A trip to the Budawangs had been on the “to-do” agenda for the last 10 years or so. It takes pride of place as one of the more challenging and interesting walks in my well-thumbed copy of the NSW in the Lonely Planet Australian hiking guide, but for one reason or another there had always been another walk to do (or a reason not to walk at all).
This weekend had been set aside for a weed removal weekend with NPWS on the Snowy River, but that fell through at the last minute (satisfyingly we likely ended up removing more foliage in the Budawangs than we would have if that had gone ahead). This left James and I with a 3 day block and a blank canvas… enter the Budawangs.
We left Sydney earlyish on Friday, stopping briefly at Hungry Jacks so I could acquire the full suite of available breakfast delights. We made good time through to the quiet camping area at Wog Wog, arriving at 11am and ready to hit the track at 11.30am. Neither of us had ever done any walking in the area before (aside from the route up Pigeon House), so expectations were non-existent but the mood chirpy.
The first section of the track meanders through fairly open forest, before hitting scrubbier sections as it heads up onto the ridge leading out to Corang Peak. We made reasonable time, stopping at the turnoff to Admiration Point for lunch, and then quickly ticked off Corang Peak and the arch. This section has recently been burnt out, and we were lulled into a false sense of our own strength and the quality of the track. After descending down into Burrumbeet Brook and filling up on water, we found the track up to Bibbenluke to be a little more daunting of a prospect. There is plenty of evidence of a well-constructed track, with benched sections and duckboard, but the surrounding scrub has done a great job of closing in around the track. Neither of us has extensive experience in walking through this type of vegetation, and it was a genuinely tiring (and scratching) experience.
We camped below Bibbenluke Mountain, and decided to make an early start the next morning in an effort to get out to the Castle and be back at camp at a reasonable time. The track across the saddle to below Mt Cole had more of the molesting scrub we had experienced the day before, but soon cleared up as we entered Monolith Valley. The scenery from the cliffs under Mt Cole is spectacular, covering off the green moss covered sections of rainforest through to the amazing rock shapes of the Seven Gods Pinnacles and Shrouded God Mountain.
My snap happy photography was pushing us a little behind schedule, so we dropped some water at the bridge and made for The Castle. We managed to take a slightly tricky route (avoiding the obviously easier option in the process), but were up on top in time for lunch. The views out across Byangee Walls to Pigeon House and Coast are stunning, and we allowed ourselves a good half hour to eat and enjoy the location.
We decided on the way back to take the route in between Mt Cole and Mt Owen. This involved some route finding in the gully between the two, although we ended up finding the way out onto the top of Owen with relative ease. Amazingly the weather had tuned from clear skies to misty clouds and light rain by the time we popped out on top, which added a bit of an imposing air to the scrub as we continued towards the gully down off the mountain. It ended up being a straightforward trip back to camp, although we enjoyed the finest efforts of James (aka Ainsley Harriot) Cordukes’ cooking relatively quickly before tucking in to bed against a backdrop of ongoing drizzle.
The trip out on Sunday started in more drizzle, which made for unpleasant conditions through the scrub between Bibbenluke and Burumbeet. My shins had taken a mild beating in the previous two days and were feeling pretty sensitive on the way out. It was a pleasure to get to the Corang Ridge, change into some dry clothes and look back on the beautiful green expanse of the brooks. It was a good chance to reflect on what had been an amazing few days out in the bush.
Amazingly we saw very little wildlife on the trip. There were a number of interesting birds around the Bibbenluke campsite and plenty of wombat droppings, but we didn’t see much aside from that. Perhaps the relatively dry soil on most of the plateaus and scrubby plant life discourages most animals?
The recent big fire around Corang made for easy going on that section of the track, but other sections of the track are becoming heavily overgrown. It’s always a fine line between letting the area return to its wilderness state and doing a small amount of track maintenance to ensure the route is pleasant to follow. It would be nice to see some basic work done on the section between Burumbeet and Bibbenluke to take away from the physicality and scratchiness of the scrub through here. Overall this walk covers some beautiful scenery, but I suspect many will increasingly be put off by the quality of the track. Having said that it’s clear a decision has been made based on the “Wilderness” definition of the area, so such maintenance appears unlikely.
All in a wonderful walk with good company, and I look forward to exploring other areas of the Budawangs in the future.
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