Got back last Friday from a week long trip. Managed to get out to the Amphitheatre but we did change our plans a fair amount. It was so incredibly hot and dry, with nothing to soak up the heat. The drought is pretty bad right now. Thought I’d share some observed information anyway.
Here's a map with some notes/pics to accompany the description
https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/ ... ditionNP18 We set off from Starkvale around 8am,. From the bottom of the gorge access track we headed upstream (N). The going was made easy by heavily used cattle tracks in combination with the empty creek bed. We made it out of the gorge for lunch and decided to walk to a different softwood stand as the cliffs up on the range looked impassable, and the heavy heat favored heavily against exploring routes up to the St Claire Range. We headed West along management tracks past
‘The Tin Hut’ (1901) and an occupied QPWS station and reached the scrub at about 3pm. The
scrub itself was pretty interesting, though a lot of the [ur=https://i.imgur.com/I3Yox8z.jpgl]undergrowth was dead[/url]. Slept under a bottle tree and listened to White-throated Nightjars all through the night. Broke camp at 4.30am to beat the heat to the gorge, and went back the way we came. Filled our water up at a tank outside the gorge near the management track. We took the same route back, with the addition of
climbing up a ridge for a view. That afternoon was brutally hot and we just lay about in the shade at Starkvale, waiting for the sun to go down.
On the third day we headed downstream from the access track back at Starkvale. The cows didn’t seem to go past this point, and there wasn’t much of a footpad otherwise. More and more puddles as you head downstream make it hard to stay in the creekbed. The banks are thick with long dead grass that isn’t very pleasant to walk through. Lots of gorges to explore, and it’s worth going as far downstream as you can where the walls narrow. We opted to hang out and take it in by a waterhole in surprise creek after
exploring some short gullys further down Robinson. Shepherds Peak and the Cattle dip are absolutely worth looking at before doing other exploring for better perspective of the area.
I will definitely be back. The three full days were not enough at all. Missed out on exploring Glenhaughton creek, which appears to be the pick of the lot. Would love to get down into the Cattle Dip as well. Also,
here's a few more pictures in addition to those above.