Bob suggested a walk near Bell out to Wollangambe Crater and back via a circuit that would take in some interesting pagodas, that I had long wanted to visit. But it turned out to be a quite trying excursion. It was a very cold and windy day. I walked all the time in long pants and a fleece. The cold wind made it difficult to enjoy the views – as climbing high on a pagoda brought you into the full force of the icy blast as well as bringing you into danger of being blown off.
Nevertheless, it was nice to be outdoors, and the scenery was very pleasant.
Bob drove to Bell, and he parked at the start of the track to Wollangambe Crater. The track starts with a fire road, but soon turns off on an overgrown fire road which takes you down to a creek, which you cross and climb up to the 994 spot height.
This gives very nice views of the Wollangambe Wilderness.
The track then leaves the old fire road, and takes off along the ridge towards Wollangambe Crater. This track must be well used as it is very easy to follow despite the recent bush fires.
With the strong wind, we decided not to go all the way to the crater, instead turning off just before the track descends to the Wollangambe River. We followed a small creek down to the south branch.
The descent was easy, and we then crossed the south branch and climbed up an easy and open spur.
Higher up, we could see an area of pagodas known as “The Barnacles”.
We climbed closer to the Barnacles.
On the Barnacles, we found the most sheltered spot we could for lunch. It was a short break!
We then had to cross over the Barnacles. This was not too hard to do, but it would have been nice to spend some time scrambling on them.
Once across the Barnacles, we had an easy ridge to follow that took us to the Weigh-bridge at Bell. We walked fast in the cold wind. The sun was now hidden behind clouds and it ws looking like it might start raining, or snowing!
On he way we saw the nice Scarlet Robin –
It was good to get out of the wind in Bob’s car, and then enjoy the warmth of the heater as we headed back to Sydney.