NAMADGI OVERNIGHT WALK – JUNE LWE 2013
Pocket Saddle Road > Goodradigbee River > Bimberi Gap > Mt Bimberi > Murray’s Gap > Mt Murray > Lone Pine Trail > Mt Morgan > Loan Pine Trail > Oldfields Hut > Pocket Saddle Road
Years ago, friends and I would get up at 1am on a Saturday morning hoon down to Namadgi, do a 2 day walk, then drive back in time to go to work on Monday. How times have changed!
Jeff and I have both had a thing for Namadgi for many years. It’s a shame it’s so far from the Central Coast, it must be psychological, I didn’t worry about that years ago. So, with 3 days at our disposal we figured we needed to go down and get our Namadgi fix for the year, I particularly wanted to camp on top of Mt Bimberi amongst the snow gums and snow grass, and maybe see brumbies when we woke up in the morning. Marion D and Geoff S had camped up there years ago and I was envious of their description of looking out the tent and seeing brumbies grazing a few metres away.
We put the word out (and I think I specifically mentioned the opportunity to see Brumbies) and four other BWOC members joined us, Jo H, Geoff S, Hayley and Viv.
We camped Friday night at Tantangara Reservoir so that we could get an early start on Saturday morning. All was good as we followed Murray Gap Fire Trail to the aqueduct on the Goodradigbee River. We crossed the river (didn’t get wet feet) and made our way up a small gully and then we hit horrendously thick scrub. Thankfully this eventually thinned out to a lovely snowgrass saddle. This lulled us into a false sense of security because before long, like 10 minutes, we were back into the scrub until we reached the high point, the border between ACT and NSW.
On the ACT side the snowgrass plains beckoned, however we loyally committed to the NSW side with the horrendously thick scrub, eventually climbing to the top of our first 400m ascent. Once at the top we looked around and found the best way down to the saddle at Bimberi Gap. It was here that a number of the group attempted an unsuccessful bloodless coup, it did look like a really nice place to camp (water, firewood, flat plain, snow grass and possibility of brumbies grazing in the morning), but our inspirational leader (Jeff) insisted on continuing past the saddle with his vision of a majestic sunset and crisp dawns up on Bimberi Peak (highest mountain in ACT, well, only half of it’s in ACT, the other half is in NSW).
He must have done a good sales pitch because we were back walking and thankfully we found a brumby track to lead us up to the top of the Peak. A sheltered campsite was soon discovered amongst the snow-gums, there was water nearby (iced over) and heaps of firewood. We tried starting the fire (it was very cold and a bit windy), half a box of matches and I gave up, Jo came to the rescue with her stove, it acted a bit like a flame thrower and the fire was soon roaring.
The sunset was majestic and we had a big fire but the temperature was -2degC so were all in bed by 7pm. Clear skies and a starry night were appreciated. Frost covered tents weren’t appreciated quite so much the next morning and our water bladder tubes were frozen, AND there were no bloody brumbies. Nevertheless, we soon packed up so that we could be on our way, we had a big day planned.
Trekking south east we descended on a marked footpad to Murray’s Gap, we refilled water bottles at the saddle and soldiered up another 400m in relatively open country to Mt Murray for lunch. We were surprised to meet three Canberrans (yes, that is apparently what they’re called) at the top and shared our lunch spot.
We then descended down the other side of Murray on a bearing along a ridge … I kept remembering back to this part of Murray that we walked three years ago, today was a lovely day, back then though we were battling torrential rain and gale force winds.
We did a dog leg at the end of our Spur and picked up a small ridge between two creeks and popped out of the scrub on the Lone Pine Trail right at the NPWS signpost with our track to the proposed campsite right in front of us (well done Jeff!).
The track to where we were going to camp was fairly well defined, initially an old fire trail, but then a foot-pad, it’s apparently an easy way to get from the Trail up to Mt Morgan. So we followed it along and eventually found a wonderful flat grassy area to camp. After setting up, we walked a short distance to a creek (that we could see on the map), picked up water and then got down to the business of setting up another big campfire. It was certainly milder down here in the valley, and we were sheltered from any winds that might come up during the night.
After we’d all had dinner, Jo then prepared chocolate cupcakes. We had watched her eat fresh oranges for the past three days, carefully cutting the orange in half then scooping out the flesh, and setting the orange skins aside. She brought these out and used them as ramekins, which she filled with chocolate cake mix and then put them on the coals of the fire to cook. Isn’t that going to be a hard act to follow, she carried in 3 oranges, 2 eggs and all ingredients for the chocolate cake! We each cooked our own with varying success, Geoff S eventually had the right idea, he set his orange skin inside a small tuna can, cooked better than all the other ways we tried.
Next morning we left our packs at the campsite and did a quick trip up to Mt Morgan, not that we could see anything, low cloud had come in overnight. We soldiered on up to the top, it was a good track and we were quite quick without the packs. I had wanted to wander along to where I’d camped with John L’E a few years ago on the top of Morgan, but visibility was about 50m, we couldn’t see a thing and it was rather cold and windy so I gave up that idea and we bagged the peak and high-tailed it back down.
We picked up our packs and followed Lone Pine Trail to Oldfield’s Hut for lunch. It was still a bit cold so after lunch Jo had us doing a bit of yoga to warm up our muscles before the long fire trail slog back to the cars.
We had been looking out for brumbies for the whole weekend, but despite evidence of them, we didn’t see any until, finally in the last 30 minutes of the walk a couple of the group spotted brumbies; obviously they’re quite elusive.
We were back at the cars around 2.30pm and on the road by 3pm with a quick stop off at Goulburn for dinner. It was a fabulous trip, with good company and lots of laughs, thanks Jeff for doing all the navigation and organisation.