After our scare with Lou’s sudden illness last evening, he was up and about doing his Sunday morning duties at the church. Thank goodness he recovered so quickly. I was rather worried last night. We’ll have to keep a close eye on him for the next few days.
We have talked about kayaking at Dunn’s Swamp since we arrived, but due to one thing or another, we never managed to fit it in. This weekend was our last chance, but the weather has been either threatening to storm, or storming. This afternoon there was a window of reasonable weather, however, no one wanted to load the trailer with kayaks and go through all the effort of unloading and launching especially since the weather forecast was for more storms in the evening. So, we decided to go to Dunn’s Swamp for a hike.
Along the way, Margaret drove us around Dabee, the huge estate where she and Clare do cleaning. This is one of the homes of architects Gary and Susan Rockwell, clearly one of the 1%ers. They have homes all over the world. Margaret says they helicopter in occasionally to spend time at Dabee. The estate is actually a working ranch with probably thousands of cattle. It is an incredibly beautiful property with lush landscaping, loads of out-buildings for various purposes. The Rockwells, in addition to their use of the property, invite loads of friends and family to come and stay, thus creating the housekeeping job for Margaret and Clare. A little down the road is the first home, Fernside, the Rockwells lived in and raised their family. Although not so grand, it also is a beautiful property. As Margaret went in to do some work, we marveled at the peacocks strolling around.
Margaret and Clare said it is a pleasure working there because it is so beautiful. And the best part, she said, is that the Rockwells are wonderful people and have been very generous.
After our Dabee and Fernside tour, it was on to Dunn’s Swamp.The Aboriginal name for the area is Ganguddy. It’s location is within the huge Wollemi National Park. The Dunn’s Swamp recreational area was created when the town of Kandos built a weir across the Cudgegong River in the 1920s. It was built to supply water to the Kandos cement factory. The water impoundment area created by the weir is known as Dunn’s Swamp. I don’t know why it’s called that. The only thing that I could find is that below the weir, the creek originally wasn’t much of a creek, rather a boggy swamp. The use of the name “swamp” might come from that. Dunn’s Swamp is a beautiful reservoir. It is surrounded by sandstone walls and pagoda rocks. It’s very picturesque. In the national park are camping sites and the area is very popular for water sports, hiking, and camping.
With about two hours until dusk, we set off on a trail to the dam wall (weir). It was great seeing the river from the land because we had kayaked the river to the weir along the same route in a past visit. We started at river level and slowly walked upwards through the bush. There were amazing rock formations along the path.
Christine and I added to our photos of eucalypts, so interesting to see all the variations.
The vistas across the river were beautiful.
We stopped at a place along the river for group photos, one by Clare with all of us, and one by Christine.
After walking uphill along the path, we got to steps going down. Christine and I talked about whether she wanted to continue. She decided to wait at the steps so Lou, Margaret and I went on. We went down a lot of steps, leveled off, then went up again. We got to an area where we had to cross two rocky ledges. Thankfully, there was a railing to hold on to, because without that railing, I would have been rolling down the rock into the river far below. It’s a good thing Christine decided to sit this part out. Also, when Lou got to the first rocky ledge, he decided that was it for him and he took a seat to wait for us on the return trip.
Once past the rocky ledges, we found a flight of steps going up further. That was an easy rise. Then came a fairly vertical rock face that we had to pull ourselves up via a chain attached to poles sunk into the rocks. I found it very difficult, but Margaret and Clare scampered up like it was nothing. This photo shows where the chain starts just where Margaret is standing. Clare is already at the top ledge and I’m huffing my way up some steps. From where Margaret is, the chain goes up and around for about 40 feet, reaching the flat top of the rock.
Fortunately, after pulling myself up with great effort, I turned around to see a very gorgeous view.
We climbed a bit farther and came to the top of the rock which was a flat section that offered a gorgeous view of the river below. You can see the ledge that we crossed on the right side of the photo between the two clumps of trees.
Once at this lookout, I called down to Lou, who was sitting at the start of the rocky ledge suggesting that he start back to where we left Christine. We had been gone long enough that I was concerned that she would be worried. At first, he heard us, but didn’t see us. He finally looked way up the rocks and spotted us. He agreed, and began his return. I put a blue arrow in the photo below pointing to where he was, just to give a little perspective of how much higher we had climbed.
Margaret, Clare and I continued the path to the weir. From the lookout, it was mostly downhill and fairly easy to walk. We arrived at the weir, which was quite a structure. The weir held back the Cudgegong River. There was a sluice-way where water could run through.
We decided to continue on to a section called Long Cave. It was a flat pathway along the river. Along the way, Clare picked up a beetle that she saw, called a Christmas beetle, which is a member of the scarab family. Very colorful.
Long cave is an undercutting in the rock created, I assume, by flooding waters of the river. It was a huge rock overhead and a narrow cutout below this huge rock. It didn’t look so big approaching, but as you can see from the photo on the right, definitely a huge rock overhead.
Meanwhile, Lou got back to Christine and she was very happy to see him. She took photos of him, and he of her as they waited our return.
Margaret, Clare and I started our return. Going down the rock holding on to the chain was scary, but we managed. Margaret later confessed that she found it a bit difficult to scale that section. On the return, Margaret and Clare took a right turn onto another trail to Pagoda Lookout. I had intended to also visit this lookout, but by now I was pooped and red-faced from effort, so I continued on to find Lou and Christine. Margaret and Clare had to scramble over rocks without any indication of a path to get to Pagoda lookout. I’m sorry I didn’t go with them, but I doubt I would have been able to reach the lookout. They said it was quite a challenge to get there. Clare took photos from the lookout.
She shot a video while walking along the rocks at the lookout. I got queasy later looking at the video. She was very high up and walking along a ledge. It would have been a long way down if she had accidentally slipped or tripped.
I had joined up with Lou and Christine and we waited near the car park for Margaret and Clare. By now it was dusk and the sky was showing stormy weather coming in. Soon, Margaret and Clare arrived and we could start our 30-minute drive back to Rylstone.
We had a wonderful hike at Dunn’s Swamp. It had been the perfect time of day to go because it wasn’t hot and by late afternoon, the crowds had dispersed. I didn’t miss kayaking at all and found it so interesting to walk through the areas that we saw two years ago in kayaks on the river.
On the return drive back to Rylstone, a massive storm hit. We were all shocked at its severity. We had been seeing lightening off in the distance and knew we would get rain, but all of a sudden it poured, and within a few seconds, quarter-size hail came crashing down. The hail hitting the car was like being inside a tin can being hit by a metal spoon. It was so loud. I am so surprised that the windshield didn’t get cracked. The hail, rain, and wind were so fierce that Margaret stopped a couple of times because she couldn’t see the road. The one thing that made the drive possible was the reflective markers along the side of the road every 20 feet or so. We were all frightened and jumped at very big lightening strikes along the way. I was scared that a tree would come crashing down in the wind. There was tree debris all over the road. I know that we all will associate our trip to Dunn’s Swamp today with this storm. It definitely was a memorable one. I don’t think I’ve every experienced such a fierce storm while being out in it, and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such large hail. Fortunately, Margaret didn’t find much damage to her car from the hail.
Eventually, the hail stopped and we just had rain, but the conditions remained very challenging as pockets of fog were present. Margaret crept along very slowly until finally we saw the lights of the hospital in Rylstone. I think we all breathed a collection sigh of relief that we made it back to Rylstone. What a drive, and what a driver Margaret is. She got us home safe and sound.