Currawong
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2012
- Messages
- 2,258
I live in the bush in south-east Australia and have a lot of wild country around me. There is one gorge, hidden away in a national park (and designated wilderness area) that is almost impossible to get to. There are no trails and the bush is very hard to traverse. I decided to do an exploratory trip to find a route in. :thumbup: :thumbup:
Starting the walk. The understory here is about head height and everything is covered in spikes or is cutting grass.
Got to the top of the gorge. This spot is about 8km in a straight line from where I live - but about 20km driving.
What's this? A pine tree - Pinus radiata - growing in the middle of nowhere. Pines are exotic weeds here and need to be removed. Not sure how it got here as it's a long way from anywhere.
It's growing in a pile of semi-loose rocks on top of a small cliff (about 30 metres).
Lucky I had a NMFBM in my pack.
First cut. To get the angle I had to hang onto a branch and lean back out over the drop. I was a little worried about it falling the wrong way and knocking me down the cliff so had to get the angle right.
Getting there.
That'll do.
Kept going down into the gorge by finding a gap I could scramble down through the cliffs. Lot's of sliding involved. This rock slope is about 45 degrees and has water running over it. Most of the way down was a lot steeper than this but it was too hard to get a photo. At one point I slid through vegetation too thick to see through, which was hiding a 2 metre drop. I landed on my side but luckily I bounce pretty good.
Trying to get to the creek. The ferns are waist high and so thick you can't see the ground. They're growing out of sticks, logs, vines, potholes, etc. so every step has to be done by feel slowly to avoid injury. The piles of vegetation in the picture are higher than head height and are wiry vines covered in large thorns. These are known as wait-a-while or lawyer vine because you get caught up in them and they won't let you go. They wind through all the vegetation creating a net that sticks to every part of your body and pack. It took me about 2.5 hours to get 1km.
Finally made it.
A few pics of the rainforest... tree ferns can grow up to 10m tall, and some of the rainforest trees in this area are supposedly thousands of years old.
All in all it was well worth it, but it's not an easy enough route to do regularly. The trek out was as difficult as the trek in, except all uphill. All up over 7 hours of hard going to cover only about 10km.
Starting the walk. The understory here is about head height and everything is covered in spikes or is cutting grass.
Got to the top of the gorge. This spot is about 8km in a straight line from where I live - but about 20km driving.
What's this? A pine tree - Pinus radiata - growing in the middle of nowhere. Pines are exotic weeds here and need to be removed. Not sure how it got here as it's a long way from anywhere.
It's growing in a pile of semi-loose rocks on top of a small cliff (about 30 metres).
Lucky I had a NMFBM in my pack.
First cut. To get the angle I had to hang onto a branch and lean back out over the drop. I was a little worried about it falling the wrong way and knocking me down the cliff so had to get the angle right.
Getting there.
That'll do.
Kept going down into the gorge by finding a gap I could scramble down through the cliffs. Lot's of sliding involved. This rock slope is about 45 degrees and has water running over it. Most of the way down was a lot steeper than this but it was too hard to get a photo. At one point I slid through vegetation too thick to see through, which was hiding a 2 metre drop. I landed on my side but luckily I bounce pretty good.
Trying to get to the creek. The ferns are waist high and so thick you can't see the ground. They're growing out of sticks, logs, vines, potholes, etc. so every step has to be done by feel slowly to avoid injury. The piles of vegetation in the picture are higher than head height and are wiry vines covered in large thorns. These are known as wait-a-while or lawyer vine because you get caught up in them and they won't let you go. They wind through all the vegetation creating a net that sticks to every part of your body and pack. It took me about 2.5 hours to get 1km.
Finally made it.
A few pics of the rainforest... tree ferns can grow up to 10m tall, and some of the rainforest trees in this area are supposedly thousands of years old.
All in all it was well worth it, but it's not an easy enough route to do regularly. The trek out was as difficult as the trek in, except all uphill. All up over 7 hours of hard going to cover only about 10km.
