Rambling Bungonia to Tallong Trip Report

[wallwombat]

I got a lift out to Bungonia , shortly after lunch on Thursday. It was one of those hazy, humid, overcast days that promises rain but then doesn't deliver. There were no other vehicles at the Lookdown car park when I was dropped off and it looked like I might have the rest of the day to myself. I hitched up my pack, grabbed my trekking pole and headed off on the Red Track following Bretons Creek down into to Bungonia Gorge.

My plan was to walk down into Bungonia Gorge and then through it to camp the night on the Shoalhaven somewhere near the junction of the creek and the river. The following day I intended to walk down river and camp somewhere in the vicinity of the base of Badgery's Ridge. The third day I would walk up the ridge and out to Tallong.

I was looking forward to revisiting the Shoalhaven Gorge as it was first place that I had ever gone bushwalking. That had been a school trip 34 years ago and that initial weekend walk had been a catalyst for many more walks and a life spent enjoying the outdoors. That first trip had been a nightmare of torrential rain and then blistering heat. 26 year 7 students, who had no idea what they were in for, some with suitcases, some with duffle bags, stumbled down Badgery's Ridge on a Friday night in the pouring rain. The river flooded while we were down there and then on Sunday, when we were about to walk back out, the clouds parted and the sun beat down on us. It was a torturous weekend and a few weeks later, when our English teacher, Mr Hannon asked the class who wanted to go on another weekend walk, only 6 of us put our hands up.

We went on to form the nucleus of a bushwalking group that went on many trips over the next 6 years. We went by the acronym *&^%$#@! which stood for Sydney High Impecunious Trekkers Society and we did some great walks including the Mittagong to Katoomba walk almost every June holidays, The Overland track, Hannels Spur up to Kozi and many other extended walks. It was these walks that instilled in me a voracious appetite for adventure and a deep love for the environment. They also spurred me on to become a climber and seek out tall cliffs and mountains as well.

Anyway, I'm rambling now but I'll just add that before this trip, I had not been down the Shoalhaven River for over 20 years and it was with a mix of nostalgia and trepidation that I began the walk. I'll also add that it was a walk that I only ever intended to do solo, there being too many ghosts from the past down there to share it with anyone else.

Back to the trip report.

I headed off down to Bretons Creek down steep switchbacks of shale and scree, half sliding, half walking, catching glimpses of the towering limestone walls of Bungonia Gorge. I'd walked up this track a few weeks earlier, with my friend Dave after we did a descent of Bungonia Canyon in high water. It had been a great trip, albeit one I had done half a dozen times before. At the time I hadn't taken in much of the scenery due to the lung-busting nature of the walk out. This time, being alone, I had much more time to appreciate just how amazing Bungonia Gorge is and once further down the track, what an incredibly ugly scar on the landscape the nearby Blue Circle Limestone mine is. It carves a horrible gouge out of the surrounding landscape and has grown immensely since I first saw it so many years ago.

About half way down, the track meets Breton's Creek and roughly follows it down into Bungonia Gorge. Crystal clear water springs out of the ground and give an opportunity to fill your water bottle and an almost rainforest like canopy provides shelter from the sun. Near the bottom I startled what I think was the same Lyre Bird that I had surprised a few weeks earlier. It was off like a rocket and once again I failed to get a photograph of the speedy critter.

At the bottom I stopped for a break and to take some photos. I turned on my trusty little Nikon and it immediately died. The screen flashed white and displayed a scary looking warning in red reading "LENS ERROR". Bugger! I played around with it for a while it it seems like it was cactus. Double bugger! I packed it away and filed it under "worry about later" and continued on down Bungonia Gorge.

Soon I was in the deepest part of the gorge, where the towering walls of limestone rocket up to the sky in deep hues of grey and orange. It become difficult to walk without tripping over as it is impossible to keep your gaze on the ground in front of you. It is impossible not to look up. I sat for a while and soaked in the view and reminded myself how long it had been since I'd actually been rock climbing down in Bungonia Gorge. I decided I'd have to find some bravery pills and return later in Autumn.

At the end of the deepest and steepest part of the gorge, you are met by a wall of giant white boulders, some as big as houses. This boulder choke goes for a while and it becomes very slow going finding a path through. Sometimes you have to climb over. Sometimes you have to tunnel under. All the time you have to be careful as it really is not the best kind of territory to be walking through solo. I took extra care and eventually made it through the boulder field and continued along Bungonia Creek. Soon after passing the boulders I was massively disappointed to see graffiti painted, low down, on the limestone wall on the left hand side of the creek. What kind of idiot would go to all that trouble to deface such a beautiful place? Shortly after that, I found a can of black paint and a couple of paint brushes hidden in a tree hollow. I disposed of them, muttering profanities to myself and thinking what I'd do to the vandals if I caught them. I continued on down the creek with murder on my mind.

After what seemed much longer than I remembered I reached the mighty Shoalhaven River. The river level was still high due to a lot of rain recently. I had ended up on the south bank of Bungonia Creek where it met the Shoalhaven, so I was confronted by what looked like a deep, wide crossing either way. I was running out of daylight and didn't feel like getting wet this late in the day so I decided to walk up river, on the side I was on, to see if I could spot a campsite. I couldn't so I doubled back down Bungonia Creek for a 100 meters or so and crossed over to the other side and then walked back to the Shoalhaven.

By the looks of it there seemed to be more chance of a camp site on the opposite side of the river. There were rapids further down river, so I headed down towards them. The rapids sounded sizable so I decided to cross where I was. The river at this point was close 100 meters wide but I couldn't be bothered stuffing around. I wouldn't get washed away, which was the important thing. I decided to take my shoes off for the crossing and with the aid of my trekking pole, I made a long slow crossing. I turned out it only got up to my belly button and the water wasn't cold at all. I didn't even stub a toe.

Once the crossing was over, I decided, after checking out the topography, that there was more chance of finding a decent camp site up river than down river (my intended direction). After about 20 minutes I found a nice little grassy spot amongst some She Oaks, not too far from the river. It was perfect and there was a small fire circle there so someone else had thought so too. I set up my fly/tarp, got the stove going and began brewing up the cup of tea that I had been fantasising about for the last 2 hours. It was fantastic. I decided, considering there was no fire ban that weekend, to light a small fire to provide a little comfort and help me dry out my shorts, that I had stupidly forgotten to take off before crossing the river. I settled down to a dinner of burritos and Tom Yum soup, followed by another nice cup of tea and then it was into bed to read my book. Only a couple of days before , I had bought myself a Kindle Paperwhite e-reader as my newest piece of walking gear and I would have to say I love it. I'm a avid reader and being able to take whatever reading material I want and not have to worry about weight or having to use my head lamp to read at night was fantastic. I'm thoroughly converted.

I slept well and woke around 7. A cheese and tomato burrito and a cup of tea for breakfast and soon I was packed and off down the river. It was still overcast but it wasn't cold. The forecast had said possible showers, which in the highlands could mean just about anything. I didn't know the stretch of river between Bungonia and Long Point that well as I had only walked it a couple of times, a long time ago but it's not that hard to read the river and you can cut off lots of the bends in the river by walking along flat sections back away from the river. I noticed that the river banks and flats were covered in weed due to an exceptionally wet summer. There were also lots of stinging nettles to keep a look out for. Everything was incredibly green and lush for this time of year and there had obviously been a huge flood go down the river in the last 10 years or so as the She Oaks on the rivers edge had been pushed down to near horizontal. This made getting to and from the river sometimes very difficult.

I passed a couple of deserted campsites on my way down the river. One had two blue tarps left in place and a 5ft long steel crow bar stuck in the ground. Another had an old abandoned tea pot and a plastic jerry can. All a bit strange, I thought. I also saw some big Grey kangaroos. One particular Grey was a fine big specimen that let me get quite close before bounding off. He seemed as interested in me as I was in him. I saw a couple of wallabies along the way as well. I stopped for lunch under some She Oaks as it started to rain, coming down in thick drenching sheets. It didn't last long and I continued on down river.

I had to make a few more river crossings along the way ( I ended up making 6 in all) and eventually reached McAllum's Flat near the base of Long Point. The last time I had been there it was all mostly grassy pasture but this time it was thigh high weeds. There is a partial track that goes for a kilometer or two from McAllums Flat down river, which speeds things up a little but this section is easy walking anyway and I didn't worry about trying to follow the track through the sea of weeds. I just pushed on through.

After another hour or two, I arrived at the old camp site that we used to stay at when I was at school. It used to be a beautiful spot, set back from the river, with a big sandy beach and a fantastic swimming hole and jumping rock. Large boulders near the beach had axe sharpening grooves in them from when aborigines camped there before white people arrived. It was a magical place. I found it changed by the course of nature. Floods had washed the beach away and the camp site itself had all but been reclaimed by the bush. The only relic of the past besides an old fire circle was a sign written in red paint on an old aluminium baking tray that said "Take Your Rubbish With You", that was stuck on an old tree stump. I remembered painting the sign when I was 18 and now I'm 46. It was almost spooky sitting there, in the old campsite. There was no way I was going to camp there. I didn't linger and took off down river thinking about the past and how much had changed. Not just the river but also me.

I arrived at the camp site at the base of Badgery's Ridge a little before 5. It didn't look like it had seen much use recently and was beautifully lush and grassy. Often it has rubbish left there by lazy campers who just walk down the hill, camp and walk back up. This time it was clean. I set up camp and brewed up again and then walked down river a bit to a nice deep spot and had a quick swim. The water was still warm and fantastically refreshing. I walked back to the camp site feeling clean and happy and then began the ritual of making dinner and brewing tea. That night the clouds cleared to give a show of a thousand stars. It was perfect but I was tired from a long day and found it very easy to go to sleep reasonable early.

I slept in the next morning, although I was in no particular rush. I casually made breakfast and packed up and set off up the ridge at around 10. It was the same as I remembered - Badgery's, like most big ridges, doesn't get any easier or harder. It just is. I took my time, passing a young family on their way down to the river, on a day walk. I said hello and wished them the best and then put my head down and kept going. About two thirds of the way up you can see Bungonia Gorge in the distance to the south-west. It still looks big, even in the distance. I reached the top in a bit over an hour. About the same time that I took 20 odd years ago. I stopped for a while and drank some water and ate some scroggin and then walked down to the lookout and checked out the view. Then I lifted up my pack, turned my back to the gorge and started walking along the road to Tallong and from there home.

[climberman]

Great report wombles.

[Pika]

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

[Mark F]

A nice report. I walked there mainly in the 60's and 70's but did a day walk down Long Point a couple of years ago and was amazed by the amount of greenery that has appeared. What used to be sand and pebbles with scattered, stunted casurina along the banks of the Shoalhaven is now a thick forest. In my earlier forays into the area the walk between Bungonia Creek and Long Point was done purely on the western bank - no river crossings.

[Bungonia]

G'day,

I would like to reproduceyour article in the March 2015 issue of the Bungonia Times and seek your permission to do so.


regards


Cal
Bungonia Times editor
Bungonia@gmail.com

[kanangra]

That was a great read. thanks.

K.

[DaveB]

Thanks Wall,a most enjoyable report.

[robertoman]

the wonderful Mr Hannon. I wonder just how many lives he changed. I too was a member of the Sydney High Impecunious Trekking Society, and I believe I was a part of the group that created the name as we organised an Overland Track trip to Tassie in 1978 (I think). I went on many a walk down Badgery's with High boys and Mr Hannon. A Robertson to Kiama walk was especially memorable. My first taste of his magic was an end of year "activities" overnight camp in Year 7 from Woy Woy to Rocky Ponds on a blazing hot couple of days where everyone died but I loved it and I thought "this is great !!". Years later after high school I was down there soaking in the Shoalhaven and along he came with yet another troupe of Year 7s. What a guy. Unfortunately, due to his incredible story telling skills, I still lie awake in my tent, terrified that every night noise is a potential serial killer or supernatural creature slowly creeping up on me.

Rob Sharpe

[wallwombat]

Great to hear there are still members of the Sydney High Impecunious Trekking Society getting out walking. I count myself as very lucky to be part of that illustrious group.

Yes, I did the Robertson to Kiama walk, catching a little one carriage rattling train from Mossvale to Robertson on a Friday night after school.

There were lots of memorable trips, including getting caught in a bush fire on Ettrema creek in 1982/83.

Yes, he was a master story teller. One of the reasons I didn't camp at the old Sydney High campsite on this trip is that I would have been up all night listening for sounds of the dreaded "Night People" coming down from their caves, high up on the ridge tops, in search of prey.

Great to hear from you, Rob. Hope I bump into you one day.

[north-north-west]

I'm still waiting to hear the diagnosis on the camera.

A great read. Pity there are no photos to go with it. Hope we hear more from you.

[wallwombat]

Here's about the only three shot's that I managed to get before my camera packed it in.

The camera's lense is stuffed. I can get the lens unit online for about $35. I'll do that soon .

I picked up a Canon S95, for $100, last week on ebay, so that will be my new bushwalking camera. It's lighter than the Nikon and still shoots RAW.

[Hughmac]

Had a similar experience of revisiting my past on the Nattai last weekend. Used to love to walk down to Wanganderry Creek and camp at 'the Green Cathedral' as Robert Sloss called it, a truly beautiful, tranquil spot back then, a lovely green sward dotted with paperbarks. With the regrowth and tree falls following the 2001 fires, it is now more like one of the lower circles of hell. It was a sad and disquieting experience.