Top 5 Summer Walks in NSW

Top 5 summer walks in NSW

As the curtains open on what is likely to be another hot summer, don't put away the walking shoes. Here are some brilliant cool options in NSW, with waterholes, views, rainforests and isolated beaches.

Boulder hopping across the Snowy River

Mt Kossie via Blue Lake

The Snowy Mountains are brilliant in summer, particularly early in the season when the wildflowers are prolific and snowdrifts still blanket the ground in places. The alpine tarns, lakes and creeks are wonderfully refreshing if you feel inclined to cool off, and the air is often crisp in the mornings. Take care with sun protection though, as you have a higher risk of burning.
There are many brilliant walks to do in the Snowies over summer, but one of the best is to the highest point on mainland Australia via the splendrous Blue Lake. It's a 22km loop walk from Charlottes Pass (note, NOT from Thredbo), and will take you over glorious mountains, past tarns and across the headwaters of the Snowy River.

Angourie Coastal Walk

Yuraygir Coastal Walk, Angourie

This cracker of a walk is part of the four-day Yuraygir Coastal Walk along wonderfully undeveloped coast in northern NSW. Those keen to have a night out under the stars can sleep at the turnaround point of Shelley Head, where there is a campsite with no facilities - just a glorious beach that you'll have to yourselves at the ends of the day.
The recommended 12km return walk starts at Angourie, and heads down Back Beach, around the lovely Woody Bluff, over Dirrangan Lookout with views down the coast, then along Little Shelley Beach. Plenty of places to dive in for a dip, although obviously in unpatrolled areas. Wildlife, wildflowers, wilderness: this has it all.

Minnamurra Rainforest

Minnamurra Falls

When you ask people their favourite walk in NSW (as I often do) one of the most consistent answers is "Minnamurra Rainforest". On a well-defined path, suitable for wheelchairs along some of the way, this South Coast walk, less than two hours from Sydney, wanders through some lovely rainforest, with plenty of signs that point out fauna and flora, such as giant stinging trees, figs, beech, red cedar and coachwood. Get there early and you're bound to see lyrebirds.
The easy loop is just 1.6km, but make sure you do the excellent extension to Minnamurra Falls, which takes the total to a mere 4km stroll.

Mount Gower, Lord Howe Island

Guide Jack Shick, photo courtesy LHI Tourism

Almost as close to paradise as you can get this side of heaven, Lord Howe Island is a World Heritage listed wonderland. Not only does it have gorgeous coral reefs, with turtles and tropical fish galore, not only does it have thick green palm forests to plunge through, with more birds than you could poke a walking stick at, but it has brilliant bushwalks, including the solid 875m climb up Mt Gower. This exciting 10km walk can only be done with a guide, but either of the current guides are brilliant, and you won't regret paying for their services at all over the 9-hour day. In a couple of precarious places you'll even need to hang onto a rope. Simply awesome views over one of the most perfect islands in the world, mist forest and rare species, including the Lord Howe Island woodhen.
Plus, there are plenty of beaches awaiting you when you descend.

Bungonia Gorge

Now how nice is that? Swimming hole, Bungonia Gorge

Perhaps an odd choice, but the waterholes in the bottom of the gorge are some of the nicest I've found anywhere for a swim. Yes, you will get hot on the climb on the way out again, so my advice is to take a nice lunch and spend as much time down the bottom as possible. To find the waterholes, take the white track from David Reid Lookout all the way down to the Shoalhaven River, then head up the gorge.
This is not a walk for the faint-hearted, as the walk down is steep and slippery, and you will need some navigation skills as there is no track up the gorge. My recommendation to get back to the carpark is to follow the gorge until you see the red track marker on the left hand side, and take it back up the hill for a 7km loop. Be warned though, you could miss the red marker, so take care.


For complete track notes, photos and more information on all these walks, please see my book, Top walks in NSW. There is a cheaper e-version to download onto iPads etc.

See you on the track.
www.kensbigbackyard.com.au

Margaret River is overrated

Margaret River is overrated

One of the best-known areas of Western Australia, Margaret River is  disappointing compared to some of the state's other great treasures.

Little Beach, Two People's Bay: not Margaret River

Let me start by clearly stating that Margaret River has some good things. It has some truly exceptional wines. It has some big waves. And it has a great dairy.
But its reputation as one of the great destinations of WA is out of all proportion to what it offers. When I recently went to south-west WA for an assignment, most east-coasters who I spoke to said, "oh, Margaret River?" (And no, I wasn't going there.) It seems that almost anyone from this side of the country who goes to Australia's largest state for a holiday goes to either the Kimberley or Margaret River. It is not only well known, it is almost revered.
There are several reasons for this. It is close to Perth, so the people who get panicky after driving more than an hour out of a capital city don't get too stressed. Or lost. And WA has enough open spaces to get truly lost if you want to.
Secondly, unlike most other areas of WA, Margaret River received a huge injection of capital by rich city investors. Many of the vineyards and other enterprises in Margaret River were established by powerful people with plenty of money to spend on advertising and marketing, and those who were adept at ensuring that government tourism messages encouraged more and more visitors to go to Margaret River. Like almost everyone, government tourism offices have limited capital, and often have to push certain barrows while leaving others to sit relatively unnoticed at the bottom of the garden, only ever seen by the adventurous.
Thirdly, and directly related to the point above, east coasters are generally bereft of knowledge when it comes to anything over the sandstone curtain. If I say I'm going to south-west WA, Margaret River is almost the only place many have heard about in the region.
Yes, it has good wines, but gone are the days when Margaret River was pretty much the only place to get a decent bottle of plonk in the state. Drive a few hours down the road towards Mount Barker, Frankland River or the Porongorups and you'll see what I mean - a quarter of the state's vines are down there, and there are more multi-award winning wineries than you could wave an empty bottle of riesling at.

Some of the oldest shiraz vines in the south west at Jingalla Wines in the Porongorups. Not Margaret River.

If it's beaches you're after, well WA is littered with them. A few years ago Lonely Planet voted one gorgeous little strip of sand, called Little Beach, in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. But all the southern coastline is spectacular, from Cape Naturaliste through to Esperance and beyond, with lichen-splattered granite boulders, gleaming white sand and water the colour you think only exists in brochures. Along the southern coastline, whales and their calves often cruise just metres from shore (visit Point Ann in the botanical wonderland of Fitzgerald River National Park during winter if you don't believe me) and there is a huge mix of sheltered spots and places with wild waves.

The spectacular, subalpine peaks of Stirling Range National Park. Not Margaret River.

If it's scenery you're after, then Margaret River will probably disappoint. Yes, it is pretty, in a Hunter Valley, NSW, sort of way, but it isn't spectacular. And yet south-west WA is full of the spectacular. Try Stirling Range National Park or the gorgeous forests around Denmark, the wild and windswept Cape Leeuwin area, or head north to the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park. Further afield there is the Nullarbor, Kalbarri National Park or the extraordinary red-earth country around Mount Augustus.
My recent trip to the Great Southern Region, the area centred around Albany in south-west WA, reminded me that WA holds so many treasures within its vast sheets of land and crumpled folds, and it disturbs me that some people travel no further than Margaret River.
By all means go there, but just don't stop. Take an extra week or six and get out beyond there to see some more of what WA has to offer.
For more information on the Great Southern Region, look out for my feature in an upcoming issue of OUTBACK magazine.
www.kensbigbackyard.com.au

Baby's Feet Cave

Baby's Feet Cave

An extraordinary unmarked Aboriginal art site near Rylstone, NSW.

Some of the hand stencils at Baby's Feet Cave

In my wide travels across our ancient land, I've been blessed with so many incredible encounters with the oldest surviving living culture on the planet. I compare the pride with which most New Zealanders now hold their Maori culture, with the mixed disdain that so many Aussies seem to have for our much older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and shake my head. I even remember having a strange discussion with a visitor from England, who lamented the fact that Australia was bereft of any cultural tradition. I pointed out we actually have the oldest surviving living culture in the world, dating back an estimated 40-60,000 years, and she dismissed it as "oh yes, but there's nothing to show for that is there?"

Although Aboriginal sites are found pretty much everywhere, occasionally I am introduced to a site that  just oozes "special place". Whether it's the spiritual connection of land and spirit, the echoing footsteps across tens of thousands of years, or just an awe-inspiring feeling from my own psyche, I don't know, but this feeling of awe doesn't happen with many of the more "mundane" sites that I visit.

Places where this sense of stepping through the gateway of time, into a sort of cross spiritual/physical realm, include a spot I was choppered into on the border of Arnhem Land and Kakadu, where art works filled caves, and an ancient Aboriginal skeleton was tucked up in the corner of one cave. I've also been taken to a secret men's initiation site north of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia. A condition of going there was no photographs and not to write about it, but I can say the eons of men who have left their mark there provides for a haunting and deeply spiritual experience.

Although my experience last weekend doesn't quite compare to these, I did come across a place that had that sense of awe about it. It's locally called Baby's Feet Cave, and is a five-minute walk off the Bylong Valley Way, between Rylstone and Bylong. It is unmarked, and the visitors information centre at Mudgee seems to know nothing of it, even though school groups used to go there.

Getting there

The bird-shaped boulder, Baby's Feet Cave

It's about 15km north of Rylstone, NSW, in a locality called Growee Gulf, opposite the northern end of Ferntree Gully Environmental Reserve. Bylong Valley Road swings downhill around a corner (to the right, if heading north) and a large blue sign saying "Fireplace" on the left hand side marks a fireplace, small picnic table, and room for one or two cars to park. A 4WD track heads away from the fireplace, but turns to a walking track within about 50m. Take this track down into the little gully, past the prickly Bursaria spinosa plants and up the other side. Where the track forks, head left to the extraordinary bird-head shaped boulder.

What's there

Up high on the right side of the rock, you'll see dozens of hand stencils. (NOTE: not hand 'prints', which are found throughout the world, but hand stencils, which are a much rarer form of indigenous art created by blowing an ochre or pigment over a placed hand.) Some are very clear, and others appear much, much older.

Most of these hand stencils are up way too high for the current ground level. 

Are they so old that the ground has eroded away that much since they were painted? Or were ladders or scaffolds or human pyramids used to get them so high? 

I was reminded of some paintings I saw up really high near Ubirr Rock in Kakadu National Park, and when I asked about them was told by my Aboriginal guide, perhaps tongue in cheek, "oh, the spirits painted them".

The spot takes its English name from two little baby's feet, placed higher up than all the other stencils, and way out of reach of even the tallest person. They are an aberration, but a delightful one.

The baby's feet, alongside a hand stencil high on the wall.

There is a visitors book dating back more than a decade.

Nearby, the vast wilderness of Wollemi National Park, holds hordes of such cultural treasures, most undocumented and many undiscovered in living memory and requiring multi-day off-track treks to find, but I found the location of this very special place - just five minutes from the road - so beautifully surprising.

Visit it, but as always please be sensitive and protect this very special Wiradjuri site.

www.kensbigbackyard.com.au

Special thanks to former Wollemi National Park ranger Chris Pavich who showed me the spot.