Walking Back to Carlon's Farm - Bushwalk Part 2

Early morning in the bush - sorry about the picture, must admit it was probably taken during the very last available light the night before - After a super duper sleep and some good solid breakfast we packed our gear and prepared for another day in the boots.

Jarrod, who's blog you can find here, had planned for us to do the walk as a circuit, meaning that we would not have to battle the 41 river crossings on the way back out - I was very happy about that, instead we would climb straight out of the valley and then follow the ridge back home ... sounded good ...? I promise the readers that after about 20 min of scrambling up the hill trying to follow the determined New Zealand mountain goat, who was speeding up the hill like a Tour de France rider high on EPO, I started considering if I would have been better off by swimming all the way back up Breakfast creek instead :-D

It took 1.5 hours to reach the top, gaining somewhere close to 600m of altitude making it equivalent to conquering Himmelbjerget "The Heaven Mountain" back home in Denmark 4 times in a row with a good solid backpack and 3kg of camera hanging from your waist - excellent exercise :-D I sneakily managed to get in front of Jarrod for just enough time to take a picture - that will come in handy one day when I need proof supporting my story about how I spearheaded an expedition out of the Cox's River Valley ;-) A picture never lies and there is no sound revealing me huffing and puffing like a steam train running out of water.

The views at the top were absolutely stunning and after having done all the climbing as the very first bit of the walk the rest was literally "a walk in the (national)park". There were quite a few things to look at on the top of the ridge. A Wedge-tailed Eagle was cruising its hunting grounds, we saw wild orchids growing and aboriginal sharpening grooves used to sharpen tools by grinding them against the rock and aboriginal waterpots drilled into the rock.

Absolutely fantastic walk, thanks to Jarrod for arranging it. One of those that gets even better when you are back home, have had your shower and sit and look at the pictures :-) I have put together a Picasa album that you can access by pressing the map below.

Cox's River

Carlon's Farm to Cox's River via Breakfast Creek

Saturday morning I picked up Jarrod and pointed that shiny bonnet of the Magna towards another action packed weekend with all the fun and excitement the Blue Mountains can deliver. Jarrod had talked me into a bit of bushwalking in the Megalong Valley and I had said yes without knowing exactly what would be on the menu, except it would be a two day walk and I had therefore packed the tent, a good supply of gnocchi and a spare pair of knickers - be prepared! ;-)

Standing at the car eating a few bananas and drinking some water I realized that this trip was slightly different from my usual bushwalking exercise, Jarrod insisted on me reading the description of the route, which is a good idea(!), but what was this thing about 41 river crossings - that sounded very wet ... well, well - maybe the author of the book had chosen a not-so-clever route or we could even be lucky and the creek would be dry ... we took off into the wild.

Walking in Blue Mountain rainforest during winter is cold and wet, but amazingly rewarding. The cold and wet bit is easily solved by bringing the right clothes and shoes (I remembered this time) and left is just to enjoy the nature and wildlife.


On the way towards Breakfast Creek we encountered a flock of Glossy-black Cockatoos, probably counting more than 10 birds, peacefully sitting feeding in the casuarinas. Even though I have seen them before it was worth a few pictures, as was the Eastern Shrike-tit Jarrod pointed out after less than 5 min of walking :-)

The book had been right, scrambling down the banks of Breakfast Creek was as though the path had been made by a creature severely suffering from "The grass is greener on the other side"-syndrome. I did not count number of crossings, but 41 is not far off. Jarrod "Bambi" Amoore decided early on to put both his boots well and truly under water and from then on he did the crossings with the determination of a New Zealand tractor - I on the other hand jumped from rock to rock with the grace of a ballet dancer and managed to stay dry until about the 30th crossing after which I adopted the tractor approach - I do not think all that dancing from rock to rock slowed us down much more than an hour :-D

It was great arriving at Cox's River. When you are wet and hungry there is nothing better than to set up camp, get some food and get those wet boots and socks off. At the campsite we discovered yet another plaque, this one was in memory of Miss Oonagh Kennedy, who had died trying to cross the Cox's River in 1967 after a horse-riding expedition had gone wrong due to heavy rain.

I have pointed out before that bushwalking during winter means reduced daylight. When you camp in a valley you cut off at least another half hour in the evening as well as in the morning i.e. you have the chance of a proper monster sleep :-) When you have finished eating there is not much more to do in a dark valley, so we hit the tents and sleeping bags around 7pm. I had no idea what Sunday would bring, but knowing that I had 11 hours to spend sleeping before anybody expected anything from me was very nice indeed :-D