Rachel Grindlay

This was a second attempt to do a massive bush-bashing epic in post-fires regrowth at Kanangra. Last year when I had it on the SBW Program NPWS closed the Kanangra Walls Road a week before we were supposed to go, so we ended up in Winburndale instead. This year when I put it on the SBW Program for a second time the road closed itself in an attempt to thwart the trip.

Half of the group had decided to stay in Oberon the night before the trip. Everyone was due to meet at the Kanangra Walls carpark at 7:30am, to try and ensure we’d get to camp before dark. It was mizzly foggy morning as we drove through Edith and eventually on to the Walls Road. Only a few kilometres in we pulled up behind Peter, who was stopped by a large tree completely blocking the road.

On the other side of the tree was a tent in the middle of the road, and a ute blocking the obvious route to attempt to get around the tree. After a little bit of investigation we realised the ute was stuck, and our conversation roused the tent occupants. “Have you come to rescue us” a hopeful voice called from within. Peter assuredly said yes. Fortunately for Jessie & Simon, Peter has a well equipped Land Cruiser. Soon there were recovery boards under their front wheels, but sadly no amount of digging or wedging could get any movement. Next came the winch which was far more successful and soon we had Jessie’s ute no longer nestled with its belly in a mound of dirt. We were rewarded with Caramello Koalas.

With the way around the log cleared we had to decide what to do. It was clear our car wasn’t going to be up for the detour so it would need to remain on the Oberon side of the log. Tom wasn’t feeling up to the trip, so given the circumstances he decided to bail, with instructions to call someone and let them know about the log! So after a quick repack Jo & I transferred to the mighty Land Cruiser and we were on our way.

The remaining party members were hopefully on the other side of the log since they hadn’t arrived behind us. Presumably they were wondering what had become of us, as we were now going to arrive an hour past the scheduled meeting time. With very little reception on the Kanangra Road it makes communicating almost impossible. I’d been clear in my notes that I was only going to wait 15 minutes if people hadn’t turned up – but I didn’t include a contingency plan if I wasn’t there! I wasn’t sure if they would have set off on their own walk, or whether we would bump into them on their way out. We found Anthony a short way back from the car park at the rise where there is some reception trying to contact us.

Eventually we were all at the car park, and now I had to decide what to do. The forecast for the weekend was reasonable, but it had been a very wet week. I had thought the rain had been quite coastal – until I saw that Katoomba had 143mm on the Thursday and Oberon 57mm. Everything was going to be wet. Timings from Stephen & Anthony’s last trip on the planned route indicated we’d be getting in after dark – and Saturday was meant to be the easier of the two days. So given the time I decided we were better off doing something else.

After throwing around a couple of ideas we settled on 1000 Man Cave – even though I didn’t have the paper maps beyond Stormbreaker with me. I hoped with the experience in the party and the number of mapping devices on people’s phones we’d be able to find it!

After that start the rest of the trip was relatively uneventual. The scale of the recent rainfall was well and truly evident as we walked out over the plateau. Kanangra Main and Kalang were pumping, and more to my surprise there were a series of further waterfalls (Danae and other drops) which were also impressive.

I was very confident the tree would be cleared by the time we got out the next day, but not everyone else shared my confidence. We debated whether to take a longer route out up the Gingra but with the uncertainty around the log, the consensus was to take the known route back. I wasn’t expecting to hear anything from Tom to confirm either way, so it was a nice surprise to pick up a message from him just before I went to sleep to say Oberon Council had confirmed the tree had been dealt with.

We headed back out the way we came. Well, not always exactly the way we came. I definitely managed to find a few sections of scrub on the way back to Cloudmaker that we hadn’t encountered the day before.

Fortunately the wind had dropped off by the time we got to Mt Berry so we could enjoy the spectacular views without being chilled to the bone.

Back at the cars at 3:30pm we were unimpeded on our drive back to civilisation.