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What an epic 4 days in the budawangs this was. We got into true wilderness, hiking a good 2 days from anywhere. The bushfire recovery is progressing nicely, with regrowth that was great to see but made off-track hiking very slow and hard.
We gave Radix meals a good test on this trip. They are my new favourite hiking food. I bought them all with my own money. They keep me full and don't upset my tummy. Radix saw my vid and have offered a 10% discount if anyone is keen - Cheers bit.ly/3huZpZb
Im loving my Quilt NEVE -12deg 810g bit.ly/KATENEVE
This is some amazing country but if you go in there be sure to have several modes of navigating and extra supplies. There would be a very long wait for help should something go wrong. As I Was enjoying the beauty of sluice box falls it did dawn on me that there would be no helicopter rescue from this site. The old burnt trees tower over you and there is no obvious access points. I took 2 modes of GPS navigation and of course a map and compass.
We started on private property near Nerriga (we got permission from the land holder). This is necessary as apparently one of the blokes that lives here can be pretty cranky. From here we hiked along the western side of Quiltiys to Style creek camp.
Day 2 we hiked from styles creek camp up to the hidden valley - this track was completely overgrown and progress was slow. The lawyer vines ripped at our clothes and made it a long walk to cover about 1.5km in an hour. Once reaching the turn to the hidden valley we reconsidered continuing but decided to push on. Once in the valley we proceeded to the southern section and “dark brothers cave” I have tried to get here before but been turned back by thick shrubs, swamp and snakes. Finding the cave we then followed the clifflike north for about 200m to find the beginning of the climb to Sturgiss Mountain. The climb was slow and not too technical but you must have a head for heights as there were several exposed scrambles. The route is also not well marked and it was sometimes hard to know if we were going the right way. Near the top there is a length of chain to assist. The final scramble feels a bit scary with packs on but would be much easier without packs.
At the summit the views were beautiful. The way was pretty easy to the southern end of Sturgiss, following a gpx from a mate, but soon enough we were in the trees and going was slow. We stopped to explore and area that was marked as having an old Aboriginal Bora Ground - but nothing was found and the area is extremely overgrown.
Continuing on to the end of Sturgiss the views were spectacular. We then started trying to find the way off the mountain near mount Elliot. We found a series of rock Cairns and then a 4m cliff. A bit of a bum scoot and I was down. It wasn’t pretty and I realised there was probably no return. Chatting to a mate they found a safer way up and down further to the west. The descent to Sluice Box Falls was diabolical - the regrowth was almost impossible to get though the trees were about head high and lawyer vine had grown across the tops of them. It took us 1.5-2 hours to get down to sluice box falls.
We camped at the falls they were so beautiful. It was very hard to get a good shot of the falls. We camped on the sloping conglomerate rock right at the falls. It wasn’t the most comfortable but it was nice to be so close to the falls.
Day 3 -As we left camp it was intimidating seeing the epic cliffs of island mountain towering over us. We eventually found a way up - it took a bit of stuffing around. After a few ravines up and down we were across to the area near Camp rock. There was a few people camped at camp rock so we went over to red Johnnys cave, this was ok but not very big so we just camped next to camping rock creek. It was nice and there were pink flannel flowers growing nearby.
The next day we followed the fire trail to the vines around the Eastern side go Quiltys mountain. Then around the Northern side of quiltys, following the Endrick River. We then pounded out the last 5 km to the car.
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land, I pay my respect to Elders past and present.
Personal website: www.kategrarock.com/
Music By Joshua Wellington
All equipment was purchased with my own money. I am not sponsored by any brands. I just like to chat about cool gear. Some links are affiliate links so if you make a purchase it helps the channel out. Thanks
25 июл 2024
