I found myself having a spare day yesterday and so after dropping my daughter and her husband off at the airport I decided to continue down to the Shoalhaven area. I parked at the top of Badgery's Lkt. It was freezing with thick fog ruling out any chance of a view. I then set off on the long trek back around via the road to Long Pt. Lkt. A distance of about 15kms. When I arrived the valley was still blanketed in fog and mist so I set off down Mc Callums Track. This is a very well made track that provides a well graded route to the valley of the Shoalhaven River far below. Once down I head off across McCallums Flat, this former grazing land is slowly revegetating. I stayed on the northern side till the river cut under very steep slopes below the lookout. Here I crossed just above a rapid in water that was thigh deep. It was running beautifully clear and ice cold. Once across I made very good going on the southern side for quite some distance before crossing back to the northern side at a shallow section. From there I stayed on the northern side all the way to Badgery's crossing. Mainly the going was good with just a few spots where it was necessary to clamber over rocks. I thought about crossing back a couple of times but no easy crossing presented itself and so I just stayed where I was. At the foot of Badgery's Spur I met another walker who had just walked down from the lookout. He was going to set up camp there the night even though it was not yet midday. He seemed surprised when I told him where I'd come from. We chatted for a while then I set off up the spur. I took it in one pull arriving at the top 45 minutes later. It was not quite 1:00PM.
This had been a splendid little trip that I had thought would take rather longer. Not knowing what to expect I had allowed more time than I needed. The river section took only a little over 2 hours.
I was very pleasantly surprised by how well preserved the river banks were with beautiful grassy sections common and weeds and other rubbish quite rare. I also noted the steep descent off Sparkes Buttress on the southern side of the gorge. I could now see why I had such trouble descending there a couple of years back. The route gets steeper the closer it gets to the river. If anything, on descent, I would trend to the right, that is to say down stream, for the most gradual descent.
I strongly recommend this little excursion for those who like wild river scenery. The trip could readily be extended by camping on one of the many grassy river flats en route. I will try and post a few pics when I get to work on Monday.
K.