newcastle ramblers bushwalking club newsletter - Confederation of ...

Day 3 The 3 weekend walkers decided to leave us this
morning taking Tony with them. They were to follow Yengo
creek upstream and access the Yengo / Calore road which
leads back to the homestead.
The remaining 6 reached Mount Calore at 12.30pm and
after lunch at the dam followed a side creek into Calore
creek then to the MacDonald. This part of the trip was
extremely hard going and it took us all afternoon to reach
the river arriving around 4pm.
We were very weary but happy to see that the river had a
reasonable flow of water in it – 2-3 inches – just enough to
allow for good walking. Camp was set up on a bend 1 ½ k
south of the Calore Creek junction.
Day 4 Today was our first full day in the MacDonald and
we left camp at 8.30am. We had 10-12 km to walk on firm
sand so it was easy going through beautiful scenery and we
reached our campsite on the Big Bend between 2.30 and
3pm.
Signs of civilization
We camped where Peter had hidden our food and water
drop. It was a very comfortable evening around the campfire
with red wine and good tinned food – which was tastier than
the dried food we had been eating all week. We had custard,
peaches rice and chips – just to name some of the ‘goodies’.
For good measure we also ate Tony’s stash – we didn’t think
he would mind
Day 7 Today was our last day and we left camp at 7.45am
carrying the two water containers and the food barrel with
us. We reached the Boree track by 9am and headed south
stopping at Frying Pan rock for morning tea. Soon after we
ran into Bob Clifton and John Sharples who were walking up
from Audrey’s to meet us. The locked gate was reached by
12.30 and 30 minutes later we were at Audrey’s studio.
Carol, Bob and John put together a lovely lunch with hot cups
of tea, which we had while sitting on the studio’s verandah.
The beautiful MacDonald River
Day 5 This was to be our last day walking in the
MacDonald and there was a reluctance to hurry away from
our campsite. So with Lois leading the way we did some cave
exploring before leaving our camp at 9.30am.
We had an easy 6km to travel today once again through
beautiful country. We reached the junction of the Yengo and
the MacDonald before lunch and were surprised to find the
Yengo so dry that 4WDs had left wheel tracks on the creek
bed. Last time we had been there the water was flowing
quite well in both the Yengo and the MacDonald.
We set up camp on the big sandbank and then some went
exploring up the Yengo for some distance. That evening just
before dark it started to rain and continued to rain for most of
the night. So we all sheltered under our large fly to eat and
spend some time together.
Day 6 We departed the Macdonald at 7.30am in the rain
and started our wet and slippery climb up to the top of the
Bala range. The rain stopped after we reached the top and
further on the road, but it stayed cloudy all day. The road is
good walking and our clothes had dried off by the end of the
day.
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At the Boree Track
Many thanks to all the support
crew at both ends.
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