Trigs of the RNP Walk

[Allchin09]

Hey,

With the idea coming from a post by a forum member about bushwalk challenges. The suggestion was to do a walk through the Royal National Park which visits all of the trig stations in one go.

I am currently planning the walk, but before I do, I was just wondering if anyone knew how many of the trig stations still existed in the park? It would be nice to know that the trig station that I was looking for existed before spending any time looking for it! (Whilst writing this post I found a website geocaching website that lists all of the trigs in NSW which I found quite helpful! - http://geocaching.com.au/cacher/Geocach ... alia/hides - Just using your internet browsers search bar to find what you are after)

Using the SIX map viewer with 'Survey Marks' enabled, it suggests that there are a total of 17 trigs throughout the Royal and Heathcote NP that are accessible.

I have compiled a suggested route that covers all of the trigs, but I will for now just post the order in which I am planning on visiting them.

01. Bulgo (Seen photos of)
02. Garie (Seen photos of)
03. Wattamolla
04. Saddle (Seen photos of)
05. F27
06. Bundeena (Seen photos of)
07. Marley
08. Jibbon (Seen photos of)
09. Maianbar (Seen photos of)
10. Hacking (Seen photos of)
11. Gogerly (Seen photos of - only marks left)
12. Fingerboard (Found)
13. Heathcote (Seen photos of)
14. Peach Trees (Seen photos of - only marks left)
15. Westmacott (Seen photos of - only marks left)
16. Woronora (Seen photos of)
17. Helensburgh (Seen photos of - now a metallic disk mark)

So has anyone been to Wattamolla, F27 or Marley trigs?

Also, what do you think of the route, would you change it?

[michael_p]

Allchin09, this sounds like a great idea. I like finding trigpoints (TPs) as well.

I hope you don't mind if I pass on some tips and suggestions. Firstly, I geocache and I have found some of the TPs mentioned. My cacher handle is GammaPiSigma (or GPS for short).

Technically Heathcote (TS2458) is outside the RNP so you could exclude it on that basis and save yourself a TP to visit.

I've done three off-track walks in the area between Mt Westmacott and the Woronora TPs. My advice is don't bother trying to go cross-country, the scrub is terrible. It took us two hours to get from Mt Westmacott to Myuna Creek via Morella Ridge on one trip (I did have 8 people of that walk though). On another walk in the area it took nearly 45 minutes to travel about 300m from the intersection of Myuna Creek and Ripple Rill to Woronora Dam road (our intention was to head up Ripple Rill to the Woronora TPs but one look at the scrub and we abandoned that idea).

With the exception of Westmacott, the Heathcote TPs could be done easily on an mtb, which would save more time. It's only a short walk up to Westmacott so you could chain your bikes at the bottom of the short climb to the summit if you wanted.

You have only listed one Woronora TP. There are two TPs. One is a traditional type (TS4858) and the other is the radio tower (TS10016). Sorry for being a pedant. And they are dead easy to get to as a road goes all the way up to them.

Going by this log, TS4055D - Sebastapol (which is not on your list) is buried under a pile of rocks. You could probably ignore this one as well.

I'll have a scrounge around and see if I can find a photo I took some years back of what looked like a TP on top of Battery Knob in Heathcote NP. It's not listed on the SIX site so it can't be added to your challenge. It is not far from SS42210. I only mention this out of general interest.

Only one person has written a log about trying to get to the Wattamolla TP and his log suggests it is deep in the coastal scrub. Could be a challenge to get as well.

If you have any questions about the TPs that I have found then don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Michael.

[michael_p]

More to add.

F27 appears to be gone: http://geocaching.com.au/cache/tp6471

G27 seems to be gone as well: http://geocaching.com.au/cache/tp6473. Could have been replaced by the Maianbar TP.

Cheers,
Michael.

[michael_p]

Battery Knob trig?

[Allchin09]

Michael,

I saw your posts as GPS on the geocaching website, thanks for the info!

I saw that the G27 and F27 trigs couldn't be found, but I thought is was still worth looking for. You may be right about G27. I didn't add the TS4055D - Sebastapol trig as the 'D' in the reference number indicates that it was destroyed as you have said.

Interesting about the Battery Knob Hill trig, I'll have to look into it, thanks for that.

[Allchin09]

So I finally got around to doing this walk after first devising a trip route around 9 months ago with inspiration coming from this forum.

The walk was a little shorter than what I had originally planned (75km vs 90km) and not as many trigs were visited as originally planned. Fingerboard, Peach Trees, Buglo, Gaire, Saddle, Bundeena, Jibbon and Maianbar were all found. Wattamolla wasn't found due to the very this scrub and I am unsure if it still exists; F27, G27 and Marley Trigs were not really locked for as they hadn't been found by people on previous trips that were carrying a GPS as opposed to my map and compass; and Hacking and Gogerly unfortunately could not be visited as I wasn't too keen on swimming in the dark!

I haven't put together trip report, but photos of the walk and annotations the whole way through can be found at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.552397581504996.1073741839.100002042771838&type=1&l=e9a2a42798

As it was my first long distance solo walk, I was happy to achieve what I did, even though it may not have completely satisfied my original goal.

I found compass navigation at night quite an interesting and rewarding experience. I was again reminded of how slow bush bashing through the RNP can be, covering 150m in only 40mins certainly gave me an appreciation on what walking in Tas might possibly be like!

I also lost one of my two water bottles whilst bush bashing at night as it wasn't my usual one that can be strapped onto my pack. It sure gave me an appreciation of just how important the ability to carry water is!

Finally, if anyone intends to finish their walk with a swim across a waterway and you intend to use a waterproof bag to keep you pack afloat, do make sure that the bag doesn't have any small holes in it as it can make the swim a little bit trickier!

[michael_p]

Excellent Alex. Sounds like an exhausting but rewarding experience. Really enjoyed the photos.

Michael.

[puredingo]

G'day Alex, did you finish the walk by swimming the mainibar spit over to wooloware rd? If so you should of packed a small, inflatable swimming ring ($5 bucks from Kmart or something), float your pack in it and push it across. If the tides ripping through tie it to your ankle and breast srtoke across.

I don't know why more people don't end the coast walk that way instead of mucking around with lifts, cabs etc. Just a stroll down woolloware Rd and you're at the station and away.

[Allchin09]

Swimming from the Maianbar spit could have worked, but it would have required a little bit of backtracking. I ended up crossing from the end of a firetrail near where SW arm starts.

A cheap inflatable ring is a great idea! Much better than just using a pack liner.

[Pteropus]

Very cool. I checked your fb pics too. Funny to see the Saving the world guide to X-men book and drum stick is still up on Uloola Ridge. Did you see any cool critters when you were walking at night?

[Allchin09]

The book and the drumstick was very unexpected!

I didn't actually see many animals at night, just a few yabbies, and some frogs (one was as small as my thumbnail!).

[Pteropus]

Yeah, its been there since at least August. I posted a pic in the Uloola Turrets post. Ah yes, the red yabbie was cool. So you didn't see any yowies or spirits

[Allchin09]

No strange creatures, but when I started running along Lady Carrington Drive, my pack was bouncing in such a way that the noise it made sounded exactly like a car was driving up behind me!