Meryla State Forest: The Top of Bundanoon Gorge

General Information

Grading: easy

Distance: 8.8 kilometers 

Total climb: 158 meters 

Time taken: 2 hours 20 minutes

Map: Bundanoon 8928-1S 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  163 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  56H KG 57554 64299

Destination:   First Lookouts 56H KG 56930 63203

                      Second Lookout 56H KG 57586 63136

                      Third Lookout 56H KG 58602 63645

                      Fourth Lookout 56H KG 59358 64040

End Point:  Same as start

 

Route

 

Description 

 

This walk is through a quiet corner of Meryla State Forest near the village of Exeter in the Southern Highlands. The walk used to be around the perimeter of a pine forest, but the pines have now all been harvested, probably after the 2020 bushfire. Unfortunately this means that the left hand side of the track throughout the walk is pretty ugly...

 

 

...so it's all about the lookouts over Bundanoon Gorge.

 

The start of the walk is at the end of Rosedale Road, before the entry to Filbert's Farm. There are “no parking” signs along Rosedale Road, so we had to cross over into the State Forest area; easy to find because there are no fences there. You can pretty much park anywhere, but we decided to find a shady spot off to the left and round a sharp bend.

We followed a counter-clockwise route around the management trail that borders the former pine forest. Along this trail it's just a matter of looking for minor tracks on the right, which invariably led to lookouts. The first lookout was over the Stonequarry Creek Gorge, but the remainder were all over Bundanoon Gorge, which became narrower as we progressed. Plenty of great views from all lookouts, but be aware that there are no protective barriers and it's a long way down...

To return to our starting point we just continued around in a loop around the former pine forest.

Barren Gounds Nature Reserve: Cooks Nose and the Natural Stone Bridge

General Information

Grading: easy

Distance: 10 kilometers 

Total climb: 239 meters 

Time taken: 2 hours 50 minutes

Map: Kangaroo Valley 9028-4S 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  200 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  56H KG 90433 60727

Destination:  Cooks Nose 56H KG 88801 58583

                      Natural Stone Bridge 56H KG 91044 59371

End Point:  Same as start

 

Route

 

 

Description 

 

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve is to the south of Jamberoo Mountain Road, about 14 kilometers from the Illawarra Highway (at the Robertson Pie Shop).

 

This walk commenced at the Barren Grounds Picnic Area, about 1 kilometer to the right off Jamberoo Mountain Road. There are two trailheads at the Picnic Ground, but both are well signposted.

Naturally we followed the trail to Cooks Nose at the southern end of the Picnic Area. This took us initially through some flat, fairly open terrain with many varieties of wildflower still in bloom.

The trail starts to go up and down a bit after a while and is quite rocky.

Eventually we came to a walking track off to the right which took us to Cooks Nose, and some very good views into the Brogers Creek and Lamonds Creek gorges, and down towards Kangaroo Valley in the distance.

After taking in the views for a while we headed back the way we had come, but turned off at the Stone Bridge sign to have a look at the natural stone bridge about 1 kilometer away. The stone bridge itself is interesting without being spectacular, but the area around it (Lamonds Creek) is quite nice despite many mosquitos coming to feed on me.

After a break down by the Creek we retraced our steps back to our starting point.

Gibbergunyah Reserve

General Information

Grading: easy

Distance: 6.9 kilometers 

Total climb: 307 meters 

Time taken: 2 hours 30 minutes

Map: Mittagong 8929-2S 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  175 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  56H KG 62016 85533

Destination:  none

End Point:  Same as start

 

Route

 

 

Description 

Gibbergunyah is a small reserve that sits between Mittagong and Bowral. It can be accessed from either town, but we started our walk from the Mittagong side. The access point is a locked gate on Howards Way, about 4 kilometers west of the centre of Mittagong. There is a sign here with a map of the walking tracks in the Reserve, and it's a good idea to take a picture of it before setting out. It should be noted that there is traffic noise from the nearby Hume Motorway on the Mittagong side of the Reserve, so this really isn't a walk for people who like the quiet sounds of the bush.

We started up the walking track to the right of the locked gate (shown in yellow on the guide map) and gradually climbed through forest until it met the Gang Gang Track. There were still plenty of wildflowers about, even though it was (notionally) Summer.

 

We followed the Gang Gang track to the right until we came to a walking trail on the right leading up to Ninety Acre Hill lookout, which has limited views to the northwest.

Returning to  Gang Gang Track, we followed it to the end and turned left onto Goanna Track, which we followed around until it turned sharply left. Here we left  Goanna Track and followed a walking trail down into a rainforest gully.

Unfortunately we found the trail a bit difficult to follow and soon lost it altogether. We were able to bush bash our way out of the gully and back to the Gang Gang Track, which we followed back to our starting point.

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve: Gibraltar Peak via Devils Gap

General Information

Grading: medium

Distance: 12 kilometers 

Total climb: 575 meters 

Time taken: 3 hours

Map: Tidbinbilla 8627-2S 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  46 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 74405 73675

Destination:  55H FA 76675 74314

End Point:  Same as start

 

Route 

 

Note: Forget about the straight line shown below at the end of the walk. It appears that my GPS watch had a slight glitch.

 

Description 

This walk started at the Devils Gap carpark on the Tidbinbilla Reserve ring road. I  followed the Devils Gap fire trail past the gate at the border of the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and down to the intersection of numerous management trails at map reference 55H FA 75791 72572.

I took the first trail on the left, which headed back in the general direction I had come from.

This trail is quite rough and a bit overgrown, so I started my habitual snake scanning as I progressed up the hill. At map reference 55H FA 75730 73058 there was another trail heading off to the left.

I followed this trail around to the top of the hill just north of Devils Gap. At map reference 55H FA 75630 73273 I left the track and went bush, following the ridge line down the first hill and up and down a second. The bush was not easy, but not particularly difficult either. Initially it was a bit like this:

Toward the top of the second hill, however, it became a bit rocky and scrubby and my progress was a lot slower. I was also looking out for snakes behind every rock and fallen branch.

By following the ridge I eventually came to the fire trail leading up to Gibraltar Peak, which I had to climb once again to take in the view.

Coming back down from the Peak to the management trail I turned left and went down a very steep slope and followed the signs towards Woods Reserve. This took me along the Gibraltar South fire trail and back to the Devils Gap trail. From there it was an easy walk back to the car park.

Cotter Area: Stony Creek Nature Reserve, Uriarra Forest and Mt McDonald

General Information

Grading:  medium

Distance:   13.8 kilometers

Total climb:   473 meters

Time taken:   3 hours 30 minutes

Maps:   Cotter Dam 8627-2N 1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   26 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 77061 90367

Destination map grid reference:   Cotter Campground 55H FA 77183 89391

                                                      Mt. McDonald 55H FA 76550 91170

End point:  Same as start

Route

Description

This walk began at the small car park just off Brindabella Road about 2 kilometers north of Cotter Road. From the car park I headed through the bush and across Brindabella Road to find the gate into Stony Creek Nature Reserve (map reference: 55H FA 77214 89929). Through the gate I followed a fairly indistinct track down to Grasstree Lookout, which has a bench from which to enjoy the view.

After the lookout the trail starts to zigzag down the side of the hill to the Murrumbidgee River. At first it passes through fairly open forest (with at one point a fantastic view of the Cotter Pumping Station and bridge over the Murrumbidgee) and then through fairly thick scrub at the bottom.

I followed the trail right to the bridge over the Murrumbidgee and then turned around and headed back. At map reference 55H FA 77192 89740, which is right at the first acute bend of the main trail, I followed a trail off to the side which I thought could be a trail along the bank of the river, but the trail was soon lost in a grassy opening and I returned to the main trail. I then climbed all the way back up to the car park the way I had come. This trail is quite steep in places, but is in excellent condition.

Getting back to my starting point at the car park I headed off again, this time through the locked gate at the car park down Lookout Road towards Cotter Dam. I then followed Priors Road as close as I could get to the Dam.

Continuing along Priors Road there were some nice views and reflections off the catchment.

I turned off Priors Road on to to Crusher Road and followed for some distance, taking a slight detour at one point to climb to a high point at map reference 55H FA 75733 91406, with views to the south.

Returning to Crusher Road I followed it through to the Uriarra Village Fire Trail which I then followed down to some power lines which cut through the pine forest. This is pictured below from the eastern side:

The track following the power lines was extremely wet, muddy and slippery, but it eventually comes out on Crusher Road again. From there I headed up the trail to the summit of Mt McDonald, which has a decent view towards Canberra.

From the summit I headed down Mt McDonald Road. I took a brief detour to the Cotter Dam Lookout, and then took the Lookout walking track back to the car park. The Lookout walking track was quite badly eroded along much of its length and I had to take care not to fall over stepping on loose rocks.

I'll finish with a couple of warnings about the Cotter Dam/Mt McDonald part of this walk. First, there is little shade to be found, so it may not be a pleasant walk in high summer. Second, blackberry bushes are all over the place, so cutting through the bush can be problematic.

Gibraltar Pines: Punch Bowl Creek

General Information

Grading : medium

Distance:  9.8 kilometers 

Total climb:  417 meters

Time taken:  3 hours 30 minutes

Map:  Corin Dam 8626-1N, 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  49 kilometers 

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 74894 68592

Destination map grid reference:  n/a

End point:  same as start

Route

 

Description

This walk began at the Smokers Trail car park off Corin Road. We walked up to the top of the hill, then turned slightly right and cut through the bush to another management trail which we followed round to the start of the walking track along Punch Bowl Creek (map reference 55H FA 75649 68431).

We followed the walking track past the two waterfalls on Punch Bowl Creek...

 

...and then continued down to an old gate before turning left and crossing Punch Bowl Creek at map reference 55H FA 76680 68759. From here we hit exploration mode, following an old and rough track paralleling the north side of the creek. We followed this for a few kilometers just to see where it went. We were hopeful that it might climb up the ridge on our left, but it soon became apparent that it most likely just went to the Booroomba Homestead (as it turned out we were right about this) and decided to turn back.

We followed mostly the same route back to our starting point, although we re-crossed Punch Bowl Creek a bit further downstream than on the outward journey.

Port Macquarie Coastal Walk

General Information

Grading : easy

Distance:  8.8 kilometers 

Total climb:  195 meters

Time taken:  2 hours

Map:  Port Macquarie 9435-2S, 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  661 kilometers

Route

Description

We started this walk at Town Beach and followed the marked trail to the south along the coastline. This meanders through bushland (including Sea Acres Nature Reserve) and along beaches, with the trail mostly easy to follow and with great views from time to time.

The trail officially ends at the Tacking Point Lighthouse.

We went on a little bit further down Lighthouse Beach so that we could have a brief camel ride along the beach and have a good lunch at the Tacking Point SLSC.

Note: 

I haven't included the return journey as part of this blog posting. We walked back along Lighthouse Road and Pacific Drive, just shy of 6 kilometers and not particularly interesting. Other options include returning via the Coastal Walk or catching a bus from Pacific Drive.

Rob Roy Nature Reserve: Some Waterfalls, the Black and White Mine and Monks Hill

General Information

Grading : medium

Distance:  9.4 kilometers 

Total climb:  521 meters

Time taken:  3 hours 50 minutes

Map:  Tuggeranong 8727-3S, 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  29 kilometers 

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 91194 72673

Destination map grid reference:  Waterfalls 55H FA 91349 70137 (approximate)

                                                     Mine 55H FA 91016 71165

                                                     Monks 55H FA 91216 71267

End point:  same as start

Route

 

Description

This walk began at the car park just off Orange Tree Crescent in Banks. Through the gate we started walking up a steep sealed track which turns into a more level gravel track at the top of this first ascent. About 2 kilometers into the walk the track divides, with the track on the right heading towards Monks Hill and the left track heading towards Mount Rob Roy. We went up towards Monks Hill for as short distance, and then went bush following a fence line south until we came to a creek in a deep gully with some small waterfalls.

We then headed back along the same fence line for a while before heading west towards the Black and White Mine.

After inspecting the mine we headed up to Monks Hill to take in some of the views before retracing our route back to the starting point.