across and (with just a bit of swimming) were all soon safely across. After thanking them with gifts of our leftover food, we were off.
We met Justin and Stephanie at the Clyde river bridge (they left the Yadboro for another day). The water level was a metre or two below the bridge. However, it carried a decent layer of flood debris and there were signs that the river had risen a long way up the grassy banks. It was a scary thought to imagine the bridge completely underwater. It did well to still be there.
Our first stop...the Milton pie shop. They deserve special mention for putting up with four scruffy (and one absolutely filthy - me) characters who no doubt scared off other more respectful looking customers. The paper said Berry had received 216mm over the last few days....
I must give a big thankyou to everyone for staying calm and remaining good company throughout the walk. It was a most memorable trip!
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Page last updated 19/12/2005
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