YARRAMUN CREEK – OCTOBER 2011
Mt Wilson > Wollangambe River > unnamed spur & ridge > Yarramun Creek > Yarramun Cave > unnamed side creek > unnamed spur and ridges > Wollangambe River > Unnamed fire trail > Mt Wilson
Oliver C had talked about going back to Yarramun Cave for quite a while now and Jeff and I said that we’d go with him, Geoff S joined us for the trip. Oliver had made the trip sound very straight forward, for goodness sake, he’d taken Scouts there years ago, if Scouts could do it, it couldn’t be that hard. Right? Well, maybe there’d been a fire through the area before he took the Scouts, because if I’d had Scouts with me on this trip, I’d have turned back! All but one of the photos have not survived the passage of time, and as I recall, not many were taken, we were too busy trying to survive the trip!
This was the second time in 12 months Jeff had done this trip and he says whilst both times where an adventure with good company, if anyone sees this trip on the calendar again please give him a call to remind him not to go unless it has been cleared out by a fire in the 12 months prior.
We positioned a vehicle at Farrers (Road) fire trail then went back to Cathedral Camp Ground at Mt Wilson and by 7.45am we were heading up the Wollangambe 2 Exit track, coming across quite a few trees over the track from previous high winds in the area. We then peeled off down a gully to our access point on the Wollangambe with the intention of crossing to our pass on the other side. It was here that Oliver, being the smartest one of the party, decided to turn back due to the thickness of the scrub. We saw him back up the gully, debated whether to continue on and decided that we were there, we may as well complete the trip.
By the time we found the pass and got to the top of the ridge on the other side, it was evident to Jeff how much growth had occurred in 10 months of rain and sunshine. There were many moments when we considered turning back only to be followed by a comment (usually from Jeff) such as, “it thins out soon” or “it’s not much further” or “the side creek on the way out is really nice”, so with sheer determination we battled on.
It was close to dusk when we made the decision to drop off the ridge early so we could (hopefully) find our way down the cliff line and to the creek before dark as we were all getting close to being out of water. Some 30 minutes later when the opportunity presented itself we took advantage of the tape we carried and dropped down into the creek, right on dusk. With that achieved we made our way down Yarramun Creek in the dark with head torches. We almost passed our camp cave which was gratefully spotted by eagle-eyed, dry-booted Geoff Spence. 
Fortunately the cave came with a supply of dry wood (kudos here to those bushwalkers who use firewood in the cave and then replace it! you have no idea how grateful we were), ample flat ground and even shelves for our gear which made it all very easy to set up, a bonus as it was now 8pm.
The plan was to get up at day break and get an early start but a sleep-in until 6am saw us leave camp at around 7.30am. We headed downstream to our side creek which was to lead us out. Geoff still had dry boots until we came to the pool that Oliver mentioned we had to swim (Jeff had forgotten about this compulsory swim), we negotiated our way through the neck deep pool with packs over our heads and up the small climb through a tangle of trees. We all agreed that the side creek was very pleasant with a couple of wades and a few climb ups, very canyon-like.
There was a bit of stuffing around when we mistook a “gully” for a side creek, and spent considerable time and trouble trying to get through the cliff line, climbing up a few levels only to find that the route wasn’t negotiable.
At 11.30am we took a break and reviewed the situation. It was getting late and as we were unsure of the pass up through the cliff-line we couldn’t stuff around indefinitely and end up too far away from water, we reviewed how much food we had and then decided that if we didn’t find the pass by 1pm (up on the top it would be a 6-hour trip back to the cars) then we’d simply turn around, go back to the cave, spend the night there and then retrace yesterday’s steps (on a route we knew). Now that we had a plan in mind, we decided to explore a little further upstream. And there it was, the route that Jeff recognised from the last trip, we were finally up through the cliff-line and on to the ridge. It was close to 1pm by this time so we were on a mission to get back to the cars, which we expected to take 6 hours.
The navigation was tricky at times and we all took turns at following a compass bearing and bashing through the scrub, we were down on the Wollangambe at the horseshoe bend at (OGR) 597 923 at 6.15 pm and finally arrived back at the cars at 7.30pm.
I think I might have commented on the way home, “I’ve done this now, I never have to come back here again” and “this walk had no redeeming qualities whatsoever”.
But then, 48 hours later, I’m thinking last Sunday wasn’t as bad as all that. I have a great idea for another adventure. I’ll take the time to mark the track down to the Wollangambe and up the other side to the top of the ridge (should only take a weekend of camping down on the river and will cut an hour of route finding off the trip).
We then take a couple of 30m ropes and our harnesses, abseil gear and overnight packs and abseil into one of those two creeks that look very “canyon-like”. We do the canyon down to the end of the creek and stay overnight in the cave, then go up and do another canyon on day two and walk out on day 3, sounds like a good long weekend eh?
I emailed Jeff and Geoff, but they seemed less than enthusiastic, maybe they needed more than 48 hours to forget about the scrub!