Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

Tuesday 11 April 2023: Geocaches above Corin Road with Marmaduke Rothschild. Ever taken a hammer and screwdriver for a bushwalk? A short but steep walk to knolls above Corin Road for geocaches and views.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (Epix Gen 2) – Distance: 7.08km | Climb: 585m | Time: 1:54 moving + 2:10 of stops and geocaching = 4.04 | Grading: M/R,W; M(10).

Photographs Photographs are available here.

gpx File The gpx file is available here.

Track Notes

I was last through here on 24 Jul 19 and 2 Aug 22.

Roger and I recently hatched up this little trip. Short, but not so sweet.

Parked on the side of Corin Road at a wide verge, opposite the fire trail to Mushroom Rock. Take the route down from the big boulders blocking the top of an old fire trail (as Roger pointed out) and up which we returned, not the pad down the side of the fence which I took. But both end up taking you down to Gibraltar Creek. Wet feet for a while after crossing.

An old fire trail rises creek to crest. 180vm over 1.3km in 30 minutes.

There I put the hammer and screwdriver (TOTT = tools of the trade in geo-speak) to use. With a hint of “Cap it”, I couldn’t get it off on 2 Aug 22. This time, no problem! Geocache GC954ZN Booroomba Again released and logged. Sadly, the fence has been cut there.

My next challenge was the climb to the 1030+m knoll to the SW, but following Roger it wasn’t too bad. My starting suggestion was bad – I said “don’t use the fire trail as it goes down to the Booroomba property”. So we bashed down the fence line, only to come out at a gate beside the fire trail before it bends down. The return along this section was a lot smarter.

Starting at the gate, there is a thick band of shrubs. Similar bands alternate with a little more open going as the climb continues.

At about 885m contour and on the fence line that we’d been paralleling, we found and logged GC9KCXY Booroomba Brace.

The route for the climb took us up the crest of the spur. Some more difficult ascent through rocks, which we were able to circle round on the descent.

The description of the geocache at the top had an additional waypoint, ‘Cool slab!’. Indeed it was, providing a great view back from the point where we first gained the slab.

A few metres of open walking.

Some more bush bashing after we left the top of the slab had us at boulders that yielded GC9KCXT Booroomba Back II. It was difficulty 2.5/4. That means 2.5 out of 5 to find it once at the location (so Roger had to do the work, as I can’t find anything over 2) and difficulty 4 out of 5 for the terrain traversed to the location. I can vouch for that. No view, no photo.

The climb was 760m across the ground and took 57 minutes, up 175vm.

We retreated to the top of the ‘Cool slab!’ for morning tea.

A lot easier going down, skirting the difficult rocks.

Back at our entry point on the crest, we climbed the fire trail to the SH985 area. 700m across the ground in 19 minutes with 110vm ascent. Three caches for Roger which I’d previously logged. We’d both previously logged GC8AX4Z Booroomba Back.

Excellent views. I have a video that I can’t embed. Link is https://youtu.be/-GLAQOjkawQ .

All that remained was a downhill return. Gibraltar Creek seemed a fraction deeper on the return crossing.

Thanks for holding my hand Roger.

Track Map

Here’s where we went.

The AllTrails map is here, where you can pan and zoom.

Party

2 walkers – Roger E (Marmaduke Rothschild), me (JohnnyBoyACT).

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