Circumnavigation of Sydney

[The Cone of Silence]

A friend and I are doing a circumnavigation of Sydney from McMaster's beach using the following rules:

No fossil fuels allowed (walking, horseback, kayaking, rafting, pushbike, sailing etc are all ok)
Usage of sealed roads to be kept to a 10% maximum


Stage 1 was McMasters to Killcare - a swim then a walk on a nice sunny day
Stage 2 was Killcare to Umina - paddling in kayaks after a brief overland walk
Stage 3 was last weekend - Umina to Mooney Mooney creek.

This was our first overnight stage and boy did we pick a weekend for it. 104mm of rain and 40knot winds! We were drenched by lunchtime but as we do a lot of sailing we're well used to packing everything in drybags so we soldiered on, using the Great North Walk track and various other tracks around Wondabyne to eventually find the huge overhang known as Pindar cave, where we sheltered for the night. it's about 75m wide and 15m deep so there's plenty of room in there.

Thankfully the last chaps had left plenty of firewood so we got a nice big fire going and dried out our clothes and had a hot dinner (Outdoor Gourmet freeze-dried meals are AWESOME, if a little expensive). I managed to swing my new Hennessy hammock inside the cave and had a seriously good night's sleep which my sore feet and chafed thighs needed!

The following day we had blue skies and a 12km walk to Mooney Mooney where thankfully, my Defender hadn't been washed away!

This is a really lovely walk and I imagine it's even more pleasant in the dry. The walk into the cave itself is hard - very overgrown track and undulating terrain but it's totally worth it when you get there!
We took a water filtration pump and it got a good workout with two of us carrying 10-12kgs of gear each...but if it had failed we'd have simply boiled some water as there were plenty of creeks and stream around.

I highly recommend this walk as a daytrip of about 6 hours if you go from Wondabyne station or a 2-day excursion if you camp out in the cave...which is wonderful.

Warning though - if there is a LOT of rain, there's a creek crossing which can be a bit hairy! Take a stick...;)

Bobby

[Lotz-A-Landies]

So I take it the journey was done wearing hand made leather shoes from a local abbatoir and tannery and hand made clothes of wool, hemp and cotton constructed with a needle or maybe a 100year old treadle sewing machine? The canoes were made from hollowed out logs or bark!

Otherwise fossel fuels were used. :D

[The Cone of Silence]

Stage 4 two weeks ago:
Mooney Mooney Creek to Peats Ridge

A nice, simple walk in the sunshine - nothing of the brutality we'd faced on Stage 3 in lashing rain and winds all day.

We left bicycles up at Peats Ridge and drove to Mooney Mooney where I left the Defender and off we set....a really pleasant walk climbing up mostly single file trails towards the old dam and the newer, bigger dam. Finding the old one was delightful - lots of rusty pipes and valves as this was used to supply the central coast with water back in the day. it's always lovely to find artefacts of historical relevance. Also of note was the lovely orangey Hawkesbury sandstone that we noticed above 100m.

My mate Chris got absolutely tagged by a leech - must have been on his sock (and through to his ankle) for a good 15 minutes judging by the size of it when we got it off....almost as big as my thumb!

Once up at Peats Ridge, the bike ride was a pleasure....nice and easy for 10 minutes and then a drop of 200m in 2.5kms. Great fun....and some serious speed built up!

This weekend is Stage 5 - Peats Ridge to Wiseman's Ferry via a night at Ten Mile Hollow, a favourite camping spot of mine - the first place I ever did a walk in, walk out camp in Australia.

We've managed to get wet on every stage so far and this weekend looks to be no exception..and the first of the cold nights I should think, in the gully. Will see how the hammock goes with a down sleeping bag and thermarest in it.

[The Cone of Silence]

Stage 4 two weeks ago:
Mooney Mooney Creek to Peats Ridge

A nice, simple walk in the sunshine - nothing of the brutality we'd faced on Stage 3 in lashing rain and winds all day.

We left bicycles up at Peats Ridge at the end of Brieses Road and drove to where we finished Stage 3... at Mooney Mooney creek where the old Pac Highway crosses it. Here I left the Defender and off we set, following the creek up into the little valley that it had carved ove rthe millennia....a really pleasant walk climbing up mostly single file trails towards the old dam and the newer, bigger dam. Finding the old one was delightful - lots of rusty pipes and valves as this was used to supply the central coast with water back in the day. it's always lovely to find artefacts of historical relevance. Also of note was the lovely orangey Hawkesbury sandstone that we noticed above 100m.

My mate Chris got absolutely tagged by a leech at one point - must have been on his sock (and through to his ankle) for a good 15 minutes judging by the size of it when we got it off....almost as big as my thumb!

Once up at Peats Ridge, the bike ride was a pleasure....nice and easy for 10 minutes and then a drop of 200m in 2.5kms. Great fun....and some serious speed built up!

If you have a day to get out and about - this is a super little walk. Nothing too hard and a brilliant cycle at the end!

This weekend is Stage 5 - Peats Ridge to Wiseman's Ferry via a night at Ten Mile Hollow, a favourite camping spot of mine - the first place I ever did a walk in, walk out camp in Australia.

We've managed to get wet on every stage so far and this weekend looks to be no exception..and the first of the cold nights I should think, in the gully. Will see how the hammock goes with a down sleeping bag and thermarest in it. I might take an additional lightweight tarp as we're not taking a tent.

Drying off in the cave on Stage 3
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The old Mooney Mooney Dam on Stage 4
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[The Cone of Silence]

Stage 5 last weekend:
Peats Ridge to Wiseman's Ferry

Parked Monty at the spot where we left off last time and hid him in the bushes a bit. Immediately got cracking on an insanely steep drop down to Popran Creek. As it was pretty early in the morning, the tradie working on surfacing the road down to the creek was a bit surprised to see us. Even more surprised when we told him that 35km to the west there was a cold beer waiting for us. He thought we were crazy.

Socks and shoes off to cross the creek - FREEZING! Tranquil spot though.

Steep climb afterwards and then after crossing some farmland (with the owner's permission) we dropped down into Ironbark creek - where the "track' on the other side couldn't even be seen. We took a punt and worked out roughly where we thought it'd be and went for it....eventually finding a very overgrown path up an unimaginably steep climb. I had to use two sticks (off the forest floor) to help me get up. Chris has his flash new ones he'd bought from the shop and we got up and found ourselves in an orchard with some cows looking at us.

Eventually, we got up to a road and then across to the Greek Monastery and then down to Mangrove Creek....where crossing with socks and boots on was required but the cold water very welcome after another steep descent.

Lunch stop and then onwards to the Simpson Track - rain coming for a ten minute burst just to keep up our record of getting wet on every stage we've done! The Simpson track is beautiful. Highly recommended historical trail with signs, information plaques and some stunning scenery. Birdlife abundant too, down in the hollows as well as up on the ridge.
Eventually we ended up at Ten Mile Hollow which is the first place I ever camped in NSW. Set up a hoochie each by the fire - just a simple tarp, air mattress and sleeping bag and we had a great night. 20km walked the first day.

Next morning, up early for a cuppa and then a nice, easy 16km walk to Wiseman's Ferry down the historic Great North Road. The fog that had settled in the valleys stayed around for ages so pretty quickly we were up on top of it with various ridge tops poking out - a beautiful sight.
Sore feet by the time we got to WF but no injuries and a lovely day for it too. That first pint at the pub lasted all of two minutes!

Next stage might be a single day leg kayaking up the Hawkesbury (the northern border of our circumnavigation) and then up into Webbs Creek, then maybe another day stage cycling along Wheelbarrow Ridge Track to the Bob Turner's Track and then an overnighter liloing down the Colo and up the T3 track to Mountain Lagoon.

Good times. Loving how easy it is to get out of Sydney and explore the NSW National Parks.

While we're doing these overnight stages we've figured out that the best bang for your buck in terms of lightweight camping and catering is as follows:

Shelter and sleeping:
Sometimes I take a Hennessy Hammock and sometimes just a tarp. Making a nice, low hoochie shelter about 2 metres away from the fire is easy and can be done with a few bits of cord and some sticks. A blow-up sleeping mat such as a thermarest and a good down sleeping bag are working well. My mate doesn't have a brilliant bag so he uses a space blanket as a groundsheet as well as a thermarest.
A tent would simply be too bulky and heavy.
A fleece top doubles up as a pillow.

Food
Lunch- a wrap with various fillings such as cheese and ham
All day snack - scroggin/ trail (dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate)
Dinner - freeze dried meal. The gourmet ones that "Serve two" are filling us up nicely. One each!
Breakfast - porridge sachets. 2 each, in last night's dinner pouch to save on rubbish and billy usage (kept for water and tea) with some scroggin thrown in with some sugar to get us going.
Water - we're using a pump to filter water from streams and creeks, even puddles if we have to. They're expensive but save SO much weight. At Ten Mile there was a tank so we just boiled it for 3 minutes before making tea or refilling bladders when it had cooled.

WAY steeper than it looks! Popran Creek
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Panorama of Popran Creek
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Superb sign on the Simpson Track. Says it all!
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The Great North Road
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A well-earned beer at the Wiseman's Ferry hotel
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[The Cone of Silence]

Stage 6

Well, we knocked off Stages 6 and 7 in the last couple of weekends in very different weather conditions.

As the Hawkesbury River is our Southernmost boundary, we weren't allowed to cross it in order to navigate across the macdonald River, getting the other ferry up to Webbs Creek, but we had to get over there to pick up the Bicentenary Road. Crossing over the Macdonald River was fraught with private property and it was all looking bleak so we ended up grabbing the kayaks and paddling from the north bank, where we'd finished Stage 5, upstream for a click or so and then up Webbs Creek to the Bicentenary Road bridge, where we hastily turned around and went back.

Needless to say it was raining and we got wet, as been the case with every stage, but it wasn't cold at all. Correction...the water was cold. Anyway we got it done and went home, happy with competing the little 'link'.

[The Cone of Silence]

Stage 7

Having left my Defender at the Webbs Creek ferry, we started walking up the Bicentenary Road with our plan being to get onto the Wheelbaroow Ridge Road and the Wheelbarrow Ridge Track which would take us up to Colo Heights, where we were due to be picked up at 13:30 on the next day.

Weather conditions: Beautiful. Crisp and fresh but blue skies - cracking Sydney Winter weather.

The walk was fairly uneventful....gravel road, and a 100m climb to begin with and then a slow and steady twist and climb for the next couple of km to get us up to 200m where we'd pretty much stay for the rest of the day....so nice and flat!

This was good as I was breaking in new boots following a horrible campfire accident with my last ones, so I didn't want too much rocky terrain.

We found a decent spot to camp at our halfway mark but decided to make things easy on ourselves the next day by refilling with water form a super puddle that we found (filtering of course) and then cracking on for one more hour.

As it turned out, this was a great move as we stumbled upon a trail bike track which we walked down for 50m or so and found a perfect little clearing which made for a great campsite.

We're packing pretty light these days so setting up a little tarp and air mattress took no time and we were well into a cup of tea by the time the sun went down.

Dinner was freeze-dried beef and pasta for me and lamb and vegetables for Chris. Back Country 2-serve meals seem to be perfect for one hungry hiker! $15 each...too easy, although personally I prefer spending the extra $5 for the gourmet ones that you can get in the usual camping stores. The flavour is nicer and the reconstituted meat doesn't have such an odd aftertaste to it.

Dessert was a hipflask of rum and as the skies revealed a stunning night sky, the temperature plummeted and the thermals and fleeces were donned for bedtime! 8pm. Surely a new record.

Chris had forgotten his beanie but brought a spare thermal top, which was fashioned into a turban in no time so the camp is now known as Turban Ridge.

I had a fairly restless night - I get sore shoulders from sleeping on the air mattress as I can't seem to sleep on my back. I shall need to figure out a better way of managing this as Stage 11 we're planning on a week-long journey from Katoomba down into the Illawarra!

Even if I had slept soundly, Chris' astonishing sleep-flatulence would have surely kept me up.

We rose at 7 to a stunning sunrise.......the orange in the tops of the trees was wonderful. Small fire lit for a billy and we made porridge in the bags from the meal the night before and I threw in some chocolate covered raisins and coffee beans and some nuts and dried fruit - superb! Coffee to wash it down and we broke camp before 9am.

We only had about 12km to go but as my new boots had given my Achilles' tendons some real tightness and pain, I was taking it slowly. As luck would have it we hit some really flat road which normally we hate but I changed to a pair of trainers and the pace picked up to almost 6km per hour.

We stopped for a chat with a lovely bloke who has horses up that way and a bit further up we stopped to say hi to a couple of donkeys who were pretty keen for a bit of a scratch and a pet from some friendly visitors!

Then, there was something of a trudge as we joined the Putty Road with bikes screaming past us and all the traffic moving so quickly. The walk up to the servo seemed to take forever but we got there at 12:15 and immediately got stuck into a beer and a spot of lunch!

We have, somewhat unfortunately, a fair amount of walking on the blacktop to do as we can't bush-bash through much of the next couple of stages, which is a shame, but we can't do much about it.

The next stage at the end of August, is to walk down the Bob Turner's Track to the Colo River, inflate lilos then paddle down to Tootie Creek, camp out and then in the morning, climb up to the ridge top and walk to Mountain Lagoon.....and maybe a few kms on the way to Bilpin too.

The Colo will be freezing, but it'll still be fun; it's a sentimental favourite, the Mighty Colo; as we paddled down it on lilos for 2 days last year. beautiful spot.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=62665&stc=1&d=1373268289

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[FeatherWeightDriver]

Certainly sounds like a great adventure, if not a little chilly given your choice of accommodation for this time of year!

[The Cone of Silence]

It does get a bit cold at night this time of year, particularly up on the ridge tops but other than keeping out of the wind with a decent tarp, the secret, for me anyway, is to wear decent thermals, a beanie and have something to put on during the night, such as a fleece.

That and a decent sleeping mat. Mine seems to be excellent at keeping the cold away but not so comfy as my shoulders get sore as I lie on them. Perhaps I'm just getting soft in my old age!

[numpty]

Thanks for the story and pics.

Can you give me some info on your tarps ie brand, material, size and cost. I've been searching for a lightweight alternative to my tent to reduce the weight in my pack.

[FeatherWeightDriver]

If I'm not mistaken, the green "tent" on the right looks to be a army style "hoochie".

Shelters & Accessories :: Hoochie Auscam - Welcome to Cadetshop - the Online Shop for Military, Cadet, Camping and Adventure Supplies. (http://www.cadetshop.com.au/hoochie-auscam.html)

They are great as a lightweight shelter, but do require a bit of getting used to in order to make it effective for when the weather is less than ideal.

[The Cone of Silence]

FWD,

Chris uses a blue poncho - that even has a hood that he has to seal up in the night lest it rain. he tied some cord to it and uses walking poles to keep it at the desired angle

I use a very lightweight tarp that has cords integrated into small pop-button pockets on each corner and each side.

Similar to this, although mine doesn't have a cord in the centre.

WE OVERHANG TARP SMALL 2M X 3M (http://www.bogong.com.au/we-overhang-tarp-small-2m-x-3m.html)

It's awesome....packs down really small and I can create whatever shape I like out of it - depending on available sticks, trees, rocks etc.

I do have a Hennessy Hammock but I'm not used to it yet and can't always be sure of finding trees so I take the tarp instead sometimes.

[FeatherWeightDriver]

Chris uses a blue poncho - that even has a hood that he has to seal up in the night lest it rain

That's a pretty cool idea - saves carrying 2 pieces of gear.

[The Cone of Silence]

It isn't bad, although if it's even remotely breezy at night, the poncho isn't big enough to pin right down on the ground with an overlap and still give enough overhead shelter from rain and to keep heat in.

In terms of what we're carrying these days though, there aren't many things we have that don't do two jobs or at least do one job exceptionally well.

Bag contents for an overnight circ stage, with everything in drybags within my backpack:

Knife
Spoon
Mug (for drinking tea and occasionally cooking in)
Billy (for making tea as well as dinner)
Tarp (or hammock)
Sleeping bag - down.
Sleeping mat
Length of paracord
Headtorch
Water bladder (1.5 or 3 litre depending on conditions and terrain)
Water filtration pump
Thermals
Fleece
Beanie


That's it....
Chris takes the compass, map and GPS unit as I take the billy and dinner.

Recently we've started taking a water pump each as we're doing a lot of climbing and ridgetop walking.....puddles are few and far between and some of them look downright nasty so when we find one, we want to have a back-up in case one of the filters breaks.

[The Cone of Silence]

STAGE 8 – Colo Heights to Mountain Lagoon

Forecast – hot (30 degrees) and sunny for the whole weekend.

Day 1 - Friday 31st Jan 2014

I drove Monty to work so I could get a quick start in the afternoon and upon leaving promptly at 4pm, I picked Chris up from Balmain within 15 mins and then headed up to Windsor and onwards to Colo Heights. We reached there at around 5:50pm after some faffing about and some traffic so I had to get changed quickly in the servo car park while Chris legged it inside to buy me some cheap sunnies. Cleverly, I’d left mine at home.

We left Monty at the servo and walked 700m up the road and then turned off to the left which was a fire trail leading to the Bob Turner Track. I was breaking in a new pair of boots so the walk was taken fairly easy although we were by no means dawdling as we needed to get down to the river before dark set in. The temperature was still hot despite the late hour but I tend not to mind the heat and we both had plenty of water to keep us going.

We reached the start of the BTT after 2.8kms and then stopped for a quick cheesy photo and then started the descent. Chris was nursing a bit of a sore knee so he took it easy while I ploughed onwards to get to the river, find firewood and get dinner on the go.

Cheesy photo at the top of the BTT
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=72308&stc=1&d=1391479965

Bob Turner’s Track is a fairly pleasant and well-established 3.5km walk down to the river. It’s fairly steep in some parts but the path is in great condition so it’s suitable for most walkers and I recommend it thoroughly – the great red gums were beautiful, particularly with the fading sunlight shining on them as it also was for the vast and beautiful sandstone cliffs that embrace the river valley along its course.

Needless to say the reward for our efforts was worth it. I arrived at the wonderfully peaceful bend in the river at precisely 8pm and started gathering firewood. By the time Chris turned up some 15 minutes later it was rapidly getting dark so the torches came out and the fire was started.

While inflating our beds for the night (and vehicles for the morning), I boiled the billy and got dinner going – The Outdoor Gourmet Company providing the menu, with a butter Chicken curry for Chris and a Tandoori Chicken for me. These meals will serve two but while we find that one of them is a lot for one person, half is nowhere near enough without other supplements so we take our time and go to bed with full, warm bellies! I might add that these are DEFINITELY worth the extra money – they’re more expensive than the Back Country meals but we’ve both found them to be far more tasty.

After dinner we put some waypoints in on the GPS tracker and got our heads down for the night. No tents or even tarps required as it was lovely and warm and thanks to a frankly pathetic 0.2% illumination from the moon, the night sky was heavily populated by a stunning array of stars.

In the very early morning (still dark) we both heard a koala that sounded like it was having a great evening with a lady koala which was awesome – this was the first time in the Circumnavigation that we’d seen or heard evidence of them. I also noticed that the enormous spider I’d seen in her web across from our camp was gone so I checked my boots twice before packing them in a watertight bag. That was about it for wildlife...other than a few small bats and birds out late....and ear-splittingly loud cicadas up very early!

Day 2

After putting some extra air in the lilos and packing everything into drybags in our backpacks (with the exception of our boots which went into a drybag and into Mildred, the inflatable bath duck), we set off – the river water being so shallow meant it was warm and very pleasant indeed. Paddling with just hands and towing Mildred along was pretty easy and we made 1.5kph without a problem. As we’d set off early we took it easy and enjoyed the glorious sight of the cliffs on either side of the river canyon, impressed with how high up the sides the water gets in a flood, as evidenced by the horizontal trees stuck in existing vertical ones!

Mildred, our faithful boot carrying Mallard.
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After almost two hours' paddling, We reached the rapids next to the end of Tootie Creek and got out, lit a fire quickly to get the lilos and our shorts and shirts dried off and within an hour we’d packed it all in bags, filtered 3 litres of water each from the river and set off. The plan was to find Tootie Creek and then attempt to find the T3 track. This was easier said than done. We spent a fair bit of time climbing with hands as well as feet to get up onto the spur and this was hot work, despite it only being 9:30am.

Drying off (yes, Chris does have shorts on!)
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With no need to stop for rehydration thanks to the platypus-style bags and tubes, we made great progress, eventually finding ourselves on a flat plateau halfway up the hill that we needed to climb. We saw another couple who were out for a walk down to the river and they called out to us that there was a track – we were 4 metres away from it and had been for the last 30 minutes but hadn’t seen it – this is great example of how easy it is to get lost in the bush out here. We saw a cairn every 20 metres or so and followed them up to the next bluff where we stopped to take in the stunning view down over the Colo River....and a few very large breaths! The sun was out now having been considerately tucked away behind clouds for the morning and the heat punching through.

Almost at the top
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Sweaty Bobby
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The bushfires of October had ravaged this area so climbing up the next steep section wasn’t as safe....grabbing hold of what looked like a solid tree to help lift oneself up would result in the tree coming away in one’s hand completely, so this was a more disciplined climb with walking sticks being the real key. Chris has proper good ones but I used two sturdy staffs and was fine.

Eventually reaching the top of the hill by 12pm, we sent a text to the girls to pick us up at Mountain Lagoon at 1pm and after a quick stretch to soothe our by now aching legs, we set off along the fire trail which was bliss compared to the rough, overgrown and spiky, prickly, scratchy and itchy ground we’d been covering for the last 2 hours.

Once we got to our destination and the gang turned up in 3 4x4s, we scoffed down a quick ham and cheese roll and headed down to Colo Heights to pickup Monty who was dutifully where I left him, standing sentry!. We then headed down to the beautiful Upper Colo Reserve and then spent the day sitting in the warm river, cooking a beautiful meal on the fire (another curry!) and having a few well-earned beers.

Pound for pound, this was the hardest that Chris and I have had to work on the Circumnavigation so far. We’ve done a longer stage (3) but this one was brutal – 500m climb in 3km of horizontal with some VERY steep climbs in it and a lot of dense scrub to bash through. Having also forgotten my gaiters, my legs are a little scratched up!

Seeing a large snake on the track on the way home was cool and although I could identify the species, it was definitely not a friendly looking python so we avoided it instead of stopping for a closer look.

The next stage we’re still working out but we need to end up as far into the Blue Mountains as possible and it looks like we can’t avoid roads so we might do a bicycle leg.

Bobby