Bushwalking Index
Bushwalking Index 
Paradise Rocks in the distance.
Photo: Don Hitchcock April 2006
The camping area is a beautifully presented and maintained area beside the Apsley.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
This possum is so tame, it seems likely that visitors feed it. This is a very poor idea, the animals need to fend for themselves to stay fit and healthy and disease free.
Photo: Don Hitchcock July 2006
Often called a canoe tree, this is actually a coolamon (carrying dish) tree within the camping area at the bottom of the four wheel drive track beside the Apsley River. The bark was carved out using a flint axe, or after white contact, a steel tomahawk.
From Wikipedia:
A coolamon is a multi-purpose shallow vessel, or dish with curved sides, ranging in length from 30–70cm, and similar in shape to a canoe.
Coolamons were traditionally used by Aboriginal women to carry water, fruits, nuts, as well as to cradle babies. Today when women gather bush tucker, they usually use a billy can, bucket or flour tin. Coolamons were carried on the head when travelling any distance, or under the arm if used as a cradle. If carried on the head, a ring pad was placed on the head, made out of possum and/or human hair string, twisted grass, or feathers.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Heading upstream, the way is made easier by cattle tracks. If I had my way, the New South Wales National Parks and Wild Life Service, NPWS, would use cattle or horses to keep tracks open along the gorges. Properly managed, horses would be ideal, as they find and maintain tracks which are higher (that is, they nip off overhanging vegetation) than those cattle maintain, and horses are more willing to gain a few metres of altitude in order to shave a lot of distance off the journey. Although this is a National Park, there are many wild cattle in the area. NPWS is doing its best to eliminate them. I hope they don't succeed completely, it would make walking in the gorges much more difficult.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Paradise Rocks on the horizon.
In general Casuarina trees dominate the riverside, together with some Melaleuca and occasional Ficus rubiginosa, with Eucalyptus and Angophora further up the gorge walls and on the river flats.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
The way often leads through forests of Casuarina and Melaleuca and other species, sometimes with Lianas.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
The Apsley is a beautiful clean river, with many delightful vistas, and at this point it is very easy to go upstream.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
The Apsley is a fast flowing river, and there are many camp sites which could be used on its banks.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Crossing the river is easy, the crossings are wide and relatively fast flowing, but shallow unless there has been recent rain and the levels are up, in which case I would pull the plug and go home. It is a very dangerous river in flood, and I know of at least one grave on its banks (image on right, downstream of Budds Mare, December 2005) of a stockman who drowned while crossing the Apsley on a horse during a wet period.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Australia must be the ant capital of the world, though I've heard that Africa comes close. There are staggering numbers of species of ants here. This "ant nest" is the tailings formed from the gravel that has been excavated by ants beneath the surface.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Paradise Rocks dominates the skyline for many kilometres along the course of the river.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
After a series of false alarms, finally in the late afternoon I reached the junction of Green Gully Creek (coming in here from the left) with the Apsley. Looking upstream.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Looking across Green Gully creek flowing from right to left. It does not always have as much water in it as in this photograph.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Camped for the night between Green Gully Creek and the Apsley.
I made this tent from Kmart shower curtains (70 gm per m²), and it served me well for many years. It was the second of the series of KiloBeater™ tents I have made, specifically designed to come in under one kilogram. In this case I simply set up the carbon fibre pole in an arc, then draped the fabric over it, cutting and shaping as necessary. It turns out that less than half of a tent is the waterproof bit. Net, zippers, tapes, cords, poles, pegs all add to the final weight. Any improvement almost always results in more weight.
The tent had a bridal veil insect net and a floor of shower curtain material inside, as well as one side as a vestibule. It worked well, and weighed 880 gm total including pegs and pole, and packed up into a very small package. Small volume is almost as important as small weight when designing bushwalking equipment. I make my own tents, sleeping bags, raincoats, stoves, stove supports, carbon fibre poles and pegs, backpacks, warm hats, gaiters, ditty bags, pack liners and so on. Not because I can't afford commercial versions, (I have spent thousands on equipment and materials over the last few years) but because mine are either better for the purpose, or lighter, or less volume.
However this version was a very reliable tent, and survived rain and hail storms, though I had to repair it once when a large rock fell on it and made a big rent in it, fortunately when I was having a cup of turkish coffee outside at the time, when I was unwillingly benighted in the Dangars Falls gorge. That is a story that needs a long time to tell, and a trip that shaved several years off my life .......
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
The lightest tent is the classic bushwalker's fly, with nothing but a piece of string and a rectangular film of waterproof substance, but using it involves compromises. I have used a 160 gram painter's polythene drop sheet, eight foot by ten foot, a length of "Spectra" (150 kg breaking strain) cord from sailing supply stores strung between trees and been totally dry in a three inch downpour down the gorges.
But you have to find trees or bush poles (usually fallen eucalypt twigs or branches) to support the cord, and rocks to hold the sides down, and if there is wind, the rain comes in both ends, though usually not enough to matter, but the wind can shake the whole transparent edifice alarmingly. The plastic used in drop sheets is quite tough and stretchy, however, and does not usually fail. In any case, there is usually little wind down the gorges. It would not be suitable for an exposed site, obviously.
Photo: Don Hitchcock September 2006
If you use Silnylon, it comes out at about 370 gm, and if you shape it so that no rain can get in (above left and left), and include the cord and carbon fibre pegs and buckles and webbing and a couple of strips of reflective tape to find it in the dark, and my version is 450 gm. Add a 50 gm space blanket (aluminised Mylar sheet) as a ground sheet and you are up to 500 gm total.
Because of the Silnylon construction, it packs down into an amazingly small volume, and is an inherently strong design, more so than any other tent I've made. The Spectra cord and webbing for the ridge is arranged in two attached but waterproofed with respect to each other sections above and below the fly so that water cannot dribble through to the inside of the tent, despite the sloping ridge line. This is the tent I'd prefer to be in if a rain and wind storm hit.
Photo: Don Hitchcock June 2006, October 2006
These days I use "no-see-um" mesh for an insect screen, and Silnylon, (50 gm per m²) which is very light and totally waterproof for the fly and floor. Silnylon is made by impregnating a thin woven nylon fabric with liquid silicone from both sides. This makes it strong for its weight and waterproof, but not breathable. You must use special silicone seam sealer, I use McNett Silnet Silicone Seam Sealer and it is a good idea to tape the seams on the inside with a long strip of Silnylon you have cut from your waste, then put seam sealer down, press the strip of Silnylon on the sealer, and press and rub down to eliminate air bubbles. Do a short section at a time, the sealer dries quickly. Taping with this method is easy to do, and makes the seam stronger and totally waterproof.
This tent, with carbon fibre pole, more room than the shower curtain tent, better weather protection, better insect mesh and better tapes and pegs, comes in at 850 gm total.
Photo: Don Hitchcock August 2006
One of the delights of bushwalking is having a fire at night. It is a very satisfying thing to do. Casuarina needles make excellent firestarters, and the wood burns well to a white ash.
The best wood for a cooking fire is Angophora, or rough barked apple, Angophora floribunda in this area. It is hard to get started in large pieces, but burns down to long lasting red hot coals.
However it is unwise to camp beneath an Angophora, because they drop heavy branches without warning.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
First sunlight on the east facing gorge wall.
Another thing I find without peer is to wake up in the morning before daylight, lean out of the tent and make a cup of turkish coffee, and complete breakfast in bed, all without leaving my sleeping bag.
At first light, the kookaburra starts laughing, and later the magpie begins its "oogle-argle-oogle" call. But by then I am usually packed up and on my way.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
On the return trip.
Looking downstream, the Apsley on the left, Green Gully Creek on the right. Green Gully Creek is not usually as full as this, and often dries up completely, and is a much smaller stream than the Apsley, though it does not look it in this photo.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
On the return trip.
Paradise Rocks. It is interesting the different perspectives you see on the return journey, sometimes it seems like a different walk altogether.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
On the return trip.
It is not easy to take a self portrait when you walk alone, as I mostly do! Here I set up the camera on a convenient rock, and splashed back into the water.
I've got the map in my shirt pocket, and I often pick up a stick for crossing creeks and rivers, though not usually for walking, except going up hills, where a couple of sticks helps a lot, especially on a made dirt track.
The water in the Apsley is usually as clear as crystal. If it turns muddy, be prepared for a sudden rise in water level.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
On the return trip.
Paradise Rocks, the other side.
Photo: Don Hitchcock November 2004
Starting up the ridge.
Photo: Don Hitchcock April 2006
Along the way we found these prickly pear fruit. They are good to eat, but the prickles are hard to avoid.
Photo: Don Hitchcock April 2006
It was an 800 metre climb, and the views were spectacular, but the wind was ferocious.
Photo: Don Hitchcock April 2006
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