Sylvesters Lookout to Mt. Castle

Campsite on Mt. Castle

Date: 1 August - 2 August 2011

Walkers: Tom and Myself

Notes:
Day 1
Well I promised in my previous post from Hole in the Wall that I'd be back to this area soon. Wasn't sure it would be this soon, but Tom was heading off overseas this weekend for 6 months so I thought this would be a great place to take him as a fairwell.

Using my experiences from the last trip I decided to concentrate on the best bits from that walk and add in the trip to Mt. Castle. This walk was also recommended to me by some posters from the Bushwalking Australia Forums and avoids any access issues. The only downside being that the car journey in to Goomburra and on to Sylvesters Lookout takes a bit longer.

We arrived at the lookout by about 10:30 in the morning and after doing a bit of repacking got on the trail by about 11. The steep section after Sylvesters lookout wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered. Probably due to it being at the start of the walk rather than after 8 hours of bush bashing. We once again detoured to the old Sylvesters Lookout, however this time ventured out to the tip of the rocky spur through a clump of massive spear lillies and was rewarded with a more expansive and unobstructed view.

View from Old Sylvesters Lookout

See the notes from the previous walk for more details about the track up till Laidly Creek Falls Campsite and on to Hole in the Wall. We took the direct ridge route to HITW again and having a second person this time meant we were able to get some action shots.

First Downclimb Section

Negotiating the Ledge above HITW

We reached HITW in around 2 hours and stopped there to enjoy the view and to eat lunch in the shade. The temperatures were surprisingly hot and reached 30 degrees in the middle of the day. From there we decided to follow the ridgeline as much as possible and between HITW and Boar's Head there was only one section where we had to deviate from the ridge line.

Ridge After HITW

Tricky Downclimb Before Boar's Head

Before long we arrived at the minor peak of Boar's Head where there were great views in all directions. From this point the track headed downhill again but still following the ridge which by this stage was wider and even had room for numerous cow pats from adventurous bovines making the trek from the paddocks below. I was once again amazed at the number of spear lillies that cover the cliffs in this area, some of which even had some huge flower stems seen below.

Spear Lilly Flower

Tom Vs Spear Lilly

The ridge soon narrowed to a razorback where we attempted to stick to the ridgeline. Once again there was only a single section that we had to bypass to the right because of a large step up in the ridge before we reached the base of the cliffs that line Mt. Castle. From here we traversed North under the cliffs until we reached a break where it was possible to start heading up-hill towards the peak. This was a steep grassy slope broken up by a couple more rock scrambles but before long we had reached the ridge and then the peak.

The campsite was located directly on the main peak of Mt. Castle and was padded with grass and broken up by some small gums and grass trees. It had an amazing view to the East however, care was taken not to venture too far in this direction because of the size and sheerness of the cliffs here.

Mt. Castle Campsite

After setting up camp we went for a wander down the ridge to the South of the campsite towards the cliffs that we had reached the base of previously. The ridge here extended out to a narrow pinnacle with amazing views back along the Eastern face of Mt. Castle. Great care needed to be taken along this section though as the drops on either side were significant.

Looking Along the Southern Ridge at Sunset

Tom En Route to the Pinnacle

Myself Negotiating the Narrowest Section of the Ridge

View Towards Mt. Castle from the Pinnacle

Overnight we were terrorised by some small critter and after apparently not learning from our Conondale walk that small critters enjoy nibbling on silicone we awoke to Tom's Sea to Summit collapsable bowl and cup completely torn to shreds and my water bladder drink tube with a hole through it. These annoyances were far outweighed however by the views we got to the East with the early morning fog sitting in the valleys below.

View to the East from the Campsite

View Towards Mt. Edwards with Fog

View North-East from the Campsite

Day 2
We were soon packed up and back on our way. We decided to follow the track notes and take what we thought would be a more gradual route down by heading North to the Mt. Castle saddle then skirting back around. In the end this route was harder to follow and if you weren't careful you could easily end up lower on the mountain than intended. In hindsight we should have just gone back the way we had come up.

From there we back tracked along our route to HITW where we once again took advantage of the shade. We then decided to take the waterfall route back to the Laidley Ck Campsite for a bit of a change. This was definitely worth a look with the large cliffs leading to the waterfall crossing. There was only a trickle of water here and we were careful about where we walked on the slippery rocks. Although, there was a large enough shelf for this to not be too dangerous.

Cliffs leading up to Laidly Ck. Falls

The scramble back up to the campsite was reasonably steep but easy to follow. From here we re-traced our route back to the carpark. One highlight along this section was spotting a massive wedge-tailed eagle soaring overhead. Overall the distance travelled was at the shorter end of the scale but the views and scrambling make this a very memorable walk.

Cunningham's Gap to Hole in the Wall

Laidley Valley & Mt. Castle

Date: 9 July - 10 July 2011

Walkers: Myself

Notes:

Day 1 

I wanted to get off track for a change after not having done anything like this since our Lost World walk last year. So after getting ideas from my trusty Take a Walk book I decided on Cunningham’s Gap on the Main Range as my starting point. I would follow the range North as far as I could in a day and at that stage the idea was to head back the way I’d come. As usual though, things didn’t all go according to plan.

The forecast for the weekend was COLD. BOM was predicting negative temperatures for Ipswich and that is what we awoke to on Saturday morning. The temperature gauge hanging from the car read just above -4 when I wiped the ice off it at 5AM. We set off soon after and after watching the sun rise on our way we arrived at Aratula for breakfast just after 6. Another 45 minutes and we were at the car park on top of the range and I managed to get going just before 7.

Sunrise over the Moogerah Peaks

The first section of the route was via the Mt. Cordeau and Bare Rock marked track and I covered this first 6KM within an hour and a half. From this point the pace slowed significantly as the track all but disappeared. The track notes were fairly vague and I found the small details they did give not very useful as it was hard to gauge distance covered or to find some of the landmarks mentioned.

Is there a track in there?

Climbing Vine

Large trees and crows nests were the highlight from this section

My general advice would be to keep track of the edge of the Eastern escarpment and not to stray too far from it in most cases. Sometimes foot pads could be found on the narrower ridges which was a godsend. However, as soon as you found one and got up some speed there would be a tree fall and it would disappear amongst the vines and foliage brought down from the tops.

The one feature that was hard to miss was the rocky spring fed creek. Despite earlier creek’s being dry this one still had a reasonable trickle so I filled up an extra litre of water here. There weren’t any obvious spots for lunch and in the end I left it too late to stop; I felt the effects of this throughout the afternoon. 

After slogging up the final two or three peaks of the ridge I eventually made it to Sylvesters lookout by about 3 in the afternoon. I collapsed here for about half an hour before convincing myself to get up otherwise I wasn’t going to make it to camp before dark. The track leading to Laidley Ck. Falls and Hole in the Wall left from just before the lookout platform and was a much more defined foot pad than the previous section.

After descending slightly to a rocky gully the track rose steeply until it came to an obvious junction where an off shoot headed off to the right to the old Sylvesters Lookout. Despite the track notes describing the views as poor I thought it was well worth the small detour. The views back down the range were spectacular.

Once I rejoined the main track there was some more uphill before finally reaching the top of the ridge and subsequently descending all the way down the other side. This section travelled through some less dense eucalypt forest with shoulder high ferns often hiding the track in front of me. Once again my advice here is to keep closer to the escarpment than not. There was a large tree fall that blocked what looked like it used to be the track heading more directly down the ridge. After one more knee crushing muddy down-hill section I finally reached the camp site just before 5 and just in time to set up camp before dark.

Large gum trees surviving on an exposed ridge

This section of the ridge was exposed to the strong Westerly

Day 2

My campsite at Laidley Ck. Falls

Overnight, the temperature didn’t reach the minimum’s that had been predicted by the bureau. Instead it only reached about 4 degrees. The wind did change direction at one point but overall the campsite was well protected from the 50km/h Westerly’s I’d experienced the day before (yes this was my first trip using my little Brunton weather station).

After my experiences of day 1 I decided that if possible I’d much rather not do the section from Bare Rock to Sylvesters lookout again. Luckily there was plenty of phone reception and I was able to organize my pickup to detour to Goomburra Valley instead of the gap and I would try to be back at the lookout by around 1PM.

I still hoped to get out to Hole in the Wall before heading back to the lookout so I followed the notes advice and headed North-West from the campsite on one of the obvious foot pads heading out of the campsite. I soon found Laidley Creek which had a very small trickle of water flowing. There were numerous foot pads in this area and it soon became quite confusing which one was the correct one. I eventually ended up at the cliff face at the top of the falls looking out towards the valley and Mt. Castle. It was obvious that this wasn’t the route described in the notes and I was running out of time so decided to just head for the main ridge and see what the not-so-recommended direct route was like.

I reached the tip of the main ridge quickly where I was greeted with amazing views down the Laidley Valley, across to Mt. Castle, out over the Moogerah Peaks and back along the Main Range. The track continued to the edge of a drop off which after closer inspection proved to be the way down. There was an indentation in the small cliff line with plenty of foot and hand holds. An obvious foot pad then continued through a small patch of trees before reaching another small drop off negotiated by down climbing a wide crack.

View back down the range and towards Moogerah Peaks & Mt. Barney

From here the ridge narrowed significantly and become a rocky razorback only a metre or two across and sometimes less. Before long I reached a very narrow section which after inspecting more closely turned out to be the top of Hole in the Wall. I carefully crossed this section and found a way down off the ridge top not too much further on. Hole in the Wall was just that, a picturesque hollowed out section of the ridge with amazing views in all directions.

Razorback ridge looking towards Boar's Head

Looking back the way I'd come. You can see the large crack mentioned above

A particularly narrow section of the ridge

More Ridge

Masses of spear lillies colonising the cliff faces

Hole in the Wall from above

It's a hole in the wall

Laidley Valley through HITW

After taking some photos and having a snack I shuffled off back the way I had come. In the end I had plenty of time to reach the lookout which allowed me time to take it easy on the up and down hill sections. I reached the road by about 11:40 and started heading down it towards the Goomburra camp ground. Half an hour later my ride appeared from around the bend and I was whisked back to civilization.

Self Portrait

Overall this was a great adventure with my favourite bits being the views and rock scrambling on the second day. I’m already planning another trip heading to Mt. Castle in the not too distant future so stay tuned.