This walk was organised and led by me as a combined CBC/Parkway walk:
Sunday 25 October 2009 - Percival Hill Nature Reserve, Palmerville Heritage Park and Gungahlin Pond - S/E,X. A wander from Rosella St Nicholls around the Pond, then generally following Ginninderra Creek down and across the Barton Highway to Palmerville Heritage Park. Around 11km and 50m climb. No need to book. Map: Hall. Leader: John Evans – jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: Please drive yourself, meeting by 1.30pm at the intersection of Rosella St and Ibis St (just off Gundaroo Drive) Nicholls - note that this is on the east side of Gugahlin Pond). Further details at http://jevans.pcug.org.au.
3 of us met and had a nice little wander.
Percival Hill is Site of Significance in the ACT GH10. The map of the Canberra Nature Park, Percival Hill Nature Reserve is here.
Note that the meeting point is at the intersection of Rosella and Ibis Sts, officially Nicholls, but it is just down Ibis St off Gundaroo Drive. A track/trail starts at this point. However, the street is extremely narrow so, please, be very careful to park safely.
Walk track
For the second month in a row my 4th Sunday arvo of the month urban ramble has brought rain. Where are all the CBC and Parkway wimps - my companions today were both visitors.
The bike path took us down past the extend of the golf course. A few metres down through the grass to the edge of the Gungahlin Pond brought us within sight of a nesting swan (see pic 1). The bike path wended its way to the wall of the pond and across the other side we followed a footpad which climbed gently to the ridge then turned SW to the Percival Hill trig (see pic 3). Green views down to the developing suburb of Crace (see pic 2). A pleasant vista to the S and down to the roundabout on the Barton Highway.
A footpad took us down the hill towards the roundabout and a pile of stones allowed us to cross Ginninderra Creek with dry and uninfected feet to join the cycle path under the Barton Highway. Tromping its hard, flat surface and greeting the passing walkers, joggers and cyclists we crossed under William Slim Drive to the E side for a while, then back to the W. Not quite as I expected, but eventually the parking area at the S end of the Palmerville Heritage Park was sighted. I'd been here before to sus out the commemorative tree for a mate in the memorial 'forest'.
A footpad took us up the side of Ginninderra Creek until a drainage line barred our way, so we wandered across to the bridge and the broad gravel path. N then E along it to the nice wooden bridge with surrounding oaks, only to end up at the W bank of Ginninderra Creek again with no place to cross the dubious looking waters. A footpad then maybe fire break took us along the SE side of the CSIRO experimental plots and some carefully-trodden (snakes?) tall grasslands got us to the edge of the Barton Highway on the Yass side of the roundabout.
Dodging cars, we crossed the 4 lanes, returned to the bike path, circuitously crossed creek and under roads and finally climbed Percival Hill to arvo tea. The second round of Gay's peanut toffee (or was it Sally's yummy apricot thingies) possibly cost us the extra 4 minutes of showers as we walked back to the cars.
Thanks heaps for turning up Sally A and Ken L. CBC bushwalks can only get better than this mild urban ramble - trust you'll consider joining the club.
Distance: 9.4km Climb: 150m. Time: 1.35 - 4.00pm (call it 2hrs 30mins), with 10mins of stops.
Grading: S/E,X; E(6)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Percival Hill Nature Reserve, Palmerville Heritage Park and Gungahlin Pond
