MORONG DEEP – JANUARY 2010
Morong Creek Fire Trail > Morong Creek > Morong Deep (Kowmung River) > Megalith Spur & Ridge > Morong Creek Fire Trail
So, here we were again, another Oz Day LWE, will it be third time lucky? The Repeat Offenders, me, Steve C, Jeff B, Len S, plus Simon R and Tamara C (both experienced bush walkers). Jenny couldn’t join us, she’d had a fall and had sustained a head injury just a few weeks earlier, so Jen, this trip’s for you!
We parked the cars at the end of the Fire Trail, by this time we’re old hats at this, the third time we’d been here in three years! We were quickly down in the river, lilos inflated and ready to go. The level of the water was ok, not as high as the first year, but better than the second year. We didn’t even stop to do the big jump at Morong Falls, just made our way downstream. We got to the section where the river gets narrow and then ends in a small waterfall, we all took turns going over the 
edge, some capsizing, some not! The next slide was a good one too, a nice flat sloping slab that we could do a couple of times just for the hell of it, we were moving pretty quickly so could afford to do things twice.
We were soon down to our Big Waterfall and again decided to skirt around on the left. It wasn’t too much further 
downstream that we came to our first camp site for the night, that’s the one where there are a set of cascades upstream about 200m, so we set up camp and then retreated back to the cascades, the weather was perfect and we sat around in the spa pools for the rest of the afternoon. Can you tell that we pretty much knew this section of the river like the back of our hands now?
Jeff chilled out in his very own cascade. I’d have to say that the cascades and spa pools and little rapids are what I find most enjoyable about Morong, that and the fact that in all the times that we’ve been there, we must just pick the right weekend as we don’t see a single soul, we have the place to ourselves.
Then it was down a little ways and another boulder jam where you had to cross over to the right hand bank, skirt around up high and there, in a 
convenient place was a spot where you could rig up a hand line for a messy climb down. Steve quickly set up the hand line and then down we went, once at the bottom, you have to jump in, swim across to the other side and wait there for everyone else, there’s no-where to stand, as you can see from where Steve is standing (left). You can just see the hand line that he set up it goes up another maybe 5m, that climb down above him, without the hand line would be very sketch, you’d do it but one false move and you’re toppling backwards into rocks and then the water.
After the climb down there’s quite a large pool to swim/paddle through, and then more boulders, eventually we came to a lovely spot for lunch with the water cascading over the rocks, perfect place to chill out, not that any of us needed chilling out, we were all so relaxed.
We camped at the spot that we had camped the first time we attempted the trip and then the next day we were in “unknown country” for me. For some reason, can’t remember why, the photos aren’t very 
plentiful. However, this was probably the best section, the waterfalls started to get bigger, in fact one must have been about 15 – 20m and cascaded over into a big pool. It had a big slab of rock up above it where we basked in the sun for lunch. We didn’t jump the waterfall, although you could have, but we skirted around on the rock shelf to the left and there was a ledge that we set up a hand line and scrambled down to the next level. Then it was back into the creek heading downstream again.
There was one memorable section where we skirted around a big rock and then crawled (carefully) over a sloping rock and found ourselves 3m above the water (no way to jump) and a washing machine hole below us, we stood around for ages wondering what to do, then finally went for it, into the hole, down a chute and out into another hole (great fun). But, after 2 days of rock hopping, the rest of the river has just blended into a blur.
Before long we were at the last camp site, this was a huge area compared to the other small spots that we’d camped in before, we set up amongst the she oaks and mourned the fact that we’d be walking out the next day. What a great trip! And this time it went off without a hitch.
The walk out was not overly memorable, except for being long (very long) and up hill all the way. For the last k or so it was gently downhill but after 7 or 8k of up hill you don’t even notice it. The most memorable thing for me I guess was walking near a fallen log (it was quite a big tree), and there, in a hollowed out area where the wood had rotted was the biggest brown snake I’ve seen curled up sleeping. Scared the bejesus out of me. Back at the cars at a respectable time and on the road again. The ford over Morong Creek is much worse this time than it was last year, great big ruts, I got out and watched the cars as they tried to negotiate the ruts!
So, it’s finally finished, I don’t have to go back again, although I think I will in a few years time, it is such a beautiful area, I feel compelled to take other people back there who haven’t seen it.