by weeds » Mon 05 Oct, 2015 8:57 pm
Done and dusted......although we did have a hiccup on the 20km drive from where we were camping to cedar lodge.
Five of us, wendy, myself and the three kids 15, 14 and 12.
Day 1 we walked approx 19km, info suggested it was 17km. It was all fire access roads with plenty of ups and down. Left around 8am, did the side tracks and arrived around 1:30pm ish. Wendy and I were glad to get out of our boots. Birds Nest hut was as expected, big enough for is all, plenty of fire wood and has the cutest birds nest in the newly constructed loo. Wendy and the kids cooled their feet of in the stream......way too cold for me. It was cold and wet when we started the day, being newbs to hiking we hadn't had our packs on with jumpers and raincoats, the was also a mad scramble to repackage everything in plastic bags as we didn't have covers.
Day 2, Birds Nest to Green Gully. Two sections of off track to look forward to. I was a little worried as it mention navigation and the visitors book groups mentioned they got lost.......pfft, even though they ask you not to follow each other I.e. Not make a pad we are all like sheep and follow each other. It's documented as the hardest day of the walk, the down hill section was a killer on the legs and toes. Our youngest tripped on a rock and head butted another rock, blood everywhere and a nice gash on top of his head. Patched him up as good as we could and continued on, his brother carried two packs down the steepest part. No mobile reception so we crossed our fingers, one learning was to carry more first aid supplies as we used most of our kit on this one injury. Green gully hut was smaller, with just enough fire wood for us and we used the last of the detergent. The hot shower was welcomed. Our feet were killing us all. Our daughter took, a dip in the creek brrrrr.
Day 3 green Gully Hut to Colwells Hut. The whole day we criss crossed green gully creek. The oldest boy managed to rock hop the whole way without getting the boots full of water. Wendy switched to runners in the hour, i Rock hopped to just before the gorge than changed to runners. Were lucky enough to spot a pair of brush tail rocks wallabies, a pig and a massive red belly black. We all brave the water and went for a swim at the gorge. It was our shortest day in km's but longest day in time at 8hr but most enjoyable by far. Colwells Hut is tiny and my favourite even though we let the kids sleep inside while wendy and I slept int he lean too........fire wood had been restocked so lids were happy
Day 4 Colwells Hut back the Cedar Creek Lodge..........all fire access roads. First 4km is straight up and steep, you pretty muck walk uphill for the first 10km of 17km. I found this day to be the toughest, we all used pretty much all of our 3L of water.........would hate to do it in summer. The cleaner at cedar creek let us slip in for a shower before the next group arrived. We than set up our camper trailer and waited until the park ranger delivered some spare parts that had been sent from Sydney.
Overall the family enjoyed the walk, it's a hut walk with only six walker allowed to start each day. Yes there was water, firewood, stretchers, gas stoves, crockery and cutlery at each hut, it ,meant the kids could leave some items at home. I didn't enjoy day 1 and 4 apart from spending it with the family.
We all agree it was a good introduction to multi day walks as a family. We even read it is tougher physically the OLT.......we will be able to make comment on this at the end of January next year.
Cheers