| 23 April 2013 Renns Bluff ... or how I nearly disgraced my self - again  Shoalhaven River from Rainbow Ridge Map: Caoura 1:25000 Walk Description This walk was organised and led by Brian S as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:
Further Information A track runs from the car park to Mt Ayre and down to the Shoalhaven River, and from there on the left bank to Long Point and beyond to Badgerys Spur. The section from the first crossing of the Shoalhaven R to Rainbow Saddle is exploratory - all other parts of this walk have been walked at least once. Not expecting much, if any, scrub. The spurs and ridge tops of this part of the Shoalhaven seem incapable of supporting thick scrub. Unless of course things have changed in the past 2-3 years! River crossings - we should be able to walk across. Barefoot crossings not recommended. First crossing exploratory - I have crossed 200-300m upriver from here. Second crossing done many times - rocky, water to shin height usually. Looking forward to a good day - the faux mountaineering on Rainbow Ridge (and possibly Renns B) should get the adrenalin going. 3 of us drove from Canberra via Goulburn and Bungonia to the car park just before the Lookdown. Photographs Click here to access all walk photographs.Track Maps Track maps: thumbnails are active - click for a larger picture
Videos Google Earth Track Notes My adrenalin certainly did run, thanks Brian. So much so that my fearful anticipation of certain features of the walk sapped my uphill and I nearly disgraced myself climbing Hermit Spur. A HUGE walk with spectacular components - very challenging. I've very carefully edited the GPS track recorded on the day (especially removing the below sea level altitudes recorded as we re-crossed the Shoalhaven with my GPS tucked away in 2 dry bags). But I still get 20.7km. I have very conservatively recorded the total height. The Trackan program I use gives 1348m, which I have reduced to 1200m to cover any further track recording anomalies. This walk was on Brian's bucket list - thank goodness we won't have to go back. One thing worse than a 'V' walk (that's down in the morning and up in the afternoon) is a 'W' walk - down, up, down, up. I brought much fearful anticipation with me due to morbid dislike of exposure and water - after today still plenty to work on. 3.2km in 1hr down the Mt Ayre track to a Shoalhaven River crossing point just a bit further downstream from the end of the track. I carefully identified the silvery leaved Wattles as Olive trees! We prepared feet in various ways (I had Crocs) and found ourselves sticks. With my electrical gear in dry bags and my heart in my mouth, I managed to negotiate the 3 separate channels of the river at that point. A reasonable current in the middle of one. Dried off and re-shoed over the other side. Unfortunate talk of the afternoon's crossing of the Shoalhaven being more difficult than this one. As we came down from Mt Ayre, we'd identified the un-named spur leading to SH618 that Brian wanted to ascend. However, we missed it and, too late, ended up on Hermit Spur. My contributing negligence as the operator of the only GPS in the party was to not offer a location check as we began to climb the spur. Even on the little ridge near the bottom, it looked a hard job to get across to the desired spur. We spent some time sidling below the crest of Hermit Spur trying to find a way across, but the S side of the un-named spur developed some nice cliffs. The sidling was on loose rock and dirt. At least we each proved that we could still 'make the earth move'. But there was some exposure with the drainage line 100m below and (I realised later) this really sapped my energy. At last we gave up the idea and turned right to slowly climb to the crest. I had quite a few rests on the way and kept the others waiting. A long haul up the crest. The leg from the river to the top 4km in 2hrs 20mins, climbing 560m. At last the ground leveled and we made good time (1.5km in 25mins) to the E side of Renns Bluff. Huge views down Tryers Gorge to the Shoalhaven. Lunch. Rang home. We set off again at 12.30pm down a more manageable spur from Renns Bluff to Rainbow Saddle. Then up again to Mt Pollock - steep, but a couple of delightful open grassy patches with Macrozamia cycads. The leg from lunch to Mt Pollock 1.8km in 50mins, with 240m descent and 140m ascent. Rainbow Ridge running NW from Mt Pollock to the Shoalhaven is a spectacular formation. A real razor ridge, dropping away on either side 300m to the river. A bit of exposure in places, but I was more comfortable as we'd done this on 30 Sep 08. There's a little nose about a third of the way along the ridge (between the B and the O in Rainbow Ridge on the map) and Brian rigged a safety line - for my comfort. As the ridge turned into a spur and the steep descent eased, we turned WSW down to the river. 1hr 15mins to do the 2.5km from Mt Pollock to the river, dropping 430m. Always quick to learn, off came my shorts to tackle the second river crossing. A bit deeper than the first at just below waist level, but current not as strong. The bottom was rockier. I breathed a deep sigh of relief on the car side of the river! A 3.8km plod in 1hr, cutting the corner across McCallums Flat and along the side of Louise Reach to the bottom of the Mt Ayre track. I'd realised by now that my embarrassing moments of the morning were most likely caused by nervous anticipation, not by physical ailment. So the up back to the car was fine, though slow. 3.1km in 1hr 20mins, climbing 430m. Thanks Brian and Linda - a spectacular round! Summary Distance: 20.7km Climb: 1200m. Time: 8.00am - 5.20pm (9hrs 20 mins), with 20mins for lunch, breaks at either sides of the 2 river crossings as we dried and changed shoes (I think morning tea was at Hermit Flat after the first crossing) and much wasted time as I nearly died and revived at the top of Hermit Spur. Walk Participants 3 walkers - Linda G, Brian S (leader), me. Back to Walks Index This page last updated 2Sep22 |
