This was meant to be a pleasant stroll up the Yadboro River to view Dendrobium Speciosum (Rock Orchid) in flower. While I have walked extensively in the Yadboro area, I had never walked upstream along the river and basing the planning of the walk from Ron Doughton's day walk in the same area, I thought we would be in the area while the rock lilies would be in great profusion. Of course, Ron's "trip downriver can be a casual affair", turned out to be a little different to expectations. We parked the car and sauntered across the river and then started to head to our left thinking this was going to be a breeze of a walk. After about 15 minutes, I discovered we had been following Oaky Creek and not Yadboro River. The confusion was caused by the fact that both streams, almost equal in flow, joined at the crossing and it was actually very easy to pick the wrong one. To justify my false directions, there was a lot of flood drift on the correct route and it was only when we returned down the right track did we scramble through this and returned to the original crossing.
Ten minutes after the embarrassing back track, we stumbled on what was obviously an old 4WD track running along the river flats which are quite lovely in this section. We followed this, given there weren't many other places where you could walk, along some lovely river flats and soon came to the first of the river crossings. This is where things got really confusing. The topo map shows the old Wog Wog trail running along the river but definitely not crossing where we were. No matter, we decided to follow this anyway and so came to a second and then a third crossing, just adding to the confusion as to where we were.
- Confusing section...
Crossing the river for the last time, the 4WD track then started heading up the nearby ridge so we finally departed company and headed back to the river. If there was ever a Wog Wog trail here, it is extremely hard to find any evidence of it now. Crossing from bank to bank when the river allowed, we marveled at the beauty of the pools and the interrupting shallows even though the river was at its lowest level possible. The vegetation in this stretch was so full of creepers and restricting branches and we wondered why until we came to the appropriately named Viney Creek, which starts its way down the mountain from the top of Mt Cole. Just before the junction with Belowra Creek there are a series of lovely pools, and enclosing cliffs, which happen to have the much sought after dendrobiums, albeit not in flower.
It was only one o'clock but we were supposed to be here by 11. This was the point where we had organised to down packs and head off up Belowra Creek exploring the tight canyons as it winds up towards Wirritin ridge. But we just weren't in any mood - the sun was out, the sparkling river pools beckoned and we just decided that this was it for the day. Yes I know, what kind of explorers were we? There was hardly any room for putting down a tent so we scrambled around in the bush for a while and came up with our 'Belowra Heights' spot just out of sight of the river. The rest of the day and night was left to solving the world's problems.
The return down river the next morning was uneventful except for us trying to piece together where the old trail may have gone. Who knows but we realised that this spot could become a base for a series of day pack walks up into Belowra Creek and Yadboro River. The area is interesting and the river vistas of long pools and riverbank walking is quite pleasant, if you don't mind a few vines along the way.
Timings: the downward trip was recorded at 5.21kms and took 2.25 hours.
