MARRA MARRA NATIONAL PARK

Trip Report.

 

Marra Marra National Park – MOU – Working bee.

Sunday 29th March 2009

 

Greg & Vicki Martineer                     Yum Yum                   Ssangyong

Redmond Hastings                             Becky                       Suzuki Jimny   (T.E.C)

Ken & Kerry Clarke                          AWD thingy               Honda CRV

Robyn and Muttley                          Tweetie                      Jackaroo          (TL)

Visitors – Wayne Reynolds, Michael Gould

 

This was the best of times. The Sun shone from a blue sky that was bifurcated by vapour trails of unheard jets. A light breeze caressed our brows. We sipped morning tea on a terrace overlooking a bright, clear pool of water. Light reflected from the leaves of the gum trees, and dazzled the feathers of birds as they screeched at each other to sod off. After a slice of birthday cake for Robbie – complete with sparklers – we left the house, and set off for the National Park at the end of Canoelands road.

 

This working bee did not require road building. The ridge trail was clear to the end. The last power stanchion towers over a bend in the Hawkesbury, a breath beating, picturesque 130 m above the water line, just begging for a flying fox to traverse the 500m wide Hawkesbury River. There are some long views of the valley to take in along the way.

 

Photo 1: View NW across Haycock Reach, Hawkesbury River, from nr Canoelands Ridge Trail, Marra Marra NP, NSW

 

The Walking Trail to Gentlemans Halt is overgrown, particularly at the start. Half the party stayed at the head of the trail to tackle this undergrowth, while another group wanted to cut a path to the camping area that is Gentlemans Halt, normally approached by people in watercraft. We approached in bushcraft, lopping, pruning and sawing along the way.

 

Piles of rock and the occasional pink ribbon mark the trail until you reach the top of a natural stairway, 700m along the way; then it’s a rapid and an uncertain descent through slender trees and stands of native tobacco plants; the rocks are strewn with bark and leaf litter, and the footing is quite unsafe. There are galleries of overhanging rock perhaps 40m long; the sandstone is very soft, and easily breaks away. A little further down, the walking track is still well marked, but confusion is possible.

 

Photo 2: Kerry Clarke, Robbie Hastings , Greg Martineer, pruning the head of the walking track to Gentlemans Halt.

At the bottom of the saddle, a signpost shows 1.4 km to go to Gentlemans Halt. At first, the track is wide enough to drive a truck through. Shortly, however, there are several paths you can go by, and we chose the left fork, coming across an unofficial fireplace. Wayne was almost cured of smoking at this point. A few hundred metres away, there was also a cache of someone’s ropes and a fly, securely waterproofed in a PVC tube. It was doing no harm, just loitering with intent, so we left it in place. We then followed a trail nearly to the top of the last hill before the bend of the Hawkesbury. At that point we realised this was not the right trail. We should have taken the right hand fork. This was later seen to have been tagged with yellow ribbon on either side, and further along there was blue and white ribbon. So Michael re-assured himself by tying a bit of ribbon to his walking stick. Never lost, the tape was always in front of him. On reflection, the right fork resembled a goal post, under which we failed to score.

Running short of time, we turned our backs on the cruel terrain that had defeated us, and passed like the breeze under trees. Admittedly, this breeze was a little destructive, lopping and pruning to keep the path clear for our return.

The ascent to the top of natural stairway was tough going, and, as we were only lightly troubled by having to use secateurs and bush saws along the way, considered it would be hard work for someone carrying an overnight pack, or a brush cutter – or some Y-bar steel posts with plastic caps to mark a trail.

 

By the time we reached the top of the trail, Robyn, Vicki, Kerry and Greg had reduced the overgrowth considerably. Photos were taken, and we left the Park.

Photo 3:Wayne, Michael, Robbie, Red, Kerry, Ken and Muttley, ready to pack up , in and out.

 

Some of us had a little snooze on the way home.

Ken and I now have now added another bushwalk to knock off before long; we will return to complete Gentlemans Halt Walking Trail; and then we’ll either wonder why we didn’t bring a swag, or we’ll catch a water taxi out of there.

Next time.

 

David. H. a.k.a "Muttley".

Trip Reporter.