Corang Arch | Many Rock Ribs on the Corang River

Tuesday 4 February: Wog Wog, Corang Peak, Canowie Brook, Corang River, Goodsell Creek and return – L/M. This walk is about 25 km with about 300m metres of climbing. Most of it is on good to rough track (and areas around Mt Corang and Canowie Brook were burnt in the fire before Christmas). The route takes in some Budawangs icons including Mt Corang and Corang Arch. If the forecast is for temperatures above 30 degrees we will go directly to the Lagoon for a swim and forgo the long walk. Maps: Corang and CMW Budawangs sketch map. Leader: Lorraine T. Transport: ∼$25 per person Limit: 12.

4 of us drove from Canberra via Braidwood and Charleys Forest Rd. A bit over 1.5hrs from Spotlight at Queanbeyan.

Further Information

My last trips here were 24 Feb 09 and 13 Oct 09.

Summary

Distance: 24.8km | Climb: 675m | Time: 8.15am-3.55pm (7hrs 40mins), with 40mins of breaks | Grading: L/M; H(12)

Track Maps

Track overview

Track 1

Track 2

Photographs

Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slide show.

Videos

Google Earth

Download the Google Earth .kmz file here.

Track Notes

What a difference a day makes. Instead of sweltering in the high 30s, the temperature was cool, the breeze and showers making it feel cold. Raincoats on as we left the Wog Wog camp ground.


Wog Wog camping ground

Down over Wog Wog Creek where there are lots of new steel runways and followed the track through pleasant open forest to the major track junction where the loop begins. 4.3km in 1hr.


Major track junction

Here we turned S and soon passed by the conglomerate piles on the watershed between Wog Wog Creek and Goodsell Creek.


Layers in the conglomerate piles

Descending the piles, the going soon turns from open forest to the more open shrubby tops. Lorraine was setting a cracking pace, but it kept us warm in the wind and showers. We met a couple of blokes coming out after 2 or 3 days in the area. They also were wondering what happened to the weather.


Descending the conglomerate piles

Lorraine had been through here in December last year and knew what as to come. We soon hit the W extent of the recent fires. Very stark indeed.


W end of the fire on the track at about UTM 56H 234066-6091501 (MGA94) above Cockpit Swamp

No point in taking one of the side tracks to the cliff line, as the showers and cloud precluded any view. We skirted Korra Hill and stopped for a very brief morning tea just prior to the climb to Corang Peak. The burnt vegetation provided little shelter from the cold breeze. From the major track junction to morning tea was 5.1km in 1hr 20mins.

As always, hope springs eternal and so does recovery after fire. We passsed through the junction with the track which skirts Corang Peak to the SE, hardly paused at the top of the Peak as there was no view and descended the burned out steps on the NE side.

Recovery on the ascent to Corang Peak
Ascent to Corang Peak

2.1km and 35mins after morning tea we arrived at one of the major features of the walk- Corang Arch. A fabulous place, perhaps looking even more so with the contrast of the burnt-black cliff line and the bright green new grassy growth way below. I went straight to the top and had a great look around. I love the eye sockets (Stewart thought one looks like a clam) in the cliffs to the W – thank goodnes the fires had not reached there.


Looking down from Corang Arch


View W from Corang Arch


Corang Arch

After a good poke about we climbed back up to the track on the nearby cliff line through a handy hole.

Exit hole from Corang Arch
Top of exit hole from Corang Arch

The next amazing feature was the Conglomerate Slope, fire-naked as the rest of the country we’d walked through. Great views to Canowie Brook, Profile Rock Hill and the track over Bummumbeet Brook.


Canowie Brook and Profile Rock Hill from the top of the Conglomerate Slope


Descending the Conglomerate Slope


Burrumbeet Brook from the Conglomerate Slope

Just near the bottom of the Conglomerate Slope is a track junction. A small camp site nearby (where we had lunch on 13 Oct 09). The E track leads over a saddle to Burrumbeet Brook and we went NW across the flats to Canowie Brook. Profile Rock Hill was to the NE.

Walking the burnt flats towards
the bend in Canowie Brook
Profile Rock Hill
The track meets Canowie Brook

The passage across the flats and along Canowie Brook to Many Rock Ribs on the Corang River was a breeze compared with previous times. No harsh banksia and hakea and the main footpad amongst the braids was easy to follow. A campsite (albeit a little bare and black at the moment) on the bend where Canowie Brook changes from W flowing to N flowing.We stayed on the side of the brook all the way. Today the 1.6km took 30mins. On 24 Feb 09 it took 40mins (without going right to the river’s edge) and on 13 Oct 09 it took 1hr. Little surprises amongst the black.


Black and white and green

Many Rock Ribs (Lorraine knows this area as the Corang cascades) is yet another fantastic geological place. Rock ‘ribs’ cross the river, forming wonderful pools and cascades. A very steep descent via a myriad of footpads through the tight vegetation. The perfect place for lunch beside the pool, although it was too cold to swim (who would want to, anyway?)

Many Rock Ribs – Corang cascades
Lunch by the pool at Many Rock Ribs – Corang cascades

The next leg after lunch took us back up out of the river, NW at a junction and generally paralleling the Corang River through close vegetation, then more open (but at least now un-burned) to the campsite and track junction just near Corang Lagoon. Our track took us across Broula Brook with a nearby campsite. This leg 2km in 45mins. A stop at the Lagoon and a generous allowance for me to find a nearby geocache.


Corang Lagoon

That was basically it for the day, except for the final 8.2km back to the car in 2hrs 10mins.

Party

4 walkers – Stewart J, Lorraine T (leader), Ian W, me.