newcastle ramblers bushwalking club newsletter - Confederation of ...

There were eleven of us (Bob, John Hendriks andson Will, John Thorn, Nick and his wife Mary,Pauline, Allen, Elisabeth, Arthur, and Frank – a greatgroup) leaving Newcastle early to have morning teain Gloucester at the Roadies Café. There was a fairbit of driving involved by the time two cars haddiverted via Rawdon Vale and up the Moppy CreekRoad to leave a vehicle at the bottom of the KholwhaRidge. The other two cars drove directly to Polblue towait for us.If you look at the holidays listed on the website youwill find the destinations and costs. You pay for yourown transport to the pick up destination and for youraccommodation and meals. However, these arefairly cheap by comparison with what regular touristsmight pay. So we paid for flights to Weipa andDarwin. We were picked up by the crew andtransported in 4WD vehicles to our work destination.In the case of Arnhem Land this was a full day trip bytroop carrier through parts of Kakadu and intoArnhem Land, then by boat to Seven Spirit Bay. Wefound the accommodation comfortable and the mealsgreat.We finally assembled at Polblue for lunch beforewalking the perimeter track of Polblue Swamp to pickup an access track leading south to the top of a ridgeand the Polblue Trail. It was very pleasant walking inmild cloudy conditions through open Snow Gumforest and grasslands. There was quite a lot ofScotch Boom about and also evidence that theNPWS were making some effort to keep it undercontrol.Mostly, we really enjoyed getting to destinations thatare “out of the way” and being involved in a “workingholiday” for a good cause – still plenty of time to relaxand enjoy the location and the company.Elisabeth, Nick, Mary, Pauline, John H, Will and JohnT on the way down the Kholwha Trail in open SnowGum forestWe walked on to join up with the main BarringtonTrail and soon after turned off to set up camp at theLittle Murray. I have not been to this location forsome 20 years – what a beautiful spot to camp – wehad the organised camping ground to ourselves andcould spread out. The walk completed that afternoonhad been about 7 km – nice and easy.- Marise WilsonAlong the Kholwha Trail, Barrington Tops –22 nd /23 rd January 2013The previous days in January had been exceedinglyhot in Newcastle, and the planned walk on theBarrington Tops was intended to provide somerespite. Our walk on this occasion was to leave fromthe Polblue Camping Ground and descend by theKholwha Trail to the Barrington River in the valleysome 1000m below.John T had just finished telling us of his scaryexperience with a rampant stallion in the Snowy lastyear when from behind the trees emerged a couple ofBrumbies, one with his eye right on John.We got a nice fire going later in the afternoon readyfor the preparation of our meals, and werecongratulating ourselves on willing the afternoonstorm to by-pass us. It did not work out that way andwe were soon in the middle of a spectacular four hourstorm with lightning and heavy rain squalls.Some sheltered and cooked beneath the smallshelter covering the camp site sign, whilst othersdisappeared into tents. The fire soon went out.Page 8