Johnny Boy's Walkabout Blog

Monday 17 November 2025: Short ‘n’ Brutal + The Pimple * – L/R. Walk the Mindjagari Track Network’s middle section, named Short ‘n’ Brutal. Include a side trip to The Pimple. Around 12km and 930vm. 8-9 hours. SLOW! Early start, late finish. Looking for geocaches GCBDN3E MarlLaws Multi in the Mountains, GCBA540 A Stone Seat to Rest Upon, GCBA54N The Junction and 11 more new caches on the Banggu Track descent.

Summary

From Garmin Connect (recorded on Epix Gen 2 watch) – Distance: 12.55km | Climb: 1060vm | Time: 3:04 moving + 4:34 of stops = 7:38 | Grading: L/R; H(13). Obviously, lots of stops for finding geocaches.

Photographs

View photographs here.

gpx file

Download the gpx file here.

Track Map

Here’s where we went:

Trip Report

Warning: This is an Australian Walking Track Grading System Grade 5 hike.

I last did this trip, in reverse, on 3 Jun 25. And in this direction on 19 Oct 24.

Keen as we set off along the sheltered Lyrebird Track, but we knew it would be blowy up top.

I was not so keen as we climbed the Snowy Corner Track. Benches halfway up are gone.

But they have been replaced by a wonderful new bench just below the Snowy Corner cairn.

There are 3 Decision Time displays on the Mindjagari Track network, this one Decision Time – Top of Snowy Corner Track.

From Mountain Creek carpark to the Snowy Corner cairn is 2.8km and it took me 1 hour 40 minutes. Wow, 3 minutes faster than last time up this track on 19 Oct 24.

The next leg to Tidbinbilla Mountain is a little less steep, even flat in places.

The track skirts a nice little cliff-ette just SE of Tidbinbilla Mountain.

There’s a final puff to the top.

It was frickin’ freezing on Tidbinbilla Mountain, with snowflakes fluttering down in the drizzle.

Down through the rocky descent off the north of Tidbinbilla Mountain is the most delightful country. I first saw a photo of this area in a pre-2003 book by Graeme Barrow and I immediately wanted to visit. It took a few years to get there!

We logged 2 geocaches on the leg from Tidbinbilla Mountain to the Pimple turnoff, GCBA540 A Stone Seat to Rest Upon and GCBA54N The Junction. I could tell you a tale about the second one, but I’m old and slow, so only caught the tail of the cache guardian.

You may notice a few geocaches on the map segment that are off our track (e.g. CGBED38 A Puzzle for Banggu). There were a number of puzzle caches during the hike that needed information collected to get to the final GZ (ground zero) location. Of course there waypoints are not shown, as that would spoil the fun for the next searchers.

Our next leg was to the Pimple. It begins at the second Decision Time – Pimple Intersection.

Crazy that you descend 120vm before the climb to the Pimple begins.

The official end point has a sign.

The views in front are staggering.

To the NE are razor spurs that we climbed up and down when I was younger and fitter.

And directly down in front.

Want a moving picture?

A scramble back down.

Once back up at the Pimple turnoff, we covered the leg from there to just south of Tidbinbilla Peak. Fairly nondescript, so some flower pics. The Nodding Blue-Lilys are starting to flower.

And throughout the Tidbinbilla Mountain, Tidbinbilla Peak are there are masses of Wax flowers.

I like downhill, so we were nearly home at the Decision Time – Banggu Track Top Intersection.

But others dislike downhill. And, for the 3 long suffering muggles in the party, there were still heaps of geocaches to find. Some are traditional caches with locations on the geocaching website, so I have published those waypoints. I forgot lunch till 1pm, so we had a quick break.

So it was a slow descent of the Banggu Track. The traditional caches we logged were GCBED2W Banggu’s Trad at 1390 MASL, GCBEC24 Banggu’s Trad at 1340 MASL, GCBED07 Banggu’s Trad at 1250 MASL, GCBEBT5 Banggu’s Trad at 1130 MASL, GCBEBRT Welcome to Banggu Track, GCBEE8D Warm-up for Banggu, GCBEBRK On the Way to Banggu Track and GCBEE96 Dreaming of Banggu.

And the caches we logged whose final GZs are not marked on the map or in the gpx file were GCBDN3E MarlLaws Multi in the Mountains, GCBED38 A Puzzle for Banggu, GCBEC4N Banggu’s Bonus at 1470 MASL and GCBECZV The Halfway Bonus on Banggu.

We stopped for a look-see at the Tidbinbilla Warning Siren.

Huge thanks folks. Trust you enjoyed it.

Maybe my swansong on the Tidbinbilla Range. I ticked over 77 last week, my VGPR (very good partial remission) ain’t so VG, daily chemo pill gives me peripheral neuropathy so I have decreasing feeling in my feet, and most of my blood component scores are lousy. But who knows what 2026 holds!

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

Party

5 walkers – Roger E (Marmaduke Rothschild), Stephen J, Karina J, Jo T, me (JohnnyBoyACT).