Making a start on the Great North Walk

After I finished my Buller Huts hike I rushed up to Sydney to get a start on the Great North Walk. The Great North Walk goes from Sydney to Newcastle in about 250 kms with a couple of ferry crossings and is a mix of suburban streets and national parks. I decided to do a series of day walks so I wouldn’t have to carry anything and I could walk a long way each day. Also train access to the early trailheads is good. I based myself at Thornleigh, which is on the walk route. 

On the first day I took the train to Circular Quay and then a ferry to Woolwich where the walking starts. There were only two of us on the peak hour ferry. It was a muggy day but the early morning rain had cleared. The walk started with residential streets in Woolwich and then Hunters Hill, with nice harbour views and small parks. Right from the start the route was extremely well signed. The walking got more and more into parkland, along mangrove lined creeks and around playing fields, but the route was often weed infested. 

Once I got into Lane Cove National Park my route was constantly along the river, which is wide but not especially attractive as it looks stagnant and scummy. And unfortunately the park cafe is closed on Mondays. There was very little water available along the hike and a coffee would have been welcome. The walk had a few access points to small beaches (nothing special), interesting sandstone caves and overhangs, and eventually the river became more of a trickle. It was much nicer from then onward, clear water and gentle sounds of flowing water. By the time I reached Thornleigh, after a climb through a couple of narrow passes, I was pretty tired and the suburban streets were a slog. I’d done 29 kms.

The next day the weather was perfect, blue sky and not a breath of wind. From Thornleigh I headed towards Hornsby, entering Berowra Valley National Park and then going the full length of Galston Gorge. The walking was so much more enjoyable than yesterday because I was immersed in native bush and always seeing sandstone formations and boulders. The hiking was tougher too, more ups and downs and rocks to negotiate, and lots of timber bridges plus a couple of historic steel bridges. Berowra Creek was always down there somewhere.

I saw a couple of geckos, a few lyrebirds, kookaburras and cockatoos. The greenness of the vegetation struck me, compared to the vegetation in Victoria which is so much more silvery. My route was interrupted by Crosslands Reserve, a huge grassy place, which I recalled from the Trailwalker I did in 2004. Apart from here there still wasn’t anywhere to get water on the trail, even at a couple of campsites I passed.There were more mangroves and swamps before I started the section towards Berowra Waters. 

After a particularly long and steep climb I came to a link track leading to Berowra and decided to walk to Berowra and call it a day, because there was another (hilly) 10 km to Cowan and I was tired. (By the next day I really wished I had gone on.) I called in at the bakery in Berowra then got the train back to Thornleigh. About 28 kms.

I woke to rain the following day. I had wanted to get to Brooklyn as this would be convenient for when I come back to continue the hike but I wasn’t hopeful. I took the train to Berowra and hiked back to where I had left the main route; well, actually, I had decided to run as much of today’s hike as I could, which turned out to be not very much. I made good time to Berowra Waters, missing out at all the viewpoints as the valley was all in mist, although this gave it a certain charm. The rain was only light at this stage and looked like it might stop.

As I got beyond Berowra Waters and deep into the bush the rain got much heavier. Much of the path was flooded and the rocky bits were slippery. Luckily it wasn’t cold. I had a few huge climbs, some of these quite tricky with metal rungs on rocks and very narrow chutes, and lots of steps. I was surprised to find so many places where the trail became so narrow between boulders that I could not possibly have got through wearing a pack. There were lots of small waterfalls and little beaches on Berowra Creek. And rain. I was on the alert for a creek crossing that was supposed to be dangerous after heavy rain, and sure enough I managed to slip over on very slick rocks just below the surface while crossing. All I could think was that I mustn’t get my phone wet. Now I was really soaked through but it wasn’t too uncomfortable. However I decided at this point that I would stop at Cowan rather than continuing to Brooklyn.

The last part to Cowan seemed endless as the path, now considerably easier, wound around without getting anywhere. Finally I emerged from the bush right at Cowan station. Unfortunately I could see the train arriving right then and I couldn’t reach it in time. I had to sit for an hour on the platform in my wet clothes -  with no entertainment as I couldn’t work my phone with my wet hands and I had no way to dry them. There was no sign of anywhere to get any food. Today: 14 kms.

To be continued. I hope.