Bullhead – Colboyd Ridges – 23-24 May 2026

This was my third attempt to lead this trip. In 2024 NPWS closed the Kanangra Road a week before it was scheduled to go ahead, so we had a very different trip in Winburndale instead. In 2025 a tree fell across the road delaying Saturday morning arrivals, so we ended up going to 1000 Man Cave instead. This year at 3pm on the Friday afternoon we were due to start, Bill forwarded me an email he’d just received from NPWS advising the aerial shooting program which was supposed to end on Friday was being extended to Saturday and, per the email, the park would be closed. However, the NPWS webpage didn’t reflect this. Some momentary panic, but fortunately I got through to the Oberon NPWS office who assured me that the Saturday shooting would only be in Schedule 1 land so we’d be fine.

So it was understandable that I was excited that the entire party was at the Kanangra Walls car park ready to go at 7:30am! The damp conditions weren’t ideal but the forecast was for 0-2mm of rain on Saturday, and 0-1mm on Sunday, not really bad enough to consider calling it off.

I managed to stay largely dry for about 20 minutes, but with plenty of rain in the previous 24 hours all the vegetation was saturated. Being at the front I copped the worst of it, and by the time we were on the track heading towards Coal Seam Cave I was completely soaked through. Tom, who was at the back of the line, was far drier!

Bill had never been on this track, so despite it being far too early for morning tea we had the usual detour onto Cottage Rock for some views. Then it was on to the very distinct junction of the Bullhead/Gingra ridges – complete with a logbook. My hands were too wet to dare touch it much. There had been a fair bit of traffic in the last month – including a mammoth effort from “Mark & Lisa” who apparently left Kanangra Walls at 8:30am and were at the Kowmung at 2pm. Given that timing I gained some comfort that we were likely to get there by mid-afternoon.

In my preparation for the trip, I hadn’t really thought about the ‘track’ along Bullhead Ridge, and had just assumed it was likely to be largely non-existent. So, it was with some delight we found that it was reasonable. By reasonable, I mean that we were able to follow a pad almost the entire way to the Kowmung. It came and went in a few places, and if you’re not used to finding faint pads then at times you would struggle. But the difference between having what was there, versus having to create your own route was immense.

Only Tom & I had been down this route previously, and it was twenty years earlier in 2006. At the time we’d gone left off the top of Cambage Spire and have some photos of some interesting pack-passing and scrambling. With much more experience, LIDAR maps, along with a cairned route mentioned by “Mark & Lisa” in their logbook entry, we went right instead. There was still some scrambling but no need for the handline to come out for pack-passing.

Exactly two hours from when we left lunch got us to the Kowmung at 3pm (we only took 2 hours more than Mark & Lisa…). Back home comparing to our 2006 times it was a similar length day. In 2018 when Jo & I had been at this spot on Vivien’s Arabanoo trip, the Kowmung wasn’t running – there were just manky pools. At the time it was peak drought and I was worried for the state of nature. Amazing what a few months difference made, as not long after the 2018 trip the drought broke and it feels like it’s barely stopped raining since.

Unsurprisingly, the Kowmung and Christies Creek were both in good health. And also unsurprisingly the great campsite which used to exist just upstream of the junction, while very grassy, is now also lumpy and not so great a campsite. Fortunately just downstream of the junction there is a wide rocky beach which has a few tent sites cleared amongst the rocks. There is also a mandarin tree growing not far from the campsite if you’re looking to increase your Vitamin C intake while out in the bush.

We had a good happy hour, including a very gourmet plate from Bill with freeze-dried cheese and biltong.

Fortunately we had all eaten dinner relatively early as it started raining. Initially not heavy enough to be too worrisome, but by 7:45pm it was enough that we decided it was bed time. Despite the forecast, every time I woke up during the night it was raining, and  checking the Kanangra records afterwards it looked like there was close to 5mm overnight.

After all the rain overnight I was inclined to change plans and exit the way we’d come in. I was concerned about the crux scramble on Stonehag Hill as the Kanangra rock is incredibly slippery in the wet. But, while we packed up the skies were clearing, and combined with my desire to get this trip off my back, I changed my mind and decided to exit per the original plan up Stonehag Hill. We were away just after 7:30am.

The sun appeared for the first time in the weekend, and before we knew it we were at the bottom of the slab which I was worried about. It’s a 5m cliff on the face of Stonehag Hill, with a large crack running down it, and quite a few hand and foot holds. Below you the ridge drops away to nothingness, ramping the exposure rating up pretty high.

Back in 2018, in summer, at the peak of the drought, our group had all climbed this with packs on and nary a handline in site. However, even with my pack off, the rock was greasy, my wet shoes had little traction, and I struggled to get up the first section. So over to Tom – with his increased height hopefully he’d have more options than me. Fortunately Tom was able to get up, handline in his pocket, and secure it to a tree.

Lesson learnt – not a route to do in the damp.

From there we had some nice sections of classic Kanangra narrow rocky ridge lines. I had been expecting the narrow ridge line to be ok going until we got to Arabanoo Peak. But, no, a mess of vines slowed our progress to almost non-existent as we inched our way up Executioner Bluffs. A huge time sink, we topped out of that section at 11:10am, after travelling just 200m in over 50 minutes. Time for a well-earnt morning tea – but no time to hang around. We were all saturated (again) from the vegetation, and sitting round too long meant getting cold, plus we still had several kilometres of unknown regrowth to get through.

We made it up to Arabanoo Peak relatively easily, but the south-east side of Mt Tonsure delivered us another date with vines. It seems scrub in this section is not a new thing – the Gundungura Guide specifically mentions the slope behind Mt (Le) Tonsure as having “an interwoven mesh of dead scrub and saplings”. Having fought our way through those we were relieved to have some much lighter sections of vegetation as we headed towards Mount Colboyd. We were helped by finding wombat tracks along most of the ridge lines, which eased our way somewhat (other than when the wombats inconveniently walked under all those fallen trees).

I had been most concerned about the regrowth in the broad ridges between Mount Colboyd and Mount Bungin and Pindari Top, but as it turned out these were pretty easy walking. This was just as well, given how much time had been sucked up in the two sections of vine hell earlier in the day!

We picked up the Dione Dell Canyon exit track at Pindari Gap and followed that all the way back to the road. The cloud came down as we were climbing up the pass to Pindari Top, so the views were limited, but it was still atmospheric.

Hitting the road it was then just a bit over a kilometre back to the deserted car park dead on 5pm.

A satisfying, hard weekend of walking in Kanangra country. The Stonehag-Colboyd Ridge route is probably one for the off-track connoisseur, but I would recommend Bullhead Ridge for those who are comfortable following faint pads. The more people who walk it, the better it will become!