Booroomba’s Middle Rocks from the Middle Rocks descent
Saturday morning 17 February: Booroomba’s beautiful butt – S/R,ptX: Yet another attempt to reach the geocaches below Booroomba’s southern and northern buttresses. Around 6km and 350m climb. Home by 1pm. For quick walkers who don’t mind exposure. Map: Corin Dam. Leader: John Evans 0417 436 877 john@johnevans.id.au. Transport: ~$8 per person. Limit: 8.
Summary
Distance: 4.7km | Climb: 500m | Time: 8.15am – 11.10am (2hrs 55mins), including 15 mins of breaks | Grading: S/R,ptX; M(10+)
Photographs
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Videos
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Track Notes
An excellent morning with old and new friends, both Canberra Bushwalking Club and geocaching walkers. I’d tried for the cache under the southern buttress a couple of times before, with no joy.
We knocked off the 1.3km up the track from the car park to the cliff edge in 25 minutes. Here we collected the information for the earth cache GC76MWF Igneous Rocks Earthcache.
Then we backed out to the flat spot below the last climb to the cliff top and headed west along a footpad to the top of the gully leading down to the bottom of the southern buttress. A pleasant and easy descent, then a U-turn and along the bottom of the cliffs. Fabulous views up them. We continued along the base of the cliffs to a point near the next cache. My GPSr was pointing better than on previous attempts. A little scramble up, then lokipagan skipped up like a gazelle and nabbed GC131CQ Jamming the Line. Others followed, me gingerly. The cachers in the party logged on and we all enjoyed the views for a few minutes. Returned the same way.
Our next objective was under the northern buttress and the way to it was to sidle down across the Middle Rocks of Booroomba. The cache description gave us the start point. I’d never been down here and my heart was in my mouth. As it turned out, finding the top of the footpad was nearly the hardest part. The route down and across Middle Rocks is a well-trodden (rock climbers) footpad. A good drop down below, but a very easy track. We passed a cairn, taking the lower track here. Linda was useful in the final few metres, which involved another short scramble. Roger was even better, nabbing the cache, GC131CC Vertical Bushwalking, while I was off a few metres looking elsewhere. Signing duties done, we paused for morning tea and the breathtaking views. Returned the same way, except for a little higher return loop to the cairn. And a bit more huffing and puffing going back up.
An excellent result, thanks all. And back in town for lunch.
Track Map
Party
8 walkers – Mark B, Peter C, Roger E (Marmaduke Rothschild), Linda G, Robyn H (lokipagan), Lauren O, Isabel Z-R, me (JohnnyBoyACT).