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Sundown Explore - Northern & Western Areas
Sundown Explore - Northern & Western Areas
Well, I had a few days off recently and had planned to head down to Sundown NP to check out a particular track to see if I could a trailer up it and also to check out a few other places on the northern and western sides of the Park. The plan was to head down Sunday arvo/night but unfortunately I couldn't head off then due to a close Cousin's furneral being on the Monday.... A quick look at the weather forecast and the decision was made to head off down to Sundown after the furneral....
Managed to get away @ around 4pm from the furneral after catching up with people that I hadn't seen in 30+yrs and stopped in Warwick for Dinner, then pushed onto Sundown, reaching there around 8pm. To my surprise on the drive in was the amount of water lying around and coming out of the ground. I never for once thought about checking how much rain the area had received in the days/week leading up to my departure. The road/track became wetter and there was more water crossing the road as I approached the NP boundary. Got to the gate and went through and headed off down to what I was hoping to be a good little camping spot from what I had researched on Google Earth.... It turned out that is was.... flat and nice and dry too...... very cool spot
. Checked the time and with it being only 8pm, I decided to do a bit of night driving/exploring and headed back out and down the bypass track track to Redrock gorge that I had wanted to check out. Headed down the hill and meant my 1st obstacle - the normally dry creek was now full of water. From the last time I was here I knew the base was solid and that it couldn't be the deep, so I decided to take teh chance and head across. Luckily I was right but it was a little bit deeper than I was expecting but nothing too bad. I reached the other side and came to a fork in the track - left was the easy way and right was the harder/rocky track. At night, left was the go and I headed up and along a very wet track. I managed to check out a side track which was a dead end and I continued along to I came to a washout. Looking at the time, I decided to turn around and leave this section to the daylight, so I turned around and headed back along the was I came, through the creek and back to the campsite to setup my swag and call it for the night.
With the daylight I woke to a beautiful fine day, so I packed up and headed off straight away as I knew I had a lot of ground to cover in a short space of time. I headed back along I had travelled the night before, but this time after crossing teh creek, I choose the harder right hand track. The Disco went up it easily with the new Goodride M/T's making light work of it. Once at the top I made my way along the track driving through numerous waterholes, with some being deeper that I had thought with one going over the bonnet. I managed to reach Redrock Gorge for Breaky time and then walked down to the lookout to see the Waterfall having water going over it for the 1st time in all the times I had been coming here.
I headed back to the car for a coffee before making my way out along the normal track out. I wanted to see the time difference between the 2 tracks into the Gorge. The main track in is longer but shorter in time by about 10>15mins, but definitely not as interesting as the bypass track. I exited the park and headed out and down along Sundown Rd and turned left instead of right as I wanted to try and make my way around to a new campsite that I camp across on Google Earth - Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area. The plan was to go via what I had thought would be a interesting route along what I thought would be a interesting 4wd track/road (Murphy's Crossing Road), skirting the Severn River for a fair bit. Well this plan quickly came to the end when I reached the track and saw the amount of water flowing over the cement causeway downstream of the small weir - No way was I going to attempt that, so it was onto Pan-B and I back-tracked all the way back to Ballandean and up the Hwy to Glen Aplin where I turned off west and made my along some back roads to finally reaching the Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area. On my way to the campgrounds I got to see the see the other end of Murphy's Crossing Rd - This looked like it would be a really good little track to drive, but it will have to be left until next time....
Upon reaching the Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area, I had a quick look around and it's definitely remote with no amenties and I only saaw 1 other car there.... I parked the car and took my cameras and made my way down the side of the mountain to check out the falls that I could easily hear from the Carpark.... Upon reaching the bottom I was faced with a fantastic view of a raging river and falls. The foam buildup from the water going over thefalls was incredible - it was close to 1mtr thick.
After more time than I had planned looking around and taking photos, I tracked off back up the side of the mountain to my car and made my way out. From here I headed west and around to the western side of the park to check out Broadwater Campgrounds for lunch. Interesting scenery along the way and I finally reached thecampgrounds for a late lunch. There was a couple of campers here but they must have been out tracking along the walking tracks. After lunch, it was a quick drive out and south to the Bruxner Hwy and then turned East towards Tenterfield and then north and back home via the normal route with me getting home around 5.30pm, just in time for dinner
Distance covered: 770kms
Drive Time: 11hrs 36mins
Photos located here: Sundown NP - Northern & Western Areas Photos
Map of my travels:
Photos and Videos to come when I have the time to post them up.....
cheers....
rob
Well, I had a few days off recently and had planned to head down to Sundown NP to check out a particular track to see if I could a trailer up it and also to check out a few other places on the northern and western sides of the Park. The plan was to head down Sunday arvo/night but unfortunately I couldn't head off then due to a close Cousin's furneral being on the Monday.... A quick look at the weather forecast and the decision was made to head off down to Sundown after the furneral....
Managed to get away @ around 4pm from the furneral after catching up with people that I hadn't seen in 30+yrs and stopped in Warwick for Dinner, then pushed onto Sundown, reaching there around 8pm. To my surprise on the drive in was the amount of water lying around and coming out of the ground. I never for once thought about checking how much rain the area had received in the days/week leading up to my departure. The road/track became wetter and there was more water crossing the road as I approached the NP boundary. Got to the gate and went through and headed off down to what I was hoping to be a good little camping spot from what I had researched on Google Earth.... It turned out that is was.... flat and nice and dry too...... very cool spot
. Checked the time and with it being only 8pm, I decided to do a bit of night driving/exploring and headed back out and down the bypass track track to Redrock gorge that I had wanted to check out. Headed down the hill and meant my 1st obstacle - the normally dry creek was now full of water. From the last time I was here I knew the base was solid and that it couldn't be the deep, so I decided to take teh chance and head across. Luckily I was right but it was a little bit deeper than I was expecting but nothing too bad. I reached the other side and came to a fork in the track - left was the easy way and right was the harder/rocky track. At night, left was the go and I headed up and along a very wet track. I managed to check out a side track which was a dead end and I continued along to I came to a washout. Looking at the time, I decided to turn around and leave this section to the daylight, so I turned around and headed back along the was I came, through the creek and back to the campsite to setup my swag and call it for the night.With the daylight I woke to a beautiful fine day, so I packed up and headed off straight away as I knew I had a lot of ground to cover in a short space of time. I headed back along I had travelled the night before, but this time after crossing teh creek, I choose the harder right hand track. The Disco went up it easily with the new Goodride M/T's making light work of it. Once at the top I made my way along the track driving through numerous waterholes, with some being deeper that I had thought with one going over the bonnet. I managed to reach Redrock Gorge for Breaky time and then walked down to the lookout to see the Waterfall having water going over it for the 1st time in all the times I had been coming here.
I headed back to the car for a coffee before making my way out along the normal track out. I wanted to see the time difference between the 2 tracks into the Gorge. The main track in is longer but shorter in time by about 10>15mins, but definitely not as interesting as the bypass track
. I exited the park and headed out and down along Sundown Rd and turned left instead of right as I wanted to try and make my way around to a new campsite that I camp across on Google Earth - Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area. The plan was to go via what I had thought would be a interesting route along what I thought would be a interesting 4wd track/road (Murphy's Crossing Road), skirting the Severn River for a fair bit. Well this plan quickly came to the end when I reached the track and saw the amount of water flowing over the cement causeway downstream of the small weir - No way was I going to attempt that, so it was onto Pan-B and I back-tracked all the way back to Ballandean and up the Hwy to Glen Aplin where I turned off west and made my along some back roads to finally reaching the Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area. On my way to the campgrounds I got to see the see the other end of Murphy's Crossing Rd - This looked like it would be a really good little track to drive, but it will have to be left until next time....Upon reaching the Nundubbermere Falls Camping Area, I had a quick look around and it's definitely remote with no amenties and I only saaw 1 other car there.... I parked the car and took my cameras and made my way down the side of the mountain to check out the falls that I could easily hear from the Carpark.... Upon reaching the bottom I was faced with a fantastic view of a raging river and falls. The foam buildup from the water going over thefalls was incredible - it was close to 1mtr thick.
After more time than I had planned looking around and taking photos, I tracked off back up the side of the mountain to my car and made my way out. From here I headed west and around to the western side of the park to check out Broadwater Campgrounds for lunch. Interesting scenery along the way and I finally reached thecampgrounds for a late lunch. There was a couple of campers here but they must have been out tracking along the walking tracks. After lunch, it was a quick drive out and south to the Bruxner Hwy and then turned East towards Tenterfield and then north and back home via the normal route with me getting home around 5.30pm, just in time for dinner
Distance covered: 770kms
Drive Time: 11hrs 36mins
Photos located here: Sundown NP - Northern & Western Areas Photos
Map of my travels:
Photos and Videos to come when I have the time to post them up.....
cheers....
rob
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