This trip had been in the making for quite a while, but getting everyone committed was a little tricky! Fortunately the stars lined up for everyone on the June Long Weekend and the trip was locked in.
A few days prior to the Friday we were due to meet in Araluen for the first night, the area we were heading had been dumped with rain. The tracks that we were going to cover fall into the ‘Moderate’ basket. Add rain to the mix and that rating soon goes out the window!
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| Frosty morning in Araluen |
As planned, I met with a fellow FJCCer at Araluen pub on the Friday evening (a little later than anticipated). Others were to join us in the morning, coming from Sydney and another brave member, who was staying at a local campsite nearby. Many a beverage was had and we soon learned that the entire patronage of the pub was headed to Bendethera the same way we were in the morning. By 0130, everyone called it a night and turned in to thankfully warm beds as the temp dropped well below zero overnight.
Morning showed a heavy frost over everything and we were once again very happy to be indoors and tucking into a hearty cooked breakfast. Decent hot showers were also in order to help thaw out and clear some hazy heads from the night before.....
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| Meeting at Araluen Pub. |
Our fellow travellers joined us at the Araluen Pub around 0900. For me and Graham, we were right to go with full long range tanks. For our other travellers, Chris (K) and Paul, relying on the stock fuel tanks only, were going to fill up at the local Araluen bowser. Unfortunately for them, with the cold weather overnight, the petrol bowser was frozen solid and wouldn’t pump fuel. We waited for over an hour hoping the strong sunlight would help thaw it out, but to no avail. Consequently, Paul decided to backtrack to Braidwood to get fuel and graciously took a spare jerry can from Chris (K) to fill as well. With an hour round trip to Braidwood, Paul suggested we start heading off and he would catch up. This was certainly not an ideal situation, but one which turned out to be best.
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| Meeting at Araluen |
The three remaining FJs headed down Araluen road to Dry Creek camping area. Araluen road was in pretty good condition, due to the recent grading being carried out. We arrived at Dry Creek at around 1100 and aired down in preparation for Mericumbene F/T. We aired down in the camping area, where to our surprise another Voodoo Blue FJer was enjoying the long weekend camping with his family. We had a yarn for a little while, wished everyone the best and then headed off for the creek crossing. Unfortunately a traffic jam had emerged before the creek crossing, where a completely ignorant 4x4 crew had decided to air down half a dozen cars in the middle of the track, preventing anyone from getting through. It wasn’t to be the last time we ran into this mob.
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| Chris (K) crossing 'Dry' Creek |
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| Paul posing on Mericumbene F/T |
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| Lunch at Mongamoola / Mericumbene intersection |
A few KMs on, we stopped at the Mongamoola F/T intersection with Mericumbene F/T for some lunch and to await the arrival of our 4th FJ who was a little way back on the track after going to collect fuel earlier in the day from Braidwood. Once Paul had rejoined the group and fed his hungry troops, we headed off toward Bendethera, only about 20Kms down the road, but still a good 1 hour+ worth of driving, given the conditions.
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| Graham fording the river at Bendethera |
Surprisingly the camping areas closer to the entrance of Bendethera valley were chock full, yet the better ones down near the stock yards were virtually empty, so with daylight running out and people still coming into the grounds, we grabbed a spot right on the river, near the stock yards.
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| Wood collection |
Chris (K) and I quickly unloaded our roof racks and went out to grab some firewood to get a decent fire going, given the night was supposed to get down to -5. Half an hour with a saw and we had the racks loaded up with some decent hardwood and heading back to camp, where Graham had already got his tent and awning up and was scratching around for some kindling to get a fire started. A brief splash of liquid additive helped things along, and we had a nice fire kicking.
Since we had ripped logs, I pulled an axe and starting breaking them down into something more manageable for a cooking fire. This was when Chris piped up and said; “Oh I’ve got an axe for my B’day, I wanna do some of that”. More than happy to crack a beer and watch someone else break logs, I let him go at it. Unfortunately his first effort nearly ended in tragedy, with the axe coming damn close to his foot and me nearly spilling my beer from laughing at the awkwardness of his technique! Seems he hadn’t done a lot of wood splitting in his native Poland growing up, but after a few mins of ‘wood splitting 101’ Graham and I had Chris breaking logs like a champion.
With the fire going strong from Chris’s work, everyone fed and warm, we all kicked back and yarned long into the night, with everyone hitting the hay well after midnight.
Sunday morning, we awoke to a nice thick layer of frost shimmering in the sunlight. Unfortunately we had been too liberal with the wood the night before, so there was no morning fire. Fortunately there was plenty of hot coffee and warm sun, once it breached the mountains to the east. Chris (S) arrived a little unexpected in his white FJ as we were checking out a slow leak that had dropped Chris (K)’s front left down overnight. It seemed that a bit of grit in the bead was allowing air to escape. We pumped it back up and decided he should try and drive on it with the intent of getting the grit clear in the creek crossings.
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| Spectacular morning in the valley |
We had planned to run down to Tuross Falls and the cascades, but given our slow start we decided on heading east, back toward Moruya, to Plumwood Firetower and Hanging Mountain for lunch. Sugarloaf Road had recently been graded and the normal climb to the trig station before linking up with Sugarloaf had been changed with a more direct path, removing the need for the climb, however that also removed the fun, so we went the old way just for entertainment value.
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| Plumwood Firetower - Looking North |
Plumwood Firetower gave great views out over the ranges. Unfortunately the tower itself was all locked up; we could only assume vandals had driven the need for this, which was a shame as the views from the tower are unsurpassed. Given the fact the view to the East was pretty well obscured by trees, I decided to take the crew a few Kms down the road to Hanging Mountain for lunch and a better view of the East.
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| FJ invasion at Bendethera |
After lunch, we drove back toward Bendethera around 1400, with a couple of stops to show the guys the old road into Bendethera (now the bridal trail), headed down to the start of the caves walk and finally to the very end of the camping area in the valley (which was insanely muddy!). Wood collection ensued on the way back to camp and with two racks loaded with wood, we were assured a warm evening.
Chris (K) and Agata cooked us all up some top Polish tucker on the campfire; roast potatoes with a ‘traditional’ Polish filling. Whatever the contents of this filling, everyone hooked in! Drinks and yarns flowed for quite a while, with slight spatterings of rain, certainly couldn’t put a dampening on everyone’s spirits.
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| Breaking camp on Monday morning. |
Monday morning everyone was up at a decent hour and we had plenty of wood left over to get a fire going for morning congregation. Coffee and cooked breakfasts were on the menu for everyone as we waited for the sun to come over the hill and spill into the valley. Due to the rain overnight, we were packing up a wet camp, which is never fun, but nothing could be done about it. Chris(S) had to leave early due to pre-existing commitments back in Canberra and with a roof top tent, was packed and on the road in no time. For the rest of us, a leisurely pack up, photo session and brief of the day’s plans before hitting the trail had us out of camp around 1130.
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| Dampier F/T |
The climb out of Bendethera valley on Dampier Fire Trail was fairly typical; steep, a little rocky but no problems. It was clear this track hadn’t been graded like the others we had been on over the weekend. From the valley to Snowball camp ground took around an hour and a half. The creek crossing at Snowball was surprisingly deep, obviously from the rainfalls over the prior weeks, but caused no drama for anyone.
We pulled up in the camp ground for lunch and to air up before heading off on our ways home. Plenty of final photos were snapped, pleasantries exchanged before waving goodbye and hitting old Cooma road. In all a fantastic weekend, shared with a great group of people. Thanks guys, till next time!
Berg
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| Trip Map |
