Mount Dawson Cave

 

Date: 19-20 September 2020

Participants: SUBW and me

 

Day 1:

 

A cave outlooking Wollemi wildnerness 

This week's bushwalking trip is with SUBW again! Today I walked with a new trip leader, Nam Giang. However, the one who did the leading was Andrew since he has been there before. The day started early for me, since I have to meet Suhail, another guy on the trip, at Penrith station at 6:30 am. I was very excited to do this trip because it was canceled before.

We arrived at Newnes campground at about 10:am after meeting with everyone else in Lithgow Maccas. The walk started when we went through a gate that said private property. I quickly found some walking sticks for myself because I forgot to bring mine. 

 

We walked along a fire trail and turnt to a very indistinct off track. This was when the others in the group realised that this is a bush-bashing trip. For me, every trip that I did in the Wollemi has always involved bush-bashing so it wasn't too new for me. 

 

We ascended on a very rocky ridge after walking along a creek and quickly gained 500m. 

The pattern of this overhang was quite interesting, like a honey comb

After a short break, we ascended more until we reached the top of a pagoda, a very nice and scenic place for lunch. 

After lunch we continued our path along the top, arriving at very photogenic spots along with the pagodas. 

 

Nam and I found a mini cave which took us to a lookout! It was a very nice little spot for looking down the Wollemi. 

 

We descending and ascending more until we reached what seemed to be a mini canyon! No abseiling required! 

 

We walked through the canyon and went to another lookout point, which has a very interesting rock that had the shape of a building. 

From there, we could also see Mt. Dawson. We went through another narrow section of cliff lines before reaching our cave camping spot after 14km of bush bashing. 

 

 

Mount Dawson cave

After setting up our camp. Nam suggested that we should summit Mt. Dawson! I'm definitely in! We walked for 200m before reaching the pagodas on top of the mountain. 

 

Andrew quickly found the highest pagoda and we climbed up, summiting Mt. Dawson! 

 

We climbed to another pagoda though, for a 360 viewing spot and watching the sunset. 

Even though it was too cloudy to actually see the sun. We had snacks, hot tea, and chocolate dipping on the pagoda while enjoying the view. 

We headed back to our camp just before it started to get dark and had a nice and warm dinner and hot chocolate beside the campfire before heading to bed. 

 

 

Day 2: 

 

The day started with a nonstop dripping sound outside my tent. Looks like sunrise breakfast had to be canceled so I went back to sleep. However, I woke up 20 minutes later, thinking that we may have to leave soon because a thunderstorm may become. 

After everyone finished packing up, we put on our rain gear and headed back to our cars. 

It was quite amazing how I didn't feel that cold even though it was raining like cats and dogs. We returned via the other side of the cliff that we initially came. Andrew and Nam decided to let us figure out the way back by reading the surrounding geography. It was very fun because I can put what I had learnt to the test. 

Next day scenery was much more uninviting 

We took a group picture at an amazing lookout to the valley before traversing down to the creek and headed back to the car park. We took much less time than we came! The sky also started to clear up so Nam decided we would have pie at this place called "Pie in the sky". I had the best meat pie since I arrived in Australia there. Homemade pies are amazing! I returned home very early. Another fun trip!