Date:  24/10/2007

Maps:  LPI Kanangra 89303S, LPI Yerranderie 89294N and Dunphy's Kowmung

Route:  Marrilman Heath, Pindari Top, Wallaby Pass, Mt Bungun to Mt Colboyd.  Find the pass up through the cliffs onto Mt Colboyd shown on the Kowmung map.  Visit Barrallier Falls if time permits.  An easy day with time to enjoy the views.  Distance: 12 kilometres.  Ascent: about 150m.

Gear:  Daypack, Gaiters, Camera, EPIRB, Maps, Compass, GPS (set to WGS84), 2 litres water

Party:   Peter Medbury and Geoff Fox

Notes:

It was warm and overcast as we left the Kanangra Car park at 8:30am for the quick 1 kilometre walk up the road to where the path across Marrilman Heath starts.  We were looking forward to the views over Christys Creek from Pindari Top and Mt Colboyd.

It was not to be!  As we started across Marrilman Heath we could see thick clouds coming up out of the valley to the east.  By the time we reached Pindari Top we were in the clouds.  It was an eerie feeling with all points of reference gone in moments.  Despite the threat it didn't rain.

There is a fairly well defined track all the way from the Kanangra Road to Wallaby Pass, used by canyoners coming back from Dione Dell.

Open heath gives way to thick stands of isopogon and banksia that are almost inpenetrable.  In some places there are forests of small emergent mallees.  If it wasn't for the narrow track it would have been very tough going.  A couple of times the track opens out to large areas of bare stone.  Some care is needed to pick up the correct track when you leave the stone.  There are lots of false starts  where animals have pushed through and these are much lower.  If you're going the wrong way, go back and try again.

The grey clouds and the muted green browns of the heath combined to make everything seem very sombre and mysterious.  Here and there the gloom was broken by dazzling floral displays.  With no pressing schedule we were able to photograph everything that caught our attention.

Clouds continued to develop as we crossed Pindari Top and at Wallaby Pass it was like the edge of the world.  All the views just stopped.  We had expected to get photos to help plan longer walks into Christys area but there wouldn't be any chance today.

Wallaby Pass is a deep slot eroded into Pindari Top and allows easy access down to Pindari Gap.  From there the choices get better and better: Christys Creek, Arabanoo Creek or on to Central Christys via Mt Bungun and Mt Colboyd.

The pass has a rainforest micro-climate which supports a plant community quite different to the rest of the area.  The Possumwood was flowering today.

There is a small cave known as Uranus Grotto at the bottom of Wallaby Pass on the western side.  After a quick inspection and some photos we walked south under the cliffs.  The western cliffs and the southern cliffs meet to form a narrow point just above Pindari Gap.  We had a quick morning tea there before crossing Pindari Gap to Mt Bungun.

The vegetation once off the tops is a dry sclerophyll forest with very little understory.  There are occasional isopogons, some in flower.

Mt Bungun is only a little over 200 metres due south across Pindari Gap but the cloud was so low and so thick we could not see it.  We found the ridge and followed it to Mt Bungun and along under some quite impressive cliffs.

I noticed some grinding grooves on a rock under an overhang, well away from water.  I've no idea if they are authentic or when they were made so I reported the location to NPWS at Oberon.

Mt Colboyd is another kilometre south.  There still was no visibility and we reached Mt Colboyd by following the ridges around Bungin Gully.

As we crossed Bungin Gap we noticed a change in the forest understory with communities of oxylobium, stypandra and the occasional diuris orchid.  Stypandra was everywhere and in flower.

I am amazed how plant communities seem to work.  There will often be quite different communities growing on one ridge to those growing on another ridge on the same mountain at the same height and with apparently the same geology.  It is a pattern I've seen over and over again.  Could it be related to seed setting and subsequent fires?

The Kowmung Map shows a lookout named Krok's View on the southern tip of Mt Colboyd.  That was our lunch destination but`first we needed to find a pass through the cliff line.

We followed the western cliff line in a south-easterly direction for about 500 metres until we reached the point.  We turned north-east and followed the southern cliffs for almost 250 metres crossing through some large sandy-bottomed overhands until we found a way up.  From there it was an easy scramble up to the top and after a quick look around the top of Mt Colboyd we headed south-west to Krok's View for lunch.

The top of Mt Colboyd is mostly covered with dry sclerophyll forest with areas of thick low heath the edges of the cliffs on the northern, southern and eastern ends.

Krok's View is an open stone platform and normally there would be excellent views over Tartarus Deep and Middle Christys.  Today there was nothing.  While we were eating the clouds lifted for a moment and showed us a hint of what we were missing. 

And then the clouds came down again and it really started to get dark.  It was almost like navigating at night but with a gray background rather than the usual black.  Time to head back!

We saved some time by traversing north-east along the cliff tops to find the pass.  We had to negotiate a lot of small ledges and shelves bythe time we intersected our route up we were just above the little climb up.  Easy in the end.

The walk out was a bit faster than the walk in.  We weren't looking for the pass anymore and we were aware that the sky was still darkening even though it was still only early afternoon.  We hadn't anticipated such low visibility.

This time we noticed tiny Streaked Rock Orchids flowering.  We had missed them completely earlier.  On the walk out we had been much closer to the cliff and looking up.  We had passed right by them.  There were hundreds flowering at various places along the western side of Mt Colboyd and Mt Bungun.  It was the same species at each site but the orchids on Mt Colboyd mostly had short stems while those on Mt Bungun had stems approaching 600mm.  We made time to photograph the different growth forms.

We worked our way along the ridge from Mt Bungun to the cliffs and up Wallaby Pass to Pindari Top in the increasing gloom.

As we walked back towards the Kanangra Road we could hear thunder getting closer and closer. We increased our speed along the road to the carpark.  About 300 metres out it really started to rain and I was soaked.  Geoff had just made it under shelter when the heavens opened up.

The Picnic Shelter was a very comfortable place to change out of wet clothes and have some refreshments before starting the 2 hour trip back to Orange.

Geoff and Peter at Krok's View (photo: Geoff Fox).