Great Northern Walk - Part 7

Watagan Creek to Watagan Headquarters - Nsw

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Part 7 of an 8 part series

tldr;

41.4km / 12.25h hike, 2 x cars. 1333m ascent

lost twice, ended up finishing the hike after midnight

Logistics

We hired 2 cars for this one. Drove to Watagan Creek (about 1.5hr out of Sydney City) and dropped off most of the hikers. We then drove both the cars to Watagan Headquarters campground, Dropped off one car and returned to Watagan Creek in the remaining car.

All but 2 of us completed this hike, once we got the car from Watagan Headquarters we drove straight back to Sydney

Gear

Trail shoes, about 4L of water, hiking pack with multiple snacks and lunch. Poles, First aide kit, Sunscreen, hiking pants, T-shirt/jacket, GoPro, spare battery and cables and a headlamps(2)

We started this hike at Watagan Creek, and ended up walk towards the east (believing this was correct) we ended up going for kilometres in the wrong direction until we met some people that informed us of this. We then hiked back to the start and as it turns out the start was only a couple of hundred metres from where we parked 😐

Sun setting in the valley

The first part of the track was pretty much up hill, then it was up and down through valleys until we hit the roads and a bunch of farm land. Some you dont want to get too close to! Little did we know that in a few hours we were going to have to climb over farming fences, jump rivers and clamber up 4x4 tracks


Some interesting features on the way

At the crossroads

It all went well until it started to get dark and we decided to stick to the road rather than go up the hill where the Watagan track splits off from Congewai road That turned out to big a fairly big mistake!. First obstancle was a flooded road

Decision point


All flooded out

The last part of this hike into Watagan creek is a 4x4 track and we found it quite dodgy at night. Try and complete it in the daytime if possible

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