By 9:00PM I was shivering uncontrollably. I decided I just had to do something to get warm. There was barely enough room to jog on the spot on my ledge so I decided to climb back up the spur. By now the moon had risen and was shining quite a lot of light onto the spur and so I set off very steadily. I was surprised how well I was able to see in the moonlight and had little difficulty making my way on the spine of the spur. Before long I was warming up nicely and so decided to rest a while on a small flat bench. I must have dozed because over an hour passed before the cold seeping into my bones awoke me again. I resumed the climb and by about 11:00 I was back on the flat tops. I thought it best to stop here rather than blunder on in the dark and become disoriented. So I sat down against a big tree with my legs tucked up under me and tried to catch some sleep. It was a long night and I woke often. Each time I would do some exercises to get the blood flowing again before sitting back down and trying to get some more sleep. It must have worked because next time I awoke every thing was dark, the moon had set. All of a sudden I felt very uncertain of my bearings. No matter I would be able to reorientate myself when the sun rose.
The only problem was that the sun never rose, well not that I could see as a thick fog descended on the plateau. Mmmmmmm. I should never have left the spine of the ridge. At least that way I would have know east west. What to do? At least I had my map (Caoura 1:25,000 2nd Ed.) I knew that on the western side of the plateau the Shoalhaven ran through its gorge and on the eastern side Tryers Ck ran through its gorge. I decided to walk until I found a gully and then to follow that down. I figured by the steepness of the terrain I would be able to work out which of the two valleys it was flowing into. This proved more difficult than it sounded but eventually I found a long spur which descended into the upper reaches of a creek that seemed to just drop from view. This had to be on the Shoalhaven side so I climbed out and up and thankfully found myself perched right on the edge of Fordham Canyon. Great views.
- View downstream from the rim of the Shoalhaven Gorge. NB the heavy fog still blanketing the tops.
At least I knew where I was for the first time that morning. I also knew I didn't want to go anywhere near the canyon and that there there were cliffs flanking the Block up Gorge just upstream of this point. So the question was could I find a safe descent route that went to the river between the two? Not all that confident I plunged down off the side of the rim and to my immense relief this route whilst steep did "go". I was a very relieved man to be safely on the bank of the river.
- Finally down. The Shoalhaven River.
I had left myself with a walk of a couple of k's downstream to the bottom of the Trestle Track so I set off quickly. I made my way on the western bank. Although the going looked a lot easier on the eastern bank I couldn't see a place to cross. After a lot of clambering on rocks and ducking through scrub I arrived at the old Tolwong mine site. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to explore but did take a couple of hasty snaps.
- Tolwong mines.
- Tolwong Mine ruins.
From here I continued downstream to the next rapids where I crossed and located the post marking the end of the Trestle Track. I then set off up the track out of the valley on the western side. On the way up I snapped this view of the mines showing in the background Tolwong Ck where I had come down the evening before.
- View across the gorge showing the two chimneys with Tolwong Ck behind.
I reached the top of the track just as the Bungonia SES was pulling up in their truck. "You wouldn't be looking for me would you by any chance?" Sure enough they were as my wife had raised the alarm when I hadn't returned the night before. They drove me the couple of k's back to the car and then back to the command headquarters which had been set up at the Bungonia NP HQ. There I met the team from Marulan who had also been called out and senior officers from the Police Rescue Squad. It was quite overwhelming to me that all these good people had put their lives on hold to come and look for me, a perfect stranger.
I had been very foolish in many respects. I should and did know better but over confidence and complacency can cause you to take unnecessary risks. I am just pleased that no one was injured in looking for me.
If ever I am given permission to go out again I would like to return to this area to explore the mines in more detail and see if I can relocate my terminus, only this time I will come up from the river.
K.