A wet day was forecast, so not good weather for canyoning, so Bob and myself decided to do a bushwalk instead. We decided to go to the Clarence area and do a walk where we could find plenty of caves, in case we needed to shelter from the rain. As it turned out, we had not rain on the walk. But it was grea to visit some very interesting scenery – and there was a major bonus – there were plenty of pink Flannel Flowers.
Our access was via the climber’s track to the Freezer and Cosmic County climbing area. These took us down to some service roads for the railway and the railway powerline. This led us to a very interesting area – with lots of pagodas, cliffs, caves and a nice natural arch.
In the above photo, Bob is inspecting a cave once used for shelter by railway workers over one hundred years ago.
As we continued, we climbed up onto a ridge covered with pink Flannel Flowers.
We then reached a natural arch.
The arch looked very fragile.
And then more pink Flannel Flowers.
We found a few more old railway worker occupation caves.
And a larger cave that had once contained blacksmith tools.
Heading back, we spotted some orchids – all a bit old.
We then returned to the Chifley Road and drove to visit some more caves. The first one featured a vast chamber.
Nearby were two caves filled with Aboriginal art. Mainly hand stencils.
Not too far away, was a tree, that we thought may have been an Aboriginal scar tree.
This had been a very interesting excursion.
Never one to shy away from checking out caves, is old mate Bobby boy! Some things never change, and we can always count on Bob to be the first to stick his head into places where others wouldn’t dare! Fine chap indeed.
Hi David and Bob,
I just thought I’d bring to your attention that the Clarence Arch is actually on private property not on railway land.
Thanks Diana, I became aware of that after our walk, by checking the council maps that show the land status. I think that was the reason I did not name the arch.