An old favourite (15-16 Aug 2020)

What are we at now? I think this is weekend 9 from a possible 11 that we have been out overnight since the travel restrictions in NSW were lifted. It’s the first trip where the route was something we had done before. It’s a good option when the weather forecast is looking a little dicey. To be honest the forecast this weekend wasn’t that bad, possible showers during the day on Saturday but ok the rest of the time.

Caoimhin & Ruby were at North Richmond before us (wonders never cease!) but even so we didn’t start walking until after 9:30am. After an hour or so of walking we revised the original plan to take a slightly more direct route to Mt Dawson. This meant we got to do something new after all! The gully we walked up was quite lovely, with lots of overhangs to explore and easy flat walking (if you avoided the peat moss bog!).

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A new way to the tops

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Climbing up a tiny bit of canyon

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The man, the mystery

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Tom on the “Pagoda of Death”

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Someone took the “Pagoda of Death” a bit literally

We elected to get up the Pagoda of Death before lunch since we could see rain squalls sweeping across the Capertee Valley. Surprisingly none of them ever got to us, though the fear of being rained on drove us on through the afternoon. There was still plenty of time to enjoy the views… in between eyeing off which overhang we would be retreating to when the rain hit.

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Pinnacle & Pantoneys

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The party

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“The Tunnel of Love”

As it was we got to camp at 3pm just as the only (very light) shower of the day hit us. Hot drinks and banana bread (late birthday cake for me) made for enjoyable afternoon activities.

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Tom hiding very unobtrusively

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Birthday cake!! (the festival continues)

The fire, and large amount of cloud, made it unappealing to head out to the cliffs for sunset. But Tom hadn’t lugged his camera up here to not take photos! So we headed out for a largely non-existent sunset before beating a retreat  back to the fire.

Despite the forecast there was some rain overnight and we were glad to be in a cave. The next morning there was no sign of rain, but there wasn’t much sky on display either. It seemed colder and more miserable – not how I’d interpreted the forecast.

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Views from Mt Dawson

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Pagoda, Pantoneys … and a bit of leg

After a visit to Mt Dawson to take in the splendid views we headed along various ridges. Not long after morning tea we started dropping into the creek we planned to exit by. There was a lot of water just flowing on the tops, and then we hit a drop which wasn’t down-climbable. We had a brief conversation about whether exiting down the creek was a good idea given the water flow, but I assured everyone we were unlikely to get more than knee deep. Not that I could really remember the creek from previous trips! As birthday girl I got the casting vote and we found a way down in a side creek.

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Yes, this photo looks like it belongs on another trip. The sun did come out…. for this photo!

Even though numerous small tributaries had fed into the creek the water volume didn’t seem any bigger so we continued on. There were quite a lot of fallen trees and shallow pools to manoeuvre around.

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The start of the cursing?

This spot was particularly fun with full packs. There was a convenient small ledge which allowed you to avoid the water, but it required a bit of contorting.

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Tom squeezing

Soon after that I gave up on keeping my feet dry and waded through. Caoimhin & Ruby were keen to keep their shoes dry so proceeded barefoot. Ruby being on the only one in trousers also removed those – no photos allowed!

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What’s so funny? Waiting for the others to negotiate the shallow water

As promised I didn’t get more than knee deep, but as the canyon continued the others eventually conceded defeat and put their shoes on. Of course this was just before the last pool and the canyon opening up đŸ™‚

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Flowing water aplenty

From there we just had some airy sidling, a steep ridge descent and some road bashing back to the cars. A good weekend out in less than pleasant weather.

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Almost at the end