Wollemi North-South traverse.

[392carl]

I'm currently planning a trip through the wollemi National Park and thought I'd consult the bushwalkers out there about any knowledge of passes through the Capertee, Wolgan and colo valleys. We will be walking North-South, coming from Gospers Mountain and attempting to cross the Colo Valley where the Wolgan and Capertee Rivers meet since this looks to be the most likely location to find a break in the seemingly impenetrable cliff lines. Any information about this and other passes to the west of this point would be really helpful. Also, if anyone knows of previous succesful trips from the North (Widden Valley area) to the South (Bells line) I'd be really interested to hear about them, along with any experience of Nayook creek passes. Thanks for your thoughts!
Carl

[DaveNoble]

Quite a few walkers have completed trips like you plan - but I think you either need to have scouted out passes and routes already or be very capable at route finding to be successful.

Dave

[curlywood]

G'day Carl, my partner and I are planning to do a similar trip. We've done a West to East traverse off track which took five days and was awesome.
I've only just joined this forum today as I wanted to reply to your post.
Wollemi is largely a wild place free from signs of people and that's why I, and you too I'm sure, choose to explore it. I think that knowledge of it's secrets should be found by exploring yourself or through word of mouth from people who's trust you have earned. If details about such places are published for all to see on the net then it will not remain the way it is.
I do not mean to offend you in any way, just thought it might be something you may like to think about.
Where in the mountains do you live? I'm in sunny Blackheath.

Happy exploring!

[392carl]

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions and thoughts on this one. Dave, appreciate your help on that one, I think that will be a useful resource, and curlywood, I agree with you. I didn't think too in depth about posting that question but on reflection if details like this were to be in wild magazine for instance (even though I'm a big wild fan) I would feel somehow that the wollemi was robbed of some of its mystery. While of course I would still love to talk to people of their experiences on a trip like this one and hear of potential passes, I should maybe call on any further information deemed sensitive to be sent via PM, if at all. I've also walked west-east and I think the north south (as I'm sure your in the same boat) is the next looming great challenge. Thanks for your honesty and thoughts on that one. Always worth tempering exploration into these places with a respect for what makes them so appealing.
Cheers
Carl

[392carl]

And i'm in sunny springwood but work up the mtns in Summit Gear. That said I'm in the simpson desert currently but will be back in feb. Pop in and say g'day some time. Cheers again
Carl

[climberman]

Carl are you doing research / work / volly experience through the Dickman lab in the Simpson ?

Many moons ago now I did a trip there with the lab, prior to Ethabuka becoming a BHT property. Cool area.

[392carl]

Hey climberman, not sure of this lab you speak of, I'm on the noth west kind of outskirts doing some youthwork stuff. But it is a cool area, just a touch hot at the moment.

[climberman]

No sweat. Chris Dickman of Sydney Uni has a long term research project into small mammal ecology / fire / etc on a few properties out from Bedourie.

[curlywood]

G'day Carl. Yeah I'll drop in sometime and say g'day. Would be great to have a chat about the big walk.
Have fun in the simpson.

[rcaffin]

Wollemi is largely a wild place free from signs of people and that's why I, and you too I'm sure, choose to explore it. I think that knowledge of it's secrets should be found by exploring yourself or through word of mouth from people who's trust you have earned. If details about such places are published for all to see on the net then it will not remain the way it is.

ABSOLUTELY!

Cheers

[392carl]

I'm in agreeance. I didn't think the readership of this forum posed a significant threat to keeping it wild, but I think probably just good to explore for yourself anyway. Thanks for your comments.
Carl

[clarence]

Hi Carl
I'm a relatively new member and came across this thread.
I did a traverse from Bell to near Singleton back in 1995. From memory it took around 12 days.
The southern part (technically Blue Mountains NP) from Bell to the Capertee was definitley better suited to a N-S traverse. The area through the Bungleboori-Nayook-Dumbano is pretty amazing.
North of Glen Davis there pretty much one main ridge system running N-S, so it is a case of stay on the fire trail on the ridge OR negotiate numerous canyons which run east to west. We managed to find passes in and out of all the clifflines and canyons, but having enough rope and knowing how to use it is essential.
Finding passes is one thing, but it does slow down progress substantially. (I think it took a solid two hours to get out of Running Stream/Coorongooba Creek).
I have all the info on the passes through the area, but I'd have to dig out all the maps (I now live in Tas, so all my favourite maps are safely stored away for future reference).
I also did a nine day lilo trip along the Wollangambe in about 2002. That is another worthwhile expedition into this area that you may consider.
I think even if it was widely publicised on a forum like this, it would do little to its wilderness values. I think the canyoning hubs like Hole in the Wall represent a far greater impact.
Clarence

[juxtaposer]

That's awesome, Clarence. I hope you kept a diary. It's good you point out that most of the Wollangambe area is part of Blue Mountains National Park, not Wollemi. Yet it is all part of the Northern Blue Mountains, or Colo (Colo/Hunter of Helman et al) Wilderness. Now many think of it all as "the Wollemi" and that a true traverse must dodge the Wollangambe and start/finish somewhere east of the Blue Mountains N.P. boundary. But the boundary between the two parks is only an imaginary line in your head when you're out there, not something you'll ever trip over. I like how you emphasise how it took you "a solid two hours to get out of Running Stream" too. You must be good climbers. Decades ago, before any of the canyons had been found in Coorongooba Lab, a mate and I spent two solid days trying to pry a way out of Running Stream before giving up. Our mistake was, I think, to try all the options on our left. These all ended in canyon termini which would not go. And it took you two hours? You poor things!

[clarence]

I would have to check my maps. We came out on the road a few km south of Gospers Mountain, so it must have been the SE side of Running Stream Creek. It wasn't technically very hard, just a matter of being patient.
Clarence

[rcaffin]

I would have to check my maps. We came out on the road a few km south of Gospers Mountain, so it must have been the SE side of Running Stream Creek. It wasn't technically very hard, just a matter of being patient.
Clarence

Probably The Devils Causeway pass. VERY steep, very impressive. Impossible to find from above without have first come up from the bottom. The Songline group going S from Gospers to BGF for the Centenary wanted to get down there and asked me about it, but I told them they would fail to find it. They failed. So then they tried to find the Cattle Duffers pass to the south - failed that one as well. They were rescued by 4WD from Gospers. Some good scrub up there.

Cheers

[clarence]

I did check my maps after my last entry and do not have that particular pass noted in there. I religiously note all the passes and routes I take, so how I missed this one beats me. I even have hand drawn sketches of some of the more obscure ones on the back of the old maps (back in the old days when the backs of the maps were plain white). I think my walking companion (who was equally religious in noting such things) would probably have it.

It was a very rainy and cold day, and getting up took us a solid two hours. Don't quote me on this, but I would suggest either GR 522343 or 533352 or 542357. We first tried exiting a smaller tributary (which ascended to the east) on the south side of the spur/nose, which ended in a very narrow impassable slot after a few hundred metres. The pass was on the wide rounded bluff just to the north of this tributary. We had to make probably thirty false leads right then left etc back and forth across the face of the spur, each time eventually finding a way up. It was a series of ledges maybe 2 to 5 metres wide, with a scramble at each end through a band of rock maybe 3 to 5 metres vertical, repeated probably thirty times. At some points we'd have to traverse over 50 metres to find the next lead. There was nothing more technical than maybe a grade 5 scramble at any point. My mate was not a great climber, and at that stage we had 8 days worth of food and the rock was dripping wet- so there is no way it would have been full-on climbing. Unlike the passes in the Blue Mts, Nattai, Budawangs etc, this was not just one "crux" thorugh the highest cliffline, but a series of rock bands each of which had to be negotiatied and it was like that from the creek bed right up to the rim of the plateau.

I would be interested (Roger I presume) to see if any of these GRs match up with the Devils Causeway Pass. We did not encounter any cairns or markings of any description on the pass. If you have any info on obscure passes (esp further south Nattai, Budawangs, Ettrema etc) I'd be interested to compare/share notes (PM me).

Clarence

[clarence]

I checked with my partner for that trip, and he confirmed it as GR522343 (his figures were 100m different to one I stated above, both E and W) (this is off the OLD map, mid 1990s edition). It leads up from the very obvious creek intersection about 1km up Running Stream Creek from the junction with Coorongooba. He also recalled an impassable tributary heading E/SE immediately adjacent to the start of the ascent. He is a fairly meticulous sort of guy (has a PhD in physics) and exceptionally good navigator and bushman, so I would be 99% sure this is correct.
Clarence

[kanangra]

Ah Running Stream, now that takes me back a long way. to 1980 in fact. I was on a camping trip with my in laws to be. We were camped at Newnes and walked over to Glen Davis with my fiance, Judy. Her parents drove around and met us there. From there we planned to walk to Gospers Mt. whilst her parents drove around in the car. As Judy's mother was a descendant of the Gospers this added some family interest. As with most of my trips in those days this proved to be an overly ambitious plan, at least for the after lunch start we made. Still we were young and ambitious and somewhat naive. I noticed the waters of Running Stream were very dark as we headed up from its junction with the Capertee. We hadn't gone far when a fierce storm erupted blowing debris about and whipping up the sand. We came to what I thought then was the Coorangooba Junction but in hindsight it can't have been. We went right thinking it was Running Stream but again I doubt it was. My original plan had been to walk up Running Stream and exit by taking one of its easterly side creeks to link up with the road shown on the old edition of my Gospers Mt map which ran north south along the ridge towards the mountain. (That road is not shown on the latest edition and I am unable to say whether it can be followed or not?)

So we headed up a side creek of what I thought was Running Stream and managed to negotiate several cliffs and waterfalls before taking a tree pass out of the creek onto the ridge. This I crossed without finding the road so we walked north through the scrub. As night fell I dropped into a creek and found a cave. Although i hadn't brought much, as this was only meant to be an afternoon jaunt, I did bring some matches and a fire was soon lit. So we were dry and warm and set about sitting out a long night.

We left the cave about 6 and within a couple of hours stumbled upon the old airstrip. this meant we were on the entirely wrong ridge to the one I was expecting which can only have meant that we exited via a side creek of Coorangooba Ck. instead. From here we walked out to Gospers Mt but Judy's family weren't there. So we set out on the long walk back to Rylestone along the Army Rd. Around Noon we were met by the Police Rescue Squad from Rylestone. It turns out Judy's family had not been able to get through themselves and had spent the night in the caravan park. Next morning they reported us missing to the police who came looking for us and met us as we walking out.

Ah those were the days. they still let me marry her too. And we're still married. Although we haven't been back to the Running Stream.

K.