Wanganderry Walls round to Bonnum Pic

Map: Hilltop 1:25000

Walk Description

This walk was organised and led by Linda G as a CBC Tueday walk:

Tuesday 6 August: Wanganderry Walls - M/R. From the Wanganderry Road (approx 482E, 001N 3rd ed of the map) along firebreak and track to spot height 737, then off track NW through about 1.5 hours of thick scrub before bursting out on to the amazing sandstone domes above Wanganderry Walls. We will explore about a kilometre of the sandstone tops, before returning by crossing Bonnum Pic Creek at 484E, 048N and picking up the Bonnum Pic track (but not going to BP itself). Total about 16 km, with a 160 m drop into the creek and out again and many small ups & downs. Some rock scrambling in the descent to the creek. This walk features stunning views, some wildflowers, and not a single ACT trig point. Depart North Canberra 7am for an approx 2 hr 20 min drive. Map: Hilltop. Leader: Linda G. Transport: $150 per car. Limit: 8.

8 of us drove from Canberra via Berrima to the navigable end of Wanganderry Rd. $38 return trip. Beautiful - I dozed on the way there and back.

Photographs

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Track Maps

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Track overview

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

Map segments are from OZraster maps produced by GPSOZ. Although they are raster maps, they can zoom to a better level of detail than my LPI TopoView 2006 digital maps. Also the latter, produced in 2006, have a 1st edn Hilltop map, not the current 3rd edn.

Videos

Google Earth

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Track Notes

Showers and ominous clouds as we left North Canberra at 6.30am, but we could see we were heading for the edge of the cloud band. A nice sunrise. About 2hrs 20mins to the car park at the end of the drivable section of Wanganderry Rd.

A chance to try my new Garmin Oregon 650 GPSr which arrived yesterday. I'd been thinking about the on-board rechargable battery system in Keith T's Montana (which he had on 13-14 Jul 13). A similar (the Oregon 650 has a pair of AAs, not a Li-ion as in the Montana) system would pair with my battery pack for recharging (during GPSr use) on a trip, as well as recharging my iPhone. Karen C showed me her new Oregon 600 on 30 Jul 13 and I was impressed by the screen readability in sunlight and the speed of map drawing. GPSOZ had none in stock and were closed for business till 19 Aug, so I ordered it on Friday arvo from Johnny Appleseed. It arrived Monday morning. Slipped the µSD containing OZtopo maps from my old Oregon 550 into the 650 and away it went. A lot easier to use, with various scree-swipe actions.

Walking by 8.50am. A lot easier trip to the start of the open forest part of the Bonnum Pic track than on 31 Aug 10, when we continued down Wanganderry Rd to the official start of the Trail and followed it down through the wet forest across the top of Burnt Flat Creek and then back up to the fence line. Today we went through the gate at the cattle yards and just followed the fence E then NE to the major fence corner.

Followed the Bonnum Pic Trail through light forest - lots of wattle in flower - to a point just NW of SH737. 3.7km in 47mins from the start.

As Linda warned us, the next leg was through scrub, but medium and nothing like Namadgi regrowth. More interesting (for our good leader) was that it was fairly featureless terrain along a meandering ridge and she did a fabulous navigation job. We covered 3km in 1hr 45mins (including 15mins for morning tea) to the beginning of the rock platforms.

A few hundred metres further N, we got our first views to Bonnum Pic. We continued N to the edge of the Walls and gained spectacular views of Wanganderry Walls curving around to Bonnum Pic and the valley below. Continuing N we crossed fabulous sandstone rock formations, touched on the edge of the Walls again for views of them stretching to the N.

At 11.55am we arrived at the edge for the third time (1.1km in 30mins from the start of the rock platforms), where we settled for lunch out of the fierce wind blowing up over the cliffs. Incredible views right from the edge. I crawled to it, trying not to think what was below and how thin the edge was with its holes. A photo across to Bonnum Pic and down to the valley through a hole.

We left lunch at 12.25pm and returned S to a spur where we turned down to the W towards Bonnum Pic Creek. 1.6km in 40mins from lunch to the turn point. Another interesting challenge for Linda to find the correct spur from a choice of three - of course she did it admirably.

1.3km in 1hr saw us descend 130m to Bonnum Pic Creek and struggle up 90m to the 700m contour through little cliff-ettes and scrambles.

From here a wandering route SW, determined by the runs of rock platforms, across to join the Bonnum Pic Trail. 1.4km in 30mins.

5.6km back to the cars in 1hr 35mins including (shock horror) a 15min afternoon tea.

Fabulous trip, thanks Linda. More please.

Summary

Distance: 17.6km Climb: 350m. Time: 8.50am - 4.15pm (7hrs 25 mins), with 1hr 5mins of breaks.

Grading: L/R; M(11)

Walk Participants

8 walkers - Eric G, Linda G (leader), Ian H, Jenny H, Stewart J, Max S, Ian W, me.