Wednesday 2 September, 2026
Photos courtesy of Gay and Helen R. Walk Report by Walk Leader Rob.
Twenty six degrees on the second day of spring is not your typical temperature for hiking but 12 unperturbed walkers headed out to enjoy the Mogo Monkey Rock walk. This is a walk created by Betty Richards – a BBBW Original, and is a mix of forest roads, old motor bike tracks and abandoned logging roads. This part of the Mogo State Forest was hit hard by the bushfires in 2019/20 and in the subsequent years, including a few with heavy rains, the regrowth of vegetation has been remarkable. Down in the gullies following the winding bike tracks we had to do some bush bashing around fallen branches and casuarina/acacia thickets. Despite some good natured grumbling we all made it through unscathed up to the more open higher ground.
The leg down Firebreak Road takes us across the Jeramadra Granite and a particular outcrop that resembles the face of a monkey without needing too much imagination. This walk was last done in 2018 before the fires when the rock outcrop was visible from the road. This time we had to hunt for the outcrop well-hidden behind a wall of casuarinas. If not for the GPS waypoint we took in 2018 I think we would still be hunting for the face!
We had to abandon one leg of the walk on a ridge that was so overgrown that passage was near impossible. Fortunately this area is criss-crossed with old logging roads so we were able to return to the cars while still maintaining the original 11 kms goal.
This walk highlights the need to reccie walks that go off-track and have experienced vegetation regrowth after the fires. We will be updating this walk in the Mapped Walks database noting the bush-bashing now required and increasing the walk DD a few points accordingly.