Orroral Valley from a Legoland vantage point
Saturday 19 January: Legoland and beyond – S/R. A very short walk over, under and around the massive granite boulders of Legoland, Trojan Wall and the Sentinel on the ridge above Honeysuckle Creek. There will be scrambling but no technical climbing. All the walk is over 1200m elevation so cooler than Canberra. Note: unless indicated otherwise in the comments box, the leader will assume people booking are agreeable to sharing email addresses for the purposes of organising transport. Leader: Jeff B.
Summary
Distance: 13.5km | Climb: 350m | Time: 8.05am – 1.05pm (5hrs), including 20 mins of breaks and lots of exploring and scrambling time | Grading: M/R; M(9)
Photographs
Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slideshow.
Video
Waypoint and Track Files
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Track Notes
We arrived at the Honeysuckle Creek camping ground, sorted ourselves out, jumped back in the cars and drove to the Orroral Ridge Road. The TOTAL FIRE BAN sign was still up from midnight last night … and the gate was locked. Bummer!
We put the cars back and walked the 4km up the fire trail to the top collimation tower site car park in a bit under 1 hour.
From here, Jeff took us NW to Legoland. A beaut time here, not only in the cave. First, a new (for me) vantage point then, continuing though the cave to the jagged rocks area and led by Lauren, an exit here and scrambling little circuit to come in at the top of usual crawl exit. Lauren stayed up the top to sun herself, I went down through the crawls to retrieve my pack, then back up with the others. A few of us clambered up the ramp between the two crawls, then through the second crawl and up onto the top balcony to pick up the sunning lizard.
Another first for me as Jeff took us to the top of Legoland for yet more views and morning tea.
Even though we’d had to walk up from Honeysuckle Creek and time was shorter, Jeff kept true to his walk description and we went beyond Legoland. Picking up the crest top footpad again, we walked north. Turning near the top of the Trojan Wall, we first followed the footpad down to the open creek area, then back up to the east side of Sentinel Rocks.
Round to the north for views first, then Lauren and I did a clockwise scramble around the gigantic feature. Found a climber’s chalk bag which Janice could use.
A quick trip back, as we’d arranged to meet Jeff and the others back at the cars and didn’t want to keep them waiting. We caught them just before the camping ground.
Great little trip, thanks Jeff and all. Some new routes around Legoland for me.
Track Map
Track
Party
10 walkers – Bernadette B, Jeff B (leader), Janice H, Bill H, Pat M, Luke M, Lauren O, Tony R, Phillip S, me.