Thursday 26 July 2018
Photos by Helen, Karen and Mary
On a crisp morning, promising a sunny winter day, twelve walkers including two new members, gathered to walk over Durras Mountain by a route that focused on its Western slopes.
From a car park on Dangerboard Road the group took a Parks access road before joining the more commonly used route up Durras Mountain from Pretty Beach. The chilly air in the forest gave way to sunny open country at the top of the mountain, where kangaroos were enjoying the pasture land cleared since the 1850s. From the lookout at the summit, there were views south to Depot Beach and Mount Dromedary, while the clear air also provided magnificent vistas to the Budawangs to the West.
The descent first took a side track through a stretch of pristine rainforest common to the western slopes where Lyrebirds were in evidence and Kookaburras swooped around. After rejoining the main track up the mountain and a speedy descent past many indicators of the earlier farming settlement, a little used overgrown track was taken back to Dangerboard Road. This certainly slowed the group down, with broken timber to catch unwary feet, patches of tangling vines to catch backpacks, numerous fallen trees to clamber over, and a slippery but dry creek crossing just before the road. The cool damp air in the forest there was in stark contrast to the sunshine on the mountain top.
All in all, an excellent walk, with natural variety and a dash of recent human history.
Rodney
