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Thread: Circumnavigation of Sydney

  1. #1
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    Circumnavigation of Sydney

    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

  2. #2
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    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.

  3. #3
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    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.

  4. #4
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    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


    The old Mooney Mooney Dam on Stage 4
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  5. #5
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    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


    Panorama of Popran Creek


    Superb sign on the Simpson Track. Says it all!


    The Great North Road


    A well-earned beer at the Wiseman's Ferry hotel
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  6. #6
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    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'.

  7. #7
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    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.





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  8. #8
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    Certainly sounds like a great adventure, if not a little chilly given your choice of accommodation for this time of year!

  9. #9
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    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!

  10. #10
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    numpty is offline TopicToaster Silver Subscriber
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    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.
    Numpty

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