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| Mt Exmouth. |
Over the years I'd driven past the Warrumbungle Ranges numerous times, initially in trucks as I journeyed with my dad up to Brisbane or beyond, and then later in life as we headed north on different adventures in the sun. The volcanic peaks of the Wurrumbungles provided a brief respite on the long flat Newell Highway, the peaks soaring into the blue sky promising all sort of adventures, but it wasn't until this trip though that we had ever ventured off the Newell and into the National park to explore. The name 'Warrumbungle' comes from the Kamilaroi language and is thought to mean 'crooked mountains' and when you see the Warrumbungle skyline its easy to see where that name came from. Its thought that the area has been inhabited for over 5000 years, although a lot of the older archaeological finds are from around the outside of the ranges, its thought that the habitation of the middle of the ranges only occurred in the last 2000 years, from what I can work out no one is 100% sure why, as with its numerous over hangs, water, and food it would appear to be a bountiful spot.
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| Belougery Spire and the Breadknife. |
Sam and I headed up in the troopy after work one Friday, as we were heading to a very dry area Murphy and his law meant that we battled our way north in increasing rain. Climbing into the back of the troopy around thirty minutes south of Coonabarabran at around 3 in the morning we were lulled into an exhausted sleep by the sound of pouring rain on the roof. Waking next morning we were greeted by the sight of all the normally dry creeks flowing a banka, I wasn't sure how this was going to affect our walk as most of the track would be along ridges, but I was relieved to see that the low cloud had dispersed as that definitely would have affected the walk. After a quick breakfast in Coonabarabran, we grabbed our camping permit at the visitor centre in the park, parked the troopy at Camp Pincham and shouldered our packs, it was time to start walking.
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| Belougery Spire. |
Day 1 Ogma Camp 18 kilometres
The track initially followed Spirey Creek south towards the Grand High Tops, I remember the excitement I felt as we headed along this easy path towards those places with the interesting names that I'd been dreaming about, reading stories of 'the Breadknife' and 'the Grand High Tops' over the years had certainly piqued my interest. After a kilometre or so along Spirey Creek we headed off on a side track up our first peak, Macha Tor, soon working up a bit of a sweat on the short climb. Macha Tor provided our first views for the trip and an excuse to drink some of the water that we were lugging on our backs, we were carrying water for tonights camp and then enough to get us through to lunch tomorrow so the packs started off fairly weighty.
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Consulting the map on Macha Tor.
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| Resting in the shade near the Breadknife. |
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Leaving Macha Tor we made our way back down to Spirey Creek and continued our way south, the track along here is extremely well constructed and as we eventually left the creek and started our climb up to the Breadknife it turned into a paved path, I wasn't expecting that on a bush walk. The crazy paving made for fairly quick climbing however and we made our way fairly easily to the base of the Breadknife, stopping to savour the ever improving views as we gained height. Stopping in the shade of the Breadknife for a bite to eat we were amused by the local currawongs that homed in on us for a cheap feed. Leaving the shade that the sliver of rock that is the Breadknife provided we continued our climb up onto the Grand High Tops, eventually topping out we called stumps for awhile and enjoyed a long break taking in the rugged topography in all directions.
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Belougery Spire from the track up to the Grand High Tops.
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The Breadknife.
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| Lughs Shield and the Breadknife from the Grand High Tops. |
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After a bit of a break we started out along the Grand High Tops towards Dow's High Tops, now I'd imagined a flat ridge walk along here but there was actually a fair bit of climbing and descending, the track itself was now a more typical bush walking track so that slowed us down a little. Reaching Nuada Saddle in mid afternoon we dropped our packs at took the side trip to the summit of Bluff Mountain. The climb up Bluff Mountain started off climbing fairly steeply before reaching a plateau which provided a very gentle climb to the summit. The view from summit provided a grandstand view of the park and the surrounding plains but it was bitingly cold in the wind so we didn't linger too long, besides we still had a bit to go to reach camp.
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Chilling out on Bluff Mountain.
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The view from Bluff Mountain.
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| That's tomorrows destination Mt Exmouth behind me. |
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By the time we got back to our packs it was getting a bit late in the afternoon so we set off along the Dow's High Tops with a little more urgency, after taking in the last view of today from Wilderness Point we quickly descended down to our camp at Ogma Saddle. Ogma Saddle provided a little flat ground for our small tent, but with no water or any other facilities it was a basic site, it didn't matter for us really though as we had lugged all our water in and we were both pretty tired after little sleep the night before. After an early dinner we were into our tiny tent as soon as the sun disappeared and we both drifted off to an exhausted sleep quickly.
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The cliffs on the north side of Bluff Mountain lighting up in the late afternoon sun, this was taken from Ogma Camp.
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| Ogma Camp. |
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Day 2 Camp Pincham 13 kilometres 31 kilometres total
Crawling out of the tent we were greeted by blue sky. After breakfast we headed off along the Western High Tops (the early explorers certainly liked their high tops!) towards Mt Exmouth. Crossing some sections of scree alone the way, as well as making the short side trip to check out Cathedral Arch we were soon at Danu Saddle where once again we dropped our packs for a side trip. This time we were heading up the highest peak in the park, Mt Exmouth. The climb up Mt Exmouth is a little similar to Bluff Mountain in that it climbs up the flank of the mountain before levelling out somewhat on a bit of a summit plateau, I remember the climb up My Exmouth passed through large numbers of grass trees as well as traversing a couple of ledges with some old fencing wire for protection. The fencing wire wasn't unusual in those days, I'd done plenty of walks were fencing wire had been put in by the authorities to provide some protection on airier sections of track, I'm not sure it happens now days as much as the land managers comply with much tougher safety regulations.
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Warming up for the days walk, yeah I was young and stupid.
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Crossing a large section of scree on the way to Danu Saddle.
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Cathedral Arch.
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| Some old fencing wire providing protection on the climb up Mt Exmouth. |
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As you would expect the summit of Mt Exmouth provided another great view, and once again it was a chilly spot to sit so we didn't linger too long. Returning to our packs a Danu Saddle I was now getting pretty keen to get down to Burbie Camp where there was supposed to be a spring fed tap, after more than a day we were starting to get a little low on water. The descent down off Danu Saddle followed a management track which provided for easy, if not that exciting walking, arriving at Burbie Camp I quickly found the tap and we savoured a long drink, relieved to be finished rationing. Burbie Camp was only accessible to 4wd and the place was deserted, with a toilet and permanent water it would make a nice spot to camp.
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The rugged summit plateau on Mt Exmouth.
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| The view back to Bluff Mountain from Mt Exmouth. |
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Leaving Burbie Camp we continued to follow the 4wd drive track gently down hill, after less than an hour we reached the walking track that would take us out to the main road through Burbie Canyon. As usual it was good to be on a walking track again and the grassy track through the small canyon was a nice interlude to the road walking, Burbie Canyon isn't particularly large but after the rain a couple of days ago it was looking good, the grass was green and there was sections of bubbling water in the small creek, unfortunately there was also some feral pigs rooting around but you can't have everything I suppose. Reaching the main road through the park we headed back towards the troopy, a road bash wasn't the ideal finish to a great walk but it made for a quick walk over the last few kilometres. When I do this walk again one day I'll link up the Belougery Split Rock track with a little off track walking to save the road bash, that's probably all the excuse I need really to go back and re do the walk!
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Mt Exmouth from near Burbie Camp.
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| Back on the walking track through Burbie Canyon. |
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The Plan.
We walked just over thirty kilometres on this trip, I'm not sure of the climbing involved and without resorting to pouring over my topo maps I'd guess that it was around the 2000 metre mark over the two days. The walk was on a combination of very well engineered walking tracks, rougher bush walking tracks, 4wd tracks and then a section of bitumen road. There is no reliable water along the tops so water needs to be carried for camp. A camping permit needs to be organised through national parks. I'd probably rate this as a medium walk. We did this walk a long time ago (as you can tell by my scanned photos) and the details are as I remember from the time, since then though a large fire has been through the park causing a lot of damage, I am not sure about the current conditions on the ground but I would expect some significant changes. We used the notes from the long since out of print Bushwalking in Australia 3rd edition by Lonely Planet, this edition was written by John and Monica Chapman and published in 1997.
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| The summit photo on Mt Exmouth, the highest mountain in the Warrumbungles. |
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