Bob suggested a walk to the Pindar Cave in Brisbane Water National Park. It was a place he had never been to. I had visited it – but many many years earlier (over 40 years ago) and my memories had faded. Bob suggested walking from Kariong to the cave and finishing at Wondabyne Station. This seemed a bit complicated with train and bus transport connections all linking, so I suggested out and back from Wondabyne Station. And that was why we did.
Pindar Falls
We travelled in the last carriage of the train,and had notified the guard that we wanted to get off at the station before hand. This is necessary as the train does does not automatically stop at the station even though it appears as a timetabled stop. It only stops on request. And you need to get out the back door of the last carriage.
The trip up was nice and the train arrived on time at the tiny platform. We then set off on the track up the hill. At the top, the track turns into a fire road which you follow for a bit, then we turned off on the Pindar Track (a fire road for the first 500 m). There were plenty of birds to see.
This track is quite pleasant walking for most of the way. The track follows a ridge with a few small ups and downs. Even at this time of year there were wildflowers in flower.
At one place, we saw a Swamp Wallaby, on the track ahead. As we approached it hoped into the bush nearby. But, on the walk back, the same wallaby was back in exactly the same spot.
At one place we explored a large rock slab looking for Aboriginal engravings.
We found a few possible engravings –
And some nice tessellated pavement –
There were two places were we could obtain views. At one spot we could look at distant Mooney Mooney Creek –
Another spot offered better views in the other direction – looking south to Dangar Island.
From that viewpoint, the rest of the track was very wet – almost like walking down a creek. At present tracks are much wetter than usual – but this one does go along swampy ground. We passed a large waterhole, and not far past that arrived at the Pindar Cave.
It is an impressive overhang.
We looked for any Aboriginal art – but all could see was old graffiti.
A short walk from the Pindar Cave is a waterfall (Pindar Falls?). We followed a track to the top of the falls, but the view from there is very poor.
Above the falls are some nice cascades.
While looking around, Bob spotted a very rough track down to the bottom of the falls. This was a very worthwhile side trip. The waterfall is quite impressive.
It was too wet around the waterfall or the cave to have lunch, so we made our way back to the last high point – the lookout.
Then, after lunch we walked back the same way.
We arrived back at the station wth only a ten minute wait for the next train. A good day out.