Orroral Valley from balcony 1 near the Cave

Map: Corin Dam 1:25000

Walk Description

This walk was organised and led by me as a CBC short-notice walk:

Saturday morning 23 November: Orroral Ridge - The Ridge of Stone - S/M. Spend the morning on the Orroral Ridge visiting the granite tors and caves sometimes used by rock climbers. Drive up the Orroral Ridge Road from Honeysuckle Camping Ground to the car park. Visit the Belfry, Tower Rocks, NmC 105 trig, the indigenous site, Legoland, Opera House cave, the Trojan Wall and Sentinel Rocks. Around 5km and a little optional rock scrambling. Leave town at 7am, back by 2pm latest. Map: Corin Dam. Limit: 8. Leader: John Evans - john@johnevans.id.au, 0417 436 877. Transport: ~$8 per person.

8 of us drove from Canberra, picking up another 2 at Tharwa, via Honeysuckle Creek camping ground, to the Collimation tower car park on the Orroral Ridge.

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Track

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Track Notes

We drove up the Orroral Ridge Road and parked at the collimation tower/Tower Rocks car park. The concrete base of the tower is in the middle of the car park, with a couple of guy anchor points nearby. A lovely day.

We first went SE along the ridge to the Belfry. An easy to follow footpad (I only lost it once); a few areas of close pea regrowth (which would be horrible if they were wet). Time to explore around the base of the tremendous tor. Views down into Orroral Valley. We returned to the cars, disturbing a yellow-bellied black snake on the way.

Next was the most important task of the day. The party - some walkers with enthusiasm and others with polite disinterest (grin), moved 50m from the cars to bag trig NmC105. My eighty-first.

Getting back on track, we followed the broad footpad to the NW, heading 260m to the recognised indigenous site. A lovely slab with boulders forming the back of a stage.

Then onto the turnoff to the entrance to the Opera House Cave. A great place, with a huge chock stone in the roof. We spent quite some time exploring the area. First we continued through the cave opposite the entrance and explored around the Legoland area (I think that's what it's called). Back into the cave it was too cool for morning tea. We exited through the little crawl up the back of the cave.

After the first crawl, we u-turned to the right and scrambled up the back of a huge boulder (we'll call this balcony 1) to magnificent views way down to the Orroral Valley.

Back down and through a second crawl, we saw Rob above us. So, turning to the right again, we found a patch of sun out of the breeze for morning tea plus, for those who so desired, a scramble up to balcony 2 for more huge views.

After our break, the way out was N for a few tens of metres back to the main footpad, joining it just S of the cave turn off.

We walked another 600m NW to the beginning of the Trojan Walls. A simple route up to granite platforms which again provided great views, not only to the valley below but along the ridge.

Back down on the footpad we headed towards Sentinel Rocks. I wanted to circumnavigate them, so went down to tackle the worst first. We got round to the NW side, but it was slow going as we were off-track and I ended up in an impassible lead. Still, impressive views up to the orange coloured rock face.

Turning around, we wandered back to the cars.

Thanks everyone. A respectable little amble with great views and some scrambling to validate a mickey-mouse trig bag.

Summary

Distance: 6.6km Climb: 120m. Time: 8.20 - 11.55am (3hrs 35 mins), with 15mins of breaks.

Grading: S/M; E(7)

Walk Participants

10 walkers - Roger E, Jenny H, Rob H, John J, Rosemary McK, Darren R, Stuart S, John T, Ian W, me.