Darryl left early for his trek, before I was out of bed.
I went down to have coffee with Louella and Tony while they had their breakfast. The Currawongs were determined to ensure not one morsel was left, and even resorted to drinking the soak water from the frypan!
Tony and Louella packed up their campsite and headed off, while I went back to our site to relax.
Darryl's trip was very interesting
Stony Creek walk
We did the escarpment 4WD circuit with the Offroad Club in 2005 and I was impressed with the area around Stony Creek but could not find any of our photos of that area. In 2017 we tried to walk to the gorge by following the creek from the 4WD Loop road but turned back about 1 km short due to a late start. I was determined to get there this time and obtained a map from one of my bush walking friends
who has walked in that area a few times.
With the aid of the map and Google Earth, I worked out approximate distances and decided to ride my mountain bike to, and follow the escarpment track to the gorge. Early Friday morning, I rode the bike some of the way along the trails to work out where they went and discovered a couple of tracks that were not on the map. On the way back, I rode one of them and found it led to the tank above our campsite and I partly carried the bike down the slope to our camp. Later in the day, Dell and I found the other trail led to another part of the escarpment above campsites 11 and 12.
On Saturday, just after first light, I carried the bike back up to the tank and rode it to the gated escarpment track. After ducking under the chain gate, I found it easy going to where I stopped to take photos overlooking Charlevue Creek catchment. Just around the next bend, the track dropped sharply and was littered with large rocks pushed out by recent 4WD activity. I decided safety was more important than speed and opted to walk the remaining 5km to the gorge. I also did not want to carry the bike back up the slope.
Rolling hills on the tableland
Last time I was there, the creek was open all the way to the gorge but this time the first few hundred meters was overgrown by thick scrub. To avoid the scrub, I stayed close to the rock face on the right and was soon rewarded with beautiful views of the sandstone cliffs surrounding the gorge. I then walked around to the right to take a few more photos before heading back to camp.
Looking back up Stony Creek
Suspected part of an open cut coal mine below
All up, it took me less than five hours to tick off another item on my bucket list. I believe it would be possible to do it in around three hours if a short-cut is taken over a long, flat rocky outcrop that is visible from the track and a 4WD is left near the gate.
I had a visitor to the camp, checking it out.
And a Currawong using a rock to break up a piece of food it found.
We had a quiet night by the campfire, and were lucky enough just on dusk to see a Glider Possum making his way from tree to tree
