Dates: 23/10/2021-24/10/2021
Participants: My neighbours and I
Our campground for the night
After months and months of lockdown, we are finally able to
go out into the bush again. I was getting very bored from staying in the house
for a long period of time. Thus, I invited my neighbour a bushwalking trip down
the Kedumba River as celebration for freedom. Weather forecasts suggested there
would be quite a bit of rain at night, this should be fine as we would have
been in our tents by then. We planned to arrive at the car park, where a gate which
marked the beginning of the walk, at around 11am. However, after several
misfortunes, such as forgetting our lunch at home, we started at 12pm. Not too
bad, I suppose.
Arriving at the car park
The very obvious sign that led to Kedumba valley
For one of my neighbour, it was the first town he walked
down Kedumba valley road, so he was very excited and thought that it would be a
fire trail from start to finish (he was a little bit wrong). The trail began
with a steep ascent down the valley, passing several attractions such as Lions
head and a memorial lookout. Compared to the last time I was there, the road
seemed to be much nicer, without any bulldozers and construction machines. One
of my neighbour, who had not been to Kedumba valley before, was joyfully
walking down and as we passed the large overhang before the swine gate, he
realised that the next day he would have to walk up this steep trail. We
laughed and joked about calling a helicopter out.
The beginning of the trip was peaceful
Under the clear and sunny skies, we arrived at the junction
where one way led to Kedumba crossing campground and the other lead to Mount
Solitary. As I had not turned this way, I was very thrilled to walk it.
The initial junction
We
stopped for a quick water break and continued down. At one part, we had to turn
to a less obvious trail. We were about to walk the other way to Leura but
luckily, there was a sign which proved the less distinct trail to be corrected.
Walking down was very easy but my toes hurt a little bit
because I forgot to cut my toe nails the day before. The scenery brought me
right back to pre-lockdown days, with gum trees and tea trees. The slight scent
of if blew away all my worries from uni works and the urban life.
The rustling leaves played a nice musical tune
We decided to
have lunch at a less sunny spot. However, as we sat down, we noticed big horse
gap flies (which would follow us for the rest of trip). One of my neighbour also
sat down right where a large ant nest was (Ouch!). I didn't know the species but it
stung his arm and belly. While finishing our lunch, we noticed quite a few
bushwalkers walking up from their day trip, and were sure that we were on the
right way.
We continued down the trail and arrived at Kedumba river,
where we decided to camp. There was a very faint path to a very flat area under
a huge gum tree. There was also a fire spot so we reckoned that this must be a
campsite someone previous use. Not only that, the site was far from the track.
Well, although it could be seen if walkers turn their head 90 degrees as the
crossed the river to the uphill section of the Mount Solitary trail, my
neighbours and I were very surprised that hardly anyone did that and noticed
us.
The serene spot was calling for a perfect siesta
Our camp, very luxurious!
We spent the whole afternoon by the river, playing and
telling what we had been up to in lockdown. One of my neighbour decided to
learn the piano! Then, we gathered firewood. This is the part where all my
extra weight went to, as I brought my hand saw and a hatchet, but thanks to
them, it was extremely easy to make small logs for fire.
My camera captured some very nice pictures of the river
Gathering woods a much easier with a hand saw and a hatchet
My neighbour also
found a small bright yellow frog, which turned out to be Lesueur's frog in its
mating season.
Relaxing by the campfire, no spooky stories this time!
After dinner, there were suddenly large rumbles from the
sky, a sign that rain and possible storm is coming. I was a bit worried as we
hurriedly packed all our stuffs and headed to our tent. The rumble start to be
very loud, small drops of rain became buckets of water throwing at us in the
matter of seconds. As we lie down in our tent, a cracking sound follow a loud
"boom" near us, about 1km. With their meteorology knowledge, my
neighbours told me that the lightning was very unlikely to hit us because we
are very low, by the river. With that, I felt a bit less anxious and went to sleep,
under the rhythmic tapping sound of rain.
Dinner was very peaceful before the storm
Next morning was very peaceful, we had breakfast and started
walking back a little bit later than usual. I was quite surprised that the
river didn't rise that much.
Breakfast by the river
The ascending let us was very hard as we were
fresh out of lockdown and did not exercise much. With every step, the heaviness
increase, but I felt good surprisingly. However, under the scorching sun, we
made it back to the sign. We were very happy but quickly turned sad (a little
bit) because there were more and more ascending before we reached the car park.
It just seemed like the ascent was never ending.
Going up was a struggle after lockdown!
Arriving at the car park, everyone was happy but our legs
were destroyed. The next day, we could barely walk. Nevertheless, everyone had
fun.
