Lunch views to the wild heart of Namadgi from the Boboyan slabs

Saturday 21 June: Blatant Boboyan Bounty – L/E-M. Geocache down the Boboyan Rd – walking too! (1) A quick stop at the lookout just past the Orroral Rd turnoff. (2) Scramble up a tor overlooking the Boboyan Rd. (3) 1.5km amble up a knoll above the road. (4) ~13km walk to the Rendezvous Creek rock art site. (5) ~2km walk along the start of the south Brandy Flat FT to a very strange cache. (6) 4km return walk on the Yerrabi Walking Track to Boboyan trig and marvelous views to the hills at the heart of Namadgi National Park. (7) Shanahans Mountain Walking Track 3km. Total ~24km and 750m climb. Maps: Michelago, Rendezvous Creek, Yaouk and Colinton. Leader: John Evans 0417 436 877, john@johnevans.id.au . Book by Friday morning. Limit: 8. Transport: ~$12 per person. Further details at www.johnevans.id.au/wp/. Emergency contact details must be registered/provided to book.

9 of us drove in 2 vehicles to stop at various places down the Boboyan Road.

Summary

Distance: 16.9km | Climb: 560m | Time: 8.00am-3.40pm (7hrs 40mins), with 50 mins of breaks and some driving between | Grading: L/E-M; M(10)

Track Maps

Track overview

Walk 1

Walks 2 and 5

Walk 3

Walk 4

Photographs

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

Google Earth

Download the Google Earth .kmz file here.

Track Notes

Walk 1

We started off gently with a 10m (yes, that’s 10 metres) walk from the cars parked at the lookout just S of the Orroral Rd turnoff to introduce the muggles to geocaching. BlackLotusEater and I logged GC2KFTV Ringwraith Boboyan.

Walk 2

Next, parked at the Rendezvous Creek Walk car park, a not so pleasant walk in the cold shade and light frost along the very pleasant Rendezvous Creek Walk to bag GC3R2W9 Meet me here. Great to have another cacher in the party and another 7 sets of muggle eyes. We hastened along the walk and over the upstream bridge to get out into the sun. The temperature and our mood increased remarkably. A pleasant stroll up the grasslands to join the old vehicle track, on up past the landing ground (marked on the 1st edn Rendezvous Creek 1:25000 topo map and so to the Rowleys Rendezvous Creek Hut site. Another kilometre up the valley had us in sight of the massive tors on the NE ridge near SH1403, so we propped in the sun on some granite for morning tea. Continuing on, but turning too early (as one often does), we made a scrubby approach to the rock art. A new location for many in the party and we stood back with respect – not only for the significance of the place to indigenous people, but for the fragile environment and because of the large crack in the rock above the entrance! A couple of us nipped round the back and logged GC4J94Y Don’t Panic! The Rock Art is Back! A much more elegant exit from the area back down to the open valley floor. Strolled down the valley, with a visit to the Rowleys Rendezvous Creek stockyard and Robinia grove. Continued our ramble across the old landing ground and so back to the upstream bridge. Here we rejoined the Walking Track and completed the loop over the downstream bridge and along the walk back to the cars. A couple of misty showers as we returned. 12.2km in a gentle 3hrs 55mins, including morning tea and a poke about the various sites.

Walk 3

We next drove further S down the Boboyan Rd to the car park at the start of the Yerrabi Track. A pleasant ramble. New signage where the track crosses Little Dry Creek. A bit cool as it clouded over, so we appreciated the climb up to Boboyan trig to warm us up. The dedicated cachers logged GC55AVW Basil’s Boboyan Beginner’s Bounce and we all strolled onto collect the facts and figures for GC1GJ18 Boboyan Batholith. Then down to the granite slabs, more new signage, fabulous views to the central hills of the Namadgi and lunch. Returned back along the track. 3.5km in 1hr 40mins, including 30min lunch.

Walk 4

We drove back N to the Brandy Flat South car park and, suitably equipped as I’d visited this cache previously, we made the 460m journey to GC47429 Cold Cache WP1. With some work (as suggested in the cache instructions) to increase the surface area of the equipment I’d brought, the show got underway. JohnnyBoy ACT and his lovely assistant put on a marvellous act, with BlackLotusEater ready to record. The countdown began and assembled muggles were impressed. However, I believe that there was some malfunction in the on-site equipment and we couldn’t claim a log. I will have to negotiate with the cache owner. Returned.

PS. Contacted the cache owner who very generously explained that the co-ordinates of the final GZ had been collected by us (plus a bit more information). So at some stage I’ll have to return a third time to log the final GZ.

Walk 5

As a final salute to these crazy cache owners, we stopped at a layby as we drove N along the Boboyan Rd, underneath some large granite tors. Several muggles chose to remain with the vehicles and photograph the triumph, whilst a few of us scrambled up and made the log of GC3RB67 Namadgi Drive-by.

Great day, walking and fun. Several in the party had not been down this way. Nice to have Peter join us from Sydney and Carolyn from Canberra.

Party

9 walkers – Cynthia C, John J, Sally P, Llewellyn S-P, Phillip S, Venugopal T, Carolyn V, Peter V, me.