FJCC NSW Cave to Cave

Day 0 - Friday

With weeks of wet weather, it came down to the last few days to make a go/no go decision for this trip. In the end, we had had a run of fine days leading up to the weekend, so away we went.

4WDING and his family camped the friday night at Boyds River campground off the Kanagra Walls road. This is a good sized camping area which can easily fit 20 or more groups on either side of the road.

Day 1 - Saturday

On Saturday morning we made our way down to Kanagra Walls and watched the cloud floating around in the valley below, before returning to the car park for a 10am rendevoux with the other FJC's. Retro was next to turn up, followed by FJClub.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to identify the last fuel stop in the trip notes, so FJClub got to Jenolan and then needed to divert to Oberon to fill up!

Once we were all together, and checked over each others modifications, we hit the road.

We travelled back along Kanagra Walls road until our turn off along a fire trail that takes us past the trail head for the Uni Rover walking track. Shortly after that we hit our first obstacle, which was crossing the Morong Creek. With the recent rain, the creek was much wider than normal, and the exit on the far side was still a little tricky. We sent FJClub across first to check the depth for us! Crossing and exit went fine, water depth was just over bumper bar level so there would be no issue.

Retro went next, with a slight hickup in the middle of the creek when his transfer case popped out of gear. Once the appropriate gear was slected, he too crossed without any issues. And then 4WDING went across, again without any problems. Since FJClub had come back across to the starting side (just because he could), he was the final car to cross.

With that out of the way, 4WDING took the lead and headed up to the Kowmung River trail. There I sat for a few minutes before realising there was still some issues behind me. It turns out that Retro decided to investigate a different trail to the rest of us (by mistake) and took a while to find the right trail and catch up to me at the turn off.

Once together again, we headed down to the Kowmung River crossing. As we approached, the river looked like it was flowing pretty fast, and there was water all the way across to the bottom of the trail. There is usually quite a large flat area as you approach the river which is dry and rocky - today this was covered in water!

Although the water looked ominous, it turned out to merely be a large puddle. So a quick check of the Kowmung River depth, and we all took off across the river. National Parks have obviously done some recent track work here as the river bed was nice and flat, and the river exit had also been improved.

After the crossing, there was several kilometres of steep trail to navigate before arriving at Dingo Dell camp ground where we stopped for lunch at about 12:45pm.

The weather was great so far, warm and sunny with blue skies all around. After lunch we followed Boucher Ridge trail up to the top of the ridge and through the forestry area. Since I was last here, the forest had been harvested so the scenery was quite different to what I remembered. Not only had the trees gone, so too had the mud bogs on the trail just before the Colong Oberon Stock Route. This was the next turn off for us, and so began the 56km section down to Yerranderrie.

Once at Yerranderrie, we checked out the public camp ground which is at the site of the old Police station and Court house. The camp ground here is great, large enough for a big group and contains four pit toilets. Once we had worked out where to camp, we headed into the town centre of Yerranderrie.

There were a number of campers here setting up camp, but the rest of the town was pretty quiet. We wandered around for a while, checking out the old buildings before heading back to the public camp ground and setting up camp for the night.

We had a great evening, with many culinary delights, including a wonderfully roasted piece of pork that FJClub had brought along. A good evening was had by all.

Day 2 - Sunday

Overnight the rain decided to come back, not too heavy, but enough to get everything damp. And the next morning, it continued to rain while we packed up. Fortunately Retro had a large covered area set up that kept us dry before heading off from camp around 10am.

And once again, we hit the Colong Obern Stock route until we got to The Range fire trail. This was undoubtedly FJClub's favorite part of the trip. On the junction there was a large mud bog, about 20-30 metres long, full of dirty, stinky mud! So we all had a play there for a while taking photos, video and generally having a good time!

The rain increased a little as we followed The Range fire trail along the ridge. The track was pretty good most of the way, although in some sections it was littered with pot holes. Overall though, the FJC's handled everything with ease.

We arrived at Wombeyan caves at about 1pm, which was an ideal time for lunch. This time we used FJClub's home made vehicle attached awnning to shelter under while we ate lunch.

We left Wombeyan caves around 2pm and headed out along the Wombeyan caves road towards Mittagong.

In summary, we all had a great time over the weekend with just the right amount of fine weather, and tricky wet sections of road. Just enough to give everyone exactly what they came long for :) So thanks to FJClub and Retro for joing 4WDING on the weekend and making the trip a great one.