Day 12 – Orroral Valley to Blue Gum Creek

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Upwards and upwards…

I’m sitting on the grass at five minutes to seven with my cook kit still spread out in front of me, when it suddenly dawns on me that the troops are going to be ready to go at seven despite the previous night’s agreement, and I’ve still got stuff to do. So I hastily smear on some sunscreen and brush my teeth, and we’re off up the bastard of a hill out of the valley.

It’s the climb that keeps on giving. But eventually we start down the long downhill to Honeysuckle Creek campground. It’s a really pleasant site, and the firies must have pulled out all the stops to protect it from burning in 2019/20. The day is warming up, but the trees provide lovely shade.

From Honeysuckle, the track winds through fire regrowth up towards Booroomba Rocks. It’s really nice how the ACT portion of the AAWT is predominantly single track.

Coming down from Booroomba Rocks, the heat hits us like a slap in the face. My thermometer is saying 34°. I’m getting a little concerned about the water situation. When we cross Booroomba Creek, it’s a stagnant puddle and nobody wants to collect water from it. Mount Tennent hoves into view.

We continue in the blistering heat down to the old cattle dam from when this used to be grazing land. I’ve never had any desire to take water from this dam, but today it’s the lowest I’ve ever seen it; a horrible muddy puddle in the bottom of a muddy hole. We continue along Bushfold Flats and have lunch in the shade of some trees.

This is where Robyn leaves us. Her parents are flying in for Christmas tonight. There’s a tinge of sadness at the group splitting before the end. We take stock of the water situation, and I split the spare litre I’ve been carrying from Honeysuckle between Scott, who is out, and Robyn, who has a 200m climb still to go.

As Robyn disappears up the trail, the rest of us start down towards the valley beneath Blue Gum Hill. We walk slowly to conserve fluids in the bartering heat. There’s a creek 600m down that, when planning, I had hoped would provide, but unsurprisingly, it’s bone dry. We continue another kilometre towards Blue Gum creek. We’re all carrying the worry of what to do if that’s dry too. Thankfully, when we finally make it down to the creek it’s flowing strong and clear.

There aren’t a lot of good tent sites here, so we spread out to find them. Then we spend the afternoon sitting on rocks in the shade with our feet in the stream. The trees are full of cicadas, slowly chirping their song of laziness. There are fish in the stream, and at one point a 30cm rainbow trout swims up to us before somebody moves and it dashes away. Birds dash in and out of the water, bathing. A flock of black cockatoos play in the trees nearby. A small snake (I’m fairly sure it’s a juvenile red belly black) swims nearby. Later, an adult makes its way stealthily down the bank, stopping to poke its head into every crevice in search of frogs. We shadow it carefully from a respectful distance until it’s gone beyond our camp. We watch a dragonfly nymph emerge onto a rock and spend half an hour spreading and drying its wings before taking flight for the first time. It’s a magical spot to spend our last afternoon of the walk.