Tidbinbilla Mountain and The Pimple over the Tidbinbilla Peak cairn

Saturday 13 June: Tidbinbilla Mountain – M/R. Lyrebird Trail, Snowy Corner, Tidbinbilla Mtn, Tidbinbilla Peak, Camel Hump fire trail and return. Map: Tidbinbilla. Leader: Rob H. Transport: $36 per vehicle. (park entry fee may also apply).

9 of us drove in 2 cars to the Mountain Creek car park up the back of the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

Summary

Distance: 9.9km | Climb: 795m | Time: 9.10am-4.00pm (6hrs 50mins), with 50 mins of breaks | Grading: M/R; H(12)

Track Maps

Track

Profile

Photographs

For the first time, I’ve run my photos through a great piece of freeware called GeoSetter. Using the GPSr track, this geotagged the photos before I uploaded them to Google. So if you look in the Photo details for each photo you’ll see a Location in Lat/Lon.

Photographs are available, where you can start a large sized slideshow.

Video

Waypoint and Track Files

Download the .gpx file here. (Right click, Save Link As…, Save – if you want to use it.)
Download the .kml file here.

Track Notes

Another cracker of an early winter day was forecast. Only 0ºC as we drove out to TNR and up the back to the Mountain Creek car park.

Rob gave us the walk briefing and we started along the Lyrebird Trail in an anti-clockwise direction. Stopped at the appropriate point and left the new trail alignment to head up through the bush to pick up the old alignment. A handy little boulder (see photo) on the crest, just before joining the now footpad. Along it for a few hundred metres to the boulder (see photo) which has always marked the bottom of the spur pad, even before the 2003 fires. 1.1km in 25mins to here.

The pad is becoming quite well defined. We puffed up it, the conversation dwindling as we climbed higher. A pause at the seat around half way up with views opening up to the Tidbinbilla Valley below. A couple of yellow tapes and little cairns towards the top of the pad. We pulled up at the cairn on the crest, which I call the Snowy Corner cairn even though it’s a bit south of the map-marked Snowy Corner. The climb was 1.4km in 1hr 15mins, rising 450m. Morning tea #1 was called.

The next leg north through Snowy Corner then NW to Tidbinbilla Mountain is perhaps a (very) little easier than last time. As the regrowth grows taller, perhaps it’s thinning. A pad through the Daviesia pea and one open patch north of Snowy Corner. Heading up towards the Mountain a little cliff-ette got in our way but it was easily negotiated.  A band of Common Shaggy-pea (Oxylobium ellipticum) to be climbed through to reach the treeless top of Tidbinbilla Mountain. Morning tea #2 was called. 1.1km in 1hr 10mins. A chance to engage social media and ring home.

Great views all round!

The next leg was 1.8km in 1hr 10mins, NE to the cairn by SH1556, a couple of hundred metres south of Tidbinbilla Peak. Open going in the saddle NE of Tidders Mountain, a bit scrubby around the knolls on our route. But a developing footpad in places with a few cairns along the way.

Lunch was called. As we were close to the Peak, 3 of us sacrificed a bit of munchy time to pop up there for the view.

We began our descent to the Camel Back Fire Trail right on 2pm. The regrowth on the top half of the route has got no better, according to my mind. Just lots of high wattle regrowth to push through. Navigating with map and compass as usual, Rob hit right on his ‘Boulder’ map spot. A handy reference point. The descent became less severe and the going cleared a little in the bottom half. Some nice trees. The descent was 1.8km in 1hr 30mins.

A 2.1km, 30 minute saunter back down to the cars. Lovely rich calling of Lyrebirds. Apparently TNR is one of the top two places in Australia for the birds to live!

A great day, a great round, great company with new and old friends.

I like Rob’s advice – doing this trip every two years allows one to forget how thick the regrowth is in places!

Party

9 walkers – David C, Cynthia C, Roger H, Rob H (leader), Sam L, Jonathan M, Stewart S, Tim W, me.

Next Saturday’s Walk

Saturday 20 June: Nursery Creek Rock Art – M/M. This is a great walk for those who’d like a little taste of the Namadgi. Walk 2km of the Nursery Swamp Walking Track, a well-formed and well-used track. Next comes about 1.5km on an old footpad, which has become a little overgrown since the 2003 fires, but is still easy to traverse at a slow pace. This gets us to the Nursery Creek aboriginal rock art (and geocache GC1MXV5 Walking in the Landscape). Plenty of time to wander around the site and climb the granite boulders up the back. To return, we cross to the south side of Nursery Creek and pick up the footpad which goes to Rendezvous Creek. This used to be a bridle path and, before that, no doubt an aboriginal pad. But we follow it east back to join the Nursery Swamp Walking Track and return the 2km down to the cars. Around 8km and 330m climb. If desired, there is plenty to explore in the Orroral Valley to make a fuller day, or we could continue along the Nursery Swamp Walking Track to visit one of Australia’s best montane fens. Map: Rendezvous Creek. Leader: John Evans 0417 436 877 john@johnevans.id.au . Transport: ∼$12 per person. Late bookings welcome.
Geocache GC4NQ3X Riverside Camp.