Grattai Wilderness - Mount Kaputar National Park, NSW

From atop the rocky cliffs, the views are uninterrupted. The vast, clear sky burns orange at sunset and again at sunrise. But it’s been *@!# hard walking. If I hadn’t experienced this kind of off-track challenge before I would have left after the first night. Instead, I’m leaving after the second.

Just two days of moving through this wilderness and the emotion that spills out can’t be hidden. I try putting a ‘gloss’ on the place. Then decide on honesty - it’s fuckin’ shite off-track walking. Even the good open forest has so many sticks that trip you, poke, slap, scratch, snag in your gaiter strap on each forward step. Then there’s the sections of dense, sticky hop bush, scratching everything. We have had to push through it with our arms and the weight of our whole bodies. There’s the downright evil spikey-leaved shrub on the rocky plateau above Waa Gorge (pronounced War Gorge, appropriately enough). My back aches, my legs are exhausted, my knees and feet ache and my body craves replenishment. I have burnt so much energy - carrying water and tackling the ridiculous terrain - I can feel kilos dropping off me. 

We are in Mount Kaputar National Park, exploring its northernmost reaches around the spectacular Waa Gorge, Mt Waa and Mt Bobbiwaa. It is incredibly scenic country - from a distance.

As you drive along the access road to Waa Gorge (Mellburra Road), the sight of 165m cliffs on the north face of Mt Waa is awe inspiring. The road takes you past the Wattle Valley Olive Farm, then through paddock after paddock, opening and closing farmers' gates. The impressive peak rarely leaves you. Then, Mt Bobbiwaa also pops into view. On arrival at Waa Gorge carpark, however, you are suddenly down in the cypress pine and iron bark forest. There is now no hint of the rocky wonders that dot this park. 

From the car park, there is a marked walking track that takes visitors 500m to the Mill-bullah waterholes. For our visit, the waterholes are low, stagnant, and yet despite the drought they look refreshing and certainly their importance in this landscape is obvious - a permanent water source for the wildlife and (once upon a time) local indigenous inhabitants. 

But, if you continue past the waterholes, the truly spectacular nature of this area reveals itself. Waa Gorge is a showstopper.

Waa Mountain and Waa Gorge in shadow

The rough walking track, from Mill-bullah into the gorge proper, takes us along a narrow gully lined with dry rainforest. King parrots feed on the gully floor and in the trees. Huge wallaroos call the forest home; sheltering in the cool, even temperature of this hidden grotto. Only small patches of this dry rainforest ecosystem are found in Mount Kaputar National Park (in about 3 spots, hidden in isolated, rocky riparian areas like this). The rainforest is characterised by a continuous canopy but a scarcity of shrubs and many of the trees occur at their western geographical limit. Some of the more surprising rainforest species we see include a giant stinging tree, cheese tree and lilly pilly. 

It is about an hour's walk from the carpark before we leave the rainforest gully and veer left, onto open bare rock and into Waa Gorge's amazing, natural cathedral. The gorge walls tower 100m above us; streaked black and orange and white. Technically, we are standing inside an old volcano. Actually, the whole of Mount Kaputar National Park is a volcano (see our previous blog for more history on this). And, when you visit Waa Gorge, take time to read the excellent signs in the carpark. It is some of the best geological interpretation I've read – i.e. easy to understand! Essentially, Waa Gorge (and Mt Waa above it) are rhyolitic volcanic plugs. That is, they cooled more quickly and plugged a vent of molten rock. Because their rock was hard and has less fissures and cracks it has remained when most of the rest of the volcano has eroded away around it.

We spend half an hour exploring the inner sanctum of Waa Gorge. Climbing to the head of the open gorge, we find a few bolts and plenty of chalk marks. This strong, textured rock makes for great climbing. In one of those nice synergies of the outdoor world, a few weeks before our visit we had read on social media that in this very spot, some climbing history was made, with a local guy pioneering a new, 'hard' route up the gorge wall. It's a great story (here).

We also decide to pioneer a new route – an off-track walking one. It also proves hard. From the carpark we take a vague, rambling route up onto the plateau above Waa Gorge. There we meet the wicked, spiky shrub. It forces us to zig zag and dodge and weave to avoid the impenetrable, deadly thickets it forms on the open rock. The next challenge is the first hop bush scrub, then the lay of rocky ribs and outcrops and the deep, narrow, sheer chasm of the upper reaches of the gorge. We back track and re-route ourselves to find ways through and over and around. There is no destination as such. We wander until we find a scenic, photographic outlook and a flat spot to lay our bivvy bags. 

The next day we return to the car, load up with more water and head out in a more easterly direction, taking Grattai Fire Trail along Stony Gully, to explore the rocky cliffs and peaks along the park's eastern boundary, around Mt Bobbiwaa (which is unfortunately on private property and accessible only from the east - see ATV & Trailbike Territory who have access to the area). 

This second walk is where the exhaustion sets in. Along the boundary line, the hop bush scrub is near impenetrable. The weight of water in our packs, unavoidable. The creeks here are all dry. Nothing has the same sort of solid, dead weight as litres of water placed in a backpack. 

We have taken to walking in what Caz calls our "prickle kit" – full overpants instead of gaiters, long sleeves, and nothing strapped to the outside of our packs. We come across some impressive ironbarks, their black furrowed skin so deeply fissured you could use them as crack climbs. The birds watch us, stopping on their hurried flights to feeding grounds. They pause in trees, watch us struggle for a while, then fly off with ease – white-tufted honeyeaters, pardalotes, fantails.

But each night, on both over night hikes, the campsites are divine. It is no gloss. The views across the Grattai Wilderness zone are beautiful. The peaks of Mount Kaputar National Park are wonderful. We sleep each night in the open and I try to stay awake to watch more and more shooting stars. I count 2 of them but last just 30 seconds before exhaustion closes my eyes.

After a good, deep sleep on the second night, it is easy the next morning to have my photo taken, sitting cross-legged and looking at peace, as I gaze across to Mt Grattai bathed in the pink light of sunrise. I am looking at all that bush thinking how nice it would be to wander across and climb that mighty mountain – forgetting, already, how I curse better than the best of them after the third slap across the cheek from a steel strong whip of cypress branch.

And yet, two days of walking off-track we start to get a feel for how to run the country. There are wallaroo tracks through that terrible scrub. We race along them. They peter out. We find another one. Small patches of more open forest appear. We stay with them for as long as possible. Then source another animal track. And finally, we burst out from the forest and follow the road back to the car park. We dump our packs, rummage frantically in the car for decent food. Wave at a family of day trippers who are picnicking after having sauntered up to the waterholes and gorge. Before they leave, the father wanders over with a Tupperware container loaded with homemade chocolate brownies and cupcakes and he tells us to take as many as we like. I feign constraint. Try to be polite. Then, grab two brownies and one cupcake. Maybe I could go out for another night, now?

All images and words on this site are copyright of Craig Fardell and Christina Armstrong. It is illegal to sell, copy, or distribute images and text without permission. We thank you for your help in respecting the copyright of our work.