6.5-12.0°C
Wind Speed 35km/h
Kelpie Point Water Level: 0.34m
08:23-01:54 (next day)
Mt Cloudmaker 2h56m (11:19)
Coxs River 7h17m (15:40)
40min break (16:20)
NN Lockgate 17h31m (01:54)
Last Saturday 3 of us completed K2K in a day trip, in 17.5 hours.
We met in Parramatta at 5am and managed to actually start the walk at 8:23am. It was a cool, sunny and windy winter morning. We have all completed this hike previously so we didn't spend much time indulging in the scenery at Kanangra Walls. We could have started earlier but weighing between having proper rest the previous night and available daylight in winter, this turned out to be our sweet spot. We signed the Cloudmaker logbook at 11:20am so this first section was smooth going, just needed to be careful on slippery surface as it was raining in the past few days.
After a 5-min break at the summit, we continued to follow the track on the ridge. As it comes and goes until we ended up bashing through most of it and somehow managed to pick up the track again on the left of the down-ridge to Dex Creek. The creek was flowing and clear. After walking up the slippery slope to the clearing, we headed to the infamous "forest" and here came the 1km/hr bash through it. The track abruptly ended here and we took turn to navigate and lead the bash. Protective clothing is recommended in this section. The vegetation is so dense that it is impossible to look through them to check the ridge systems around. So GPS and sun position / compass are the only practical tools. The bash lasted for about 45 minutes until it opened up again with the track being more visible, but still there was intermittent bashing.
Mt Strongleg: this time we went on the direct path to the summit and it was rugged, compared to the track that runs along on the right which seems to be more smooth-going from my memory, but I could be wrong.
On the way down Strongleg we came across a group of three 4-day hiker on the way down and we had a brief chat. And while we hit the Coxs (3:40pm) we met the 4th member in their group that is ready to setup his fishing
we did make good progress up to this point with only 7h17m spent so far, well within our plan. A swine was observed near Konangaroo Clearing but it seems disturbed by human and quickly dashed into the bush.At Coxs I decided to walk ahead while 2 others resting and it turned out to add some spice to our walk. I picked up the fallen log near Kanangra Creek intersection and crossed the Coxs without wetting my feet, then as I tried to walk downstream to pickup the Yellow Pup ridge, I instead saw a faint track leading up the side slope. As I followed it up it eventually took me up some 20-30m that was already a cliff above the river. The track tapered off at this point but I could see foot pads here and there. Without hesitation I just turned directly onto this side ridge and climbed up East until I hit a cliff. I traversed to the South until the cliff ease off that I could climb above it. Not much longer I was back on track again. To be honest it only saves the km but not time or effort (it may probably save some if I knew this shortcut better, but not this time. But distance-wise definitely saved some 1.5km).
There were many fallen trees along the way up to Mt Yellow Dog. Then the next section was once again highly overgrown and it inevitably got dark at around this point. I could hardly follow the track. At 6:30pm I was not able to pick up the track anymore, at around 100m past the Mt Dingo Intersection. I decided to wait there to regroup and it wasn’t that long as the other 2 picked up their pace after their well-deserved rest at Coxs. After we regrouped, one of us also accidently dropped his phone on the way and it took us about 30min to backtrack and located it eventually.
Things were hard in the dark. We previously thought that once we crossed the river, everything would be easy. But it was not. It was hours of bashing through the never-ending wild dog track at ridiculous 1km/hr speed all the way up to Mobbs Swamp. We were mentally and physically drained at this point as we didn't expect it at all - we have used up our mental power navigating down to Coxs (as that was supposed to be the hardest part). It was already 9pm at the Swamp. So that 2km section took us over 2 hours. And my water was low since I left the Coxs too early by accident and didn't drink enough just before. Luckily there were a couple of "normally would be dry" slow-flowing creek after Mobbs Swamp that I could refill. And the track was significantly better from this point.
It took us another 3 hours to reach Clear Hill and after that, walking in chilling 35km/h wind for another 2 hour definitely wasn't enjoyable, but it felt like heaven compared to the bush we had been bashing all day. Our spirit was high in the last couple of km as we knew our friend was waiting for us with hot noodle soup and yummy food in her car and we were all cheering as we jogged to the finish line (gate). We finished the walk at 1:54am.
For anyone that has never done this track, I strongly recommend going with someone who did it before (the more recent the better). If this is not possible, try to make it a 4-day camping trip so that you can eliminate night walks. Recce is also recommended for example Kanangra-Cloudmaker return, Katoomba/Dunphy-Mt Yellow Dog return. Check the water level at Kelpie point the day before (preferably below 0.40m; anything above 0.50m would be dangerous). Take note of the weather forecast - in particular max / min temperature and the wind speed. On a sunny day the perceived temperature would be 5-10°C higher on the ridge system all the way down Coxs River and also Yellow Pup Ridge. And hence it feels like a sudden drop of 10°C as it gets dark.
Three of us have all done this track before and we were all fit and efficient taking turns to navigate throughout the day. We are confident to say that with ideal conditions (especially with more daylight), we could finish it in 15 hours. A small group of fit, fast and experienced would expect to complete it in 15-20 hours. It really stretches the limit of a day walk. As the track continues to deteriorate it may not be practically possible done within a day except for few specialized individuals.
