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Budawangs July 2003 - Part 2

September 22, 2004 at 0:22am

Start the walk:

From Nerriga, go toward Braidwood for about 500m until you cross a small ford, then take the first left. After a further 2km, take the right in a fork, carry on ignoring another road that joins on the right, and then take the next fork to the right. You'll eventually come to a locked gate with a picket fence and a bit of a car park, and that is where you leave the cars and start the walk.

From here you follow the driveway around to the left which follows the Endrick river upstream (east) until you come to a restored stone house (the book has it as ruins, which it was 10 years ago, but has been beautifully restored. It’s tinkering with the idea of a becoming a small B&B, and apparently does bushwalker morning teas and has a bunkhouse.
Carry on for another km or so, then take the right road that has a "Walkers this way" sign (or something similar). You are now heading south-ish, where about a km further you come to a NPWS to signify the start of the national park. Up until now you have been walking on private land, so don’t leave the track and don’t think "lawsuit" if you fall over: It was your own stupid fault. The landowners have allowed access to bushwalkers out of their own good will, and it is considered good life-etiquette to take full responsibility for your own actions when entering this area. Not to mention common sense.

The low level cloud had made walking a doodle up to this point as we pounded along the fire trail at a steady pace, but we were about to make our first off track accent to the top of Round mountain, and the fog would become a menace. By some miracle of navigation we scrambled to the top and stumbled upon a bizarre rock arrangement that some shadowy figure with too much time on their hands had left many years previous. The visibility was down to a few metres at times.

Back down to the trail we slogged on for another couple of kilometers to a lunch point where we would leave the relative ease of a defined track until tomorrow afternoon. The goal was to get up to Fosters Mountain, then camp at a cave on its western flank. After a bit of fumbling with map and compass we found the pass and got up onto the plateau. By now the cloud had burnt off and our first commanding views of the northern Budawangs greeted us with a cheery grin. This is spectacular country. A timeless land of valleys and small swampy plains punctuated by tabletop mountains with sheer rock walls on all sides.
The attempted route into the centre of Fosters Mountain was a trial of frustration at the impenetrable bush. Diving backwards using your backpack as a battering ram was the only option in places. After a good half hour of this, we decided to forgo the centre and skirt the edges where the vegetation gave way to the edge of the rocky cliff face.

We found a small gully to descend down to our camp place in the mid afternoon. As we were scrambling down, great lumps of wood began falling from the cliff and landing below us. What in gods name was happening? It turned out other hikers were camping nearby and had gone up on top of the mountain to gather firewood, and were heaving it over the edge.
These would be the only people we would see over the weekend, so we had a quick chat, then moved further south around the cliff base until we found a suitable overhand in which to camp.
We weren’t the first here, as there was a healthy pile of firewood waiting for us.
Water was becoming an issue, with the only sign of it being the gully we came off the mountain on, but near our camp there was a steady drip coming off the cliff face. We set up a billy under the drip, and were able to glean a good litre an hour of pristine mountain water, which was ample.
Being on the western side, the sun stayed with us until early evening giving us a few more hours of warmth. This was mid winter where the temp regularly dips below zero, and without a tent, it was always going to be nippy. We set up a roaring fire, and put on most of the clothes we were carrying. We whiled away the hours of early evening listening to the footy on the tranny.
When I slipped into my sleeping bag, there was barely enough room to move with all my clothes on. I had never really used my sleeping bag hood until that night, but it was an absolute godsend in the chill of the pre-dawn.

Next day we crossed the small valley between Fosters Mountain and Square Mountain, and made a quick assent of Square for a look. Once back down we skirted the southern cliff base and then dropped down to the creek below on compass only to intersect with another fire trail an hour later. We then bade farewell to this scar of civilization and crossed directly over it to follow the tree line around to Flat Mountain skirting a reasonable sized swamp. This required the odd bit of serious bush bashing like seen on top of Fosters Mountain, but this time with no alternative.
We dropped the packs and scaled Flat Mountain for another panorama, before dropping down its western face to pick up the fire trail that would lead us back to the cars.

Upon returning to the cars, I have always found it a great spur for the last section of a walk to have some reward waiting at the end. In this case, a small esky with half a dozen light beers, and tim-tams on ice can be just the tonic for keeping weary legs pumping along. Failing that, it’s only a short drive back to the Nerriga pub.

[Sept 2004 – The drunks room at the Nerriga pub has now being taken over by the barmaid, and the land owners have blocked access to the first part of the walk, unless you are staying at their B&B]

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Budawangs July 2003 - Part 1

September 22, 2004 at 0:21am

Budawangs - July 2003 - [Backdated entry]

General description:

The Budawangs are to NSW bushwalkers what the North Pole is to a compass. A place they often look to, but rarely get to.
It is one of the great bushwalking areas and is hardly used. Perfect for that get away from it all weekend. Even during school holidays there may be only one or two other groups in your area at any one time.
But be warned, once you have walked the 'wangs, you will be rendered flaccid by almost all other NSW national parks. Its that good!

The beauty of the Budawangs lies in two parts. Firstly, the place is littered with caves and dry cliff overhangs negating the need to carry a tent, as enchanting camping sites can be found with relative ease. Secondly it’s an undeveloped park; therefore some portions of the walks are the traditional bush-bashing, which really enhances the feeling of that locked away ancestral pioneering spirit.

Getting there:

The Budawangs are the southern half of Morton national park, in between the Norwa-Braidwood road and Batemans Bay-Braidwood road. Coming from Sydney, the ideal aim for Friday night is the Nerriga pub on the Nowra-Braidwood road. The quickest way is to come down the Hume to just before Goulburn and turn south to Bungonia and on the Nerriga. Some parts of this are dirt road but passable all year round.
Otherwise, head down the coast to Nowra, then inland on the Nowra-Braidwood road (take the Albatross road from Nowra). This is a slightly less well-maintained road.
The Nerriga pub is almost the classic one pub village (population 11 at last count), that has almost vanished from the Australian landscape after drink driving laws were tightened in the early 80's. Maybe the secret to its survival is the locals desire to keep it in use, or the lack of coppers to do breath testing, but long shall it live. This is not redneck territory; in fact the locals are all very “country comfort” friendly. There are a few farm stays around Nerriga, and the pub has one room (room 7) otherwise known as the “drunks room”. The only time it might not be available is if the local copper decides to dust off his breathalyzer. Enter into hard negotiations with the publican after a couple of beers, and it should be yours. If Barry the wood chipper is already in there snoring like a Massey Ferguson, sleeping in the car outside is always a fall back. Be sure to drink heavily before retiring to make it more comfortable.
If not much is happening in the pub on the social front, it does have a pool table and a TV so settle in anyway. Its not like you have anywhere else to go!

Further information:

The Budawangs has many great walks, and the bible for Budawang walks is the "Bushwalking in the Budawangs" book by Ron Doubson. The walk here is based around walk 28 in the book with one climb omitted to make navigation and the walk a tad easier.
Along with the book, another great resource is the legendary 'Budawang sketch map", a 1:50,000 scale map showing most walks and landmarks. This is not enough detail to be useful when walking, but gives a great overview of the region. Hard to find, but Map World in Pitt Street has it, or inquire at any good outdoors store.
The Nerriga pub has the sketch map on the wall, and the book behind the bar (I know, I sold my copy to them). Neither leaves the pub.

What you will need is 1:25,000 scale map called Endrick. Its shows everything in spine tingling detail, and since part of this walk requires off-track navigation, don’t leave home without it. All outdoor stores have these maps.

What to take:

This is a winter walk, so keeping dry and warm are the main concerns. That comes down to some warm clothes, raincoat, a sleeping bag, and a woolly hat.
And don’t forget a compass and the Endrick map. Familiarize yourself with compass and map use before leaving, and refine those skills on the first day which is mostly on tracks and impossible to get lost, before off-track on the second day. One of the great things about this walk is that if you get lost, walking in either a NW or NE will get you back to a fire trail and back to civilization, but you'll need to have a compass to know which way NE or NW is.
You'll also need a sleep mat, a backpack, and a billy for cooking on.
Leave the tent and camping stove at home for this walk.

Food:

Surviving off the land was never easy at the best of times in Southern Australia. Sure there are those out there who salivate at the thought of roasted Koala marinated in Wollemi pine sap, but seeing as most Koalas have the clap and it takes about 35 ring barked Wollemi pines to produce the required quantity of sap, dinner preparation can significantly eat into your weekends timeframe.
With the variety of today’s lightweight meals available from the supermarket, it’s almost always easier to buy it before hand.

The amount of food you will need to carry for a weekend walk is 2 lunches (Sat and Sun), one dinner, and one breakfast. Lunches tend to be fairly light, a bit of bread, some topping, some muesli bars, and chocolate will suffice. Breakfasts can be a couple of those small, assorted packets of cereal, plus a small pack of long life milk. These are your staples.
Dinner is where you can really do some impressive work. You will be settled in a cave, a good fire roaring, and you’ll have time to prepare and enjoy. A good start is a couple of packets of continental pasta meals, with added dried peas/corn, and a small can of tuna. Bringing an onion and frying it up before hand is the sort of decadence most mortal bushwalkers dream of.
But remember, you’ll enjoy the walk a lot more with a light pack and simple food, than a heavy pack and gourmet food. Although heavier stuff like fruit can be taken on the first day if it’s consumed that day.

Emergency rations: If you sprain an ankle or someone breaks an arm, your progress out may take longer than expected. No real emergency, just a day late. You’ll need something to eat in this unlikely event. This is where you need some bare minimum, tasteless, extremely light weight stuff as 95% of the time you wont need it. A packet of dried vegetables or noodles is usually enough, plus whatever is left over from the other meals.


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