IMPORTANT: Pay close attention to the data contained in this description. They may be incomplete or outdated. The paths may undergo variations over time due to bad weather, fires or simply the change of seasons. Check in the comments if anyone has made any reports or recommend any changes.
EXCURSION DATE: Jan 2020
ELEVATION GAIN: 1063m ish
LENGHT: 26km
DIFFICULTY: hard
SIGNS: few to get to the gorge, then none till you get to the ridge and you will find some crains
TIME: overnight (14hours)
SUGGESTED GEAR:
- beacon
- GPS
- compass
- map
- trekking poles
- hiking boots
PERIOD: all year round
STARTING POINT: Car park Nattai Road w11e
DESCRIPTION OF THE TRACK:
….that was an hard track!!! And I was very glad I wasnt on my own. Infact with me there was Rachel, founder of the Sydney’s Hiking Women Fb group.
….thats an hard track!!! And I was very glad I wasn’t on my own. In fact with me there was Rachel, founder of the Sydney’s Hiking Women Fb group.
You will think…It’s only 21km how can it be so hard?
Being a loop, we started our descend taking the right hand side and camped by the river at the bottom of the Russell needle. The trail is pretty difficult to navigate and it is pretty easy to get the wrong tracks. Took us around 1.5h to get to the river from the car park, where we had a dip and lunch. From there we walked along the river was pretty stunning, but be prepared for multiple river crossing… Don’t be silly like me… sometimes is easier to remove your boots instead of falling in water because you try to jump on rocks and logs. I ended up with a wet bump ahha. Few hours later, and a dry bump (finally) we made it to the bottom of Russell needle, we set camp, left the backpacks and we started our way to the peak…it was 2.5km to the peak, there is no obvious way to get to the top and we opted to scramble over the ridge with a 45m/km pace, so 1km up and we realized it was getting dark and we decided (thankfully) to abort the mission and attempt on the day after. Sometimes hikers (me included) we think we can achieve peaks and putting ourself in danger.
The morning after we decided after a dip, we started out 3h journey to the top!
This time instead of scrambling the ridge we decided to stick to the river system, and at the end we finally saw some cranes and we knew we finally made it…took us another 30min to reach the summit…where we felt unbeatable!
We scramble and bushbashed our way down to camp, where we packed out and started our way to back. We thought the hardest part was gone, BUT going back up with 15kg on our shoulders and 37degrees took us 3.5hrs to do 4.5km. When we got to the fire trail we were cooked. We coulndt feel our legs feet and shoulders.
The hike is beautiful, but very remote and challenging, I don’t recommend this hike unless you are very good at navigation and quite fit.
And be prepared for a real adventure! Scramble, slip and slides are happening every minute.
Have you done this walk? Please, let me know your thoughts and if I have missed something!
