Sunday 1st March 2020
After a final pick up at Cooyal Pub the final number of participants on the day was 27, spread across several cars. A short trip then to Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve and into Honey Eaters Flat and we begin todays journey. During the morning tea, people consulted the map and constructed a path to follow around the area. There was to be no following marked tracks or fire trails. This was a true adventure where anything could happen, people could get lost. Would this walk see us use the clubs newly acquired emergency locator?
After a brief orientation and safety talk the group headed out along what could only be described as a dry creak bed. It was obvious that it hadn’t seen much water as there wasn’t any erosion and the bed was wide. The entire area was affected by the drought with no water in sight and trees that had either fallen down, dropped limbs or succumbed to the dry with many dead leaves on their branches still evident.
We headed to the base of the cliffs and started making our way around rock outcrops and up steep inclines. Once the group had made it to the top, an increase in elevation of about 60 meters, we followed the ridge line. Rounding several outcrops and just over a kilometer from our starting point, everyone followed the leaders out onto a lookout. Looking down onto the flats below, cooee calls were exchanged with the people that had stayed behind exploring the flats.
There were not many sightings of animals during the journey, a few droppings, several bird calls and two eagles circling above our heads was all that could be found. Maybe the size of the group and our noise had something to do with their scarcity. The group followed the ridgeline a short way further before finding an appropriate place to descend back to the cars and lunch. A round trip of 1 ½ hours and about 1.6 km.
Map: Munghorn 8833-2-S
Report by: Glen Hill Images: Glen Hill – with more images to come.