This walk navigated a route between Katoomba and the Wombeyan Caves area in the Southern Highlands. It is around 100km km in length and took us almost 6 days to walk, between Tuesday May 5^th and Sunday May 11^th, 2009.  You can view the route that we took in our walk in Google Maps by clicking the here.

We had discussed undertaking this trip for some time. Michael had already completed the walk 8 or 9 years ago, and although we had a few potential routes to choose from we basically followed his previous course. The alternative trails along the Scotts Main Range or the Gangerang Range were both felt to provide too little in the way of water, so although we had to make several descents and ascents to and from rivers we did not have to worry too much about lugging copious amounts of liquid.

Prior to the trip we made a quick trip out to Kanangra Walls to bury a depot of foodstuffs and clothing at a point which we knew we would be passing by (mine is shown here, before being covered up). Michael made a separate trip out to near the end of the trip with another small supply, so we managed to reduce the amount of weight carried from the start.

This was all rather last minute after the long planning period, and we both proceeded rather hastily to procure food and assemble our camping equipment. We also obtained a Personal Locator Beacon from the Katoomba Police Station, a device which neither of us had any experience with. It was free to borrow, about the size and weight of a compact digital camera, and provided both us and our partners with peace of mind that we could call in the cavalry in the event of serious injury or irredeemable loss of direction. I think it’s a terrific service, even if one of the legal waivers stated that activating the device in the event of an emergency would not necessarily instigate a search by any relevant authority.

The description and photos of the walk have been divided into one day per page, accessible from the links below.

Day 1    Day 2    Day 3    Day 4    Day 5    Day 6