Saturday 16 Feb 2019

Beautiful sunrise at the Pony Club

After a few kms out of Nundle the paved road became gravel, which climbed fairly steeply (up to 9%) through Crawney Pass National Park. But going down the south side was pure heaven, with terrific views of what at the top became Upper Hunter Shire.

Grass Trees galore

So far the official BNT detour through Nundle has been very scenic. But I still do not understand why this wide detour is really necessary. In 2014 I created my own little detour which worked quite well, and I don’t think it touched on dear Mrs. Sun’s “Karamea” property. (She’s the one who prevents trekkers from following the regular route which ascends Barrington Tops from the north). I kept following Thunderbolt’s Way after getting to Nowendoc, past the Bretti Nature Reserve, past Gloryvale Reserve, turned right at Curricabark Road, and rejoined the trail just before the road up to Benny’s Top. The Nundle detour is nice, but it doesn’t compare to trekking through Barrington Tops.

As I was enjoying smoko just past the turnoff to Timor Caves, a young woman drove past who heartily recommended having a look at the caves. She said it’s only 3 kms in, so I left BOB by the gate and rode in without him. I got to the caves area, I think, as there were a couple of vehicles parked, but I didn’t see or hear anybody. I couldn’t see any caves either, but followed a few tracks going up the hill thinking that’s where they must be going. Well, I’m either blind or totally daft, but I could not detect any caves. And no sign of the people that belonged to the parked vehicles either. Lots of nice ripe blackberries though. So I left and picked up BOB to continue on. It was close to noon and getting rather warm.

Signs that there could be caves……

A few kms south of the tiny community of Timor is a church with right beside it the Timor Tennis Club. It has a working outside water tap that initially only produced a brownish liquid, but it gradually became clear. A perfect campsite and as long as nobody comes to play tennis, which I doubt, I’ll pitch my little nylon cottage under the roof at the back. There are benches, a few chairs, a table, what more could I wish for? Well, perhaps a working toilet, but although they are there, there is no running water.

Today’s total 53k 4:10h 620m+ 815m- (including the 6 km caves detour)