This walk was organised and led by Mike B as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:

Tuesday 22 December: Rendezvous Ck/Nursery Swamp - M/M. Circular 15 km walk up from Orroral Valley (Nursery Swamp car park), across to and down Rendezvous Creek. Climb saddle between spot heights 1351 and 1337 to southern end of Nursery Swamp. Follow Nursery Creek upstream to complete walk. During the walk we will try to locate several sites of significance. 500m total climb. Map: Rendezvous Creek 1:25000. Leader: Mike B mcbremers@optusnet.com.au. Transport: $40 per car, $10-16 per person.

6 of us drove in 2 cars to the Nursery Swamp car park. Sad to see the recently vandalised Orroral camping ground amenities block.

Further Information

Next Tuesday’s walk has been amended and the following comes from Mike B:

The forecast for Tuesday is: ‘Mostly sunny. Min 14 Max 33’. Therefore, unless the forecast changes significantly for the better I am thinking of shortening the walk to only look for the first site of significance (grinding grooves) along Rendezvous Ck and then return the same way that we came in. That way the walk can be completed by lunchtime and allows for some extra searching time if necessary. Also, the second site of significance in the Nursery Swamp area is probably going to be difficult to find because we don't have a precise location and we don't really know what it looks like so its best left for another day when more time could be spent in the area. The shortened walk would be 11km, involve a total climb of 400m and would take about 4 hours. The plan would be to start walking by about 8am and finish by about lunchtime. The walk could be extended a bit to include the Nursery Ck Rock Art site on the return leg if there is enough interest.

Photographs

Access all primary pics here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.

Walk

track

A 4.7km jaunt in 1.5hrs up the Nursery Swamp Walking Track, then across the taped footpad and down to Rendezvous Creek. The usual great view up to the slabs on the NE flank of Mt Herlt (I still haven't been there yet). I wonder what the little bridge over Rendezvous Creek originally looked like - only the rails remain. With a leisurely pace, there was plenty of time for morning tea #1.
	1 Mt Herlt from Rendezvous Creek crossing	Remains of bridge over Rendezvous Creek

We next followed the old vehicle track SE and paralleling the creek for 1km to the edge of the open flats. The track ends at a little creek flowing down from the SW. There must have been another little bridge here, as the creek bottom is packed with a number of cross logs.

Mike's aim was to search Rendezvous Creek for an interesting site that he saw on a walk 15 years ago, so we turned left and made our way down to Rendezvous Creek. We began making our way upstream. Some nice little rocky areas with the water gurgling down in places; at other spots blackberries are beginning to take over. Turning about at one stage, a nice view down the creek line and up to Mt Herlt.

2 Mt Herlt from Rendezvous Creek

Unfortunately no joy and we eventually arrived back at the taped crossing place. Enjoyed morning tea #2.

We wandered back up to the saddle, along a bit, then turned NE across Nursery Creek to another interesting site. The stop there could even have been morning tea #3. Nautical themes in the granite.
	3 The bow of a granite ship bearing down on us in the bush near Nursery Creek	Nursery Swamp aboriginal rock art

A footpad from here took us back to the Nursery Swamp Walking Track at the saddle, then that track back to the cars.

A nice pre-Christmas stroll, thanks Mike. And Janet E, Jenny H, Karen C, Stephen M.

Distance: 11.5km  Climb: 450m.  Time: 7.45am - 12.25pm (4hrs40mins), with 30mins of stops.
Grading: M/M; M(9)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Rendezvous Creek