Thread: Circumnavigation of Sydney

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.

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.

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


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.


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!)



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


Sweaty Bobby


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