Friday, December 11, 2009

Capertee Valley - Glen Davis - Camping


The plan had been to visit Lamington National Park, in the south east corner of Queensland. Firstly because it is a fantastic spot and secondly because my dad has never been to Queensland. Unfortunately bad weather was forecast to hit the coast and instead we decided to take our party inland to good old Capertee Valley that once again delivered an excellent combo of camping and nature galore - so apart from missing his Queensland tick, dad was not cheated in any way.

We had left Sydney Friday afternoon, which made it possible to reach the campground in Glen Davis before sunset, indeed we were able to pitch both tents and cook a bit of gnocchi goodness before it got dark. After a big sleep and a solid serve of Gemma's signature breakfast dish we were ready for a big Saturday in the shoes.

We had opted for a walk deep into the valley, trying to push as far in as we could possibly do in a single day allowing time to get back out again. It proved to be an excellent idea! :-)

We managed to spend 8 hours walking that Saturday - 5 hours in and 3 hours getting back out of the valley again. The path is excellent - some would even argue that it is boringly good, guess it doubles as a maintenance track for the national park rangers supposedly being able to take a (good!) 4 wheel drive through. Nevertheless after a few hours of walking you feel the valley starting to narrow in on you and you get that fantastic feeling of being properly "into the wild" :-)

The secret to a good bit of bushwalking is to be well prepared! Always bring enough water and the usual survival gear. Knowing the mob I was traveling with this particular Saturday I also knew that as long as weather was good and there was plenty of food spirits would be high - As is quite evident from the picture above, both criteria were met! :-D

Great day in the shoes and as you can imagine there was heaps more to see than just the landscape stuff I have attached to this post, will put together a wildlife post shortly.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

G'day, I found your blog on google, and I've been to Capertee before. I'm interested in camping there again this easter weekend, but unfortunately I followed others last time, and I can't find much info. Do you know if you have to book, and do you have any directions for finding the 'Little Capertee' campsite?

Cheers,

Julian

AGL said...

Hi Julian,

Good idea, Capertee should be great this time of year :-) I did a bit of searching to find Little Capertee, it is apparently around Newnes, so not actually in the Capertee Valley: http://www.wildwalks.com/camping-in-nsw-parks/near-sydney-campsites/little-capertee-camping-ground.html It is a shorter drive from Sydney and I have heard it should be alright, but I have not been there myself. I do not think you have to/can book at the Glen Davis campsite, there should be heaps of space. If you want solitude you can push further into the valley where there is a National Park campsite - that is a great place as well. Let me know how you go and do not hesitate to ask again if you got more questions - Have a great Easter :-)

Cheers Allan

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot, but it looks like we won't be going there.

Have a great easter!

Julian

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot Allan! It's unlikely that we'll go there now. Change of plan. But it was good to get the information, and might use it next time. Cheers

Julian

AGL said...

No worries :-) Have a good one and thanks for reading. Let me know if you have a blog?

Cheers Allan

Miss Kimbers said...

Hi Allan,
Was this the Pipeline trail that you did, or another walk?
I'm going to GD this weekend and have been advised by National Parks that the pipeline trail is closed...therefore I'm looking for other walks from the Glen Davis campsite. It's difficult to find information on walks in the area, so I'm thinking I'll just find a fire trail and follow it for the day.
Kim