2010 Budawangs - Quiltys Mountain

Day 0 - Friday

After we finally pulled ourselves away from the MLC 10 party being hosted in the office, we were on the road at about 5:30pm. Phillip had to re-pack his gear into a larger pack, and I had to submit my footy tips before we could leave civilization :)

There were a few spots of rain on the way to Sassafras, but now that most of the road has been sealed, it didn't impact our drive very much. We arrived at a re-arranged gate at about 7:00pm. The normal ope/close gate policy ensured it was another 20 minutes before we reached the car park. Since we were camping a short way down the track, we packed all the car camping gear onto our trolley, and set off down the hill.

The night proved to be a good one, with only some light rain interfering with what was a great pot of chilli and great camp fire chatter. Doug arrived around 10:30pm, and we all retired for the night at around midnight.

Day 1 - Saturday

The morning was very cold, with many frozen digits slowing up the morning activities. With breakfast out of the way, tents packed up, the enthusiastic bunch set off down the trail at a bit before 9:00am.

The weather was much better today with clear skies and only a slight breeze.

The trail up to Newhaven Gap was long and pounding on the feet, but we pushed on without a break until just inside the Newhaven Gap gate. A well earned morning tea at this stage, which was around 11:00am.

From here, we found the going much easier with much more interesting flora around us. We stopped for a short time at the Camp Rock Creek to fill up our water bottles, and to debate the use of a dead yabbie as a possible meat substitute for tonights dinner! We conclude that the yabbie would be better off left on the river bank for the locals :)

We continued along the trail into The Vines, and turned up the trail towards Quiltys Mountain around midday. The going from here was quite slow, with packs coming off a number of times as we clambered up the steep trail to the top of the mountain. Once there, we spent some time looking over the amazing Bora ground while eating lunch.

After lunch, we made the decision that we would camp in the local area, and so leave pack here while we head off to find Endricks Trig point. We set off at around 1:45. The trail was easy enough for the first 20-30 minutes, but then turned very overgrown. Navigation was not too bad, we just tried to stick to the ridge line as much as possible. This didn't make things much easier, but we were confident that we were at least heading in the right direction!

We finally reached the trig point at a little after 3:00pm (which was a little after our 'turn around' time, but we were so close we had to get there!!). The trig point is quite traditional, with a large pile of rocks holding up a piece of timber with some tin nailed to it. We rested a while before turning back and toward The Bora ground and our camp for the night.

We made quite good time on the way back and arrived at camp around 4:30pm. We did manage to walk a little further than required, but I'm pretty sure it was an easier walk than the way out!

We found a good spot to camp, although it was on sheet rock so no pegs for the tents! We spread out a bit though, and we all managed to find reasonable location to pitch for the night. We collected up some fire wood and laid back for a few hours while having dinner and watching the amazing star show above us.

The evening was cooling off, but not too much. Fortunately the fire kept us warm, until the fire wood ran out around 8:30pm, which signalled time to retire for the night :)

Day 2 - Sunday

Todays plan was simple, pack up and head back to the car. We were all up by 7:30am, but to a casual hour or so for breakfast and pack up. We left the mountain around 9:00am in the end and set off back to The Vines bellow. Walking down Quiltys Mountain is definitely easier than walking up it!

We made good time though, as the weather was still pretty good. We stopped eventually at Bhundoo Hill for lunch around 1:30pm, and a well earned rest!

From there, we continued back to the first nights campsite, packed up the gear there and head back to the car. We arrived at the car just before 3:00pm, and after the traditional end of walk beer, we head back to civilization.