Wednesday 27/10/2021 Byarong Park – Mount Kembla Lower Escarpment Circuit via Stafford’s Farm & O’Brien’s Drift – Mount Brisbane – Mount Keira Ring Track
Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area, NSW
Tharawal Country
Participants: Paul Blattman, Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies, Trish Law, Marie Mitchell-Stanley, Peter Stanley, Dave Whitelaw (Leader, Report) and 2 visitors, Robert and Deirdre
This South Coast Bushwalking Club walk led by Dave had been postponed from a week earlier because of rain on the MTB track. Once underway we headed out along our track which starts near the public school on Mt Keira Rd. Some of us managed a leisurely pre-walk coffee in Keiraville, thus ensuring a bit of urgency down the track.
Max elevation: 463 m
Total climbing: 606 m
Total descent: -525 m
Average speed: 3.42 km/h
Total time: 04:30:52
Being an unofficial bike track meant we had to avoid being taken out by a kamikaze but most are quite friendly anyway. We crossed the headwaters of Byarong Ck on a MTB friendly bridge before the uphill slog began.
Headwaters of Byarong Creek
As usual, Paul was a wealth of knowledge pointing out various plants including weeds, birds and other features. We passed through a large clearing with Coral trees even before getting to Stafford’s Farm.
As it was getting humid and almost 1.5 hours into the walk, it was opportune to have morning tea (with Trish’s friands) in the mottled shade in the clearing.
The discovery of a huge bull-ant on a pack was the trigger to keep moving, this time up a “double-black-diamond” run, immediately to the west. Apart from some cyclists near the start, we were indeed fortunate to not encounter any others in the day. Being bike tracks, they’re somewhat circuitous, so you don’t exactly want to follow them.
At the top of Mt Brisbane and close to the Drift, we headed north towards Robertson’s Lookout, passing a disgusting old car dump and a revolting fairly new tyre dump, which Paul reported to EPA with GPS, in case they didn’t know. As it was a clear sunny day we had great views from the lookout.
Once we hit the Mt Keira Ring track it was an easy walk downhill, despite carrying our collected bags of rubbish. Byarong Park, just uphill from our cars, was our delightful lunch spot. From a 9:00am start, it wasn’t until 2:30pm before we’d finished our 8km walk & lunch.
We’d seen the best of nature and the worst of human activity.
Thanks to the team for their comradeship in making it an enjoyable walk.
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