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Day 4: Dex Creek to Kanangra Parking Area
Sandi wrote:
On our way bedecked with drying washing! Little bit of rain overnight.
From our camp-site we had two ridges to chose from, so after a little bit of map investigation and consultation of the Dingo Gap track notes we chose what we thought was the correct one, and thankfully it was! In reality we couldn't have gone too far wrong, but the selected ridge was definitely the easier walk. Had a bit of a climb up to Cloudmaker and the marked track (on the topographic maps), but we walked well and made the summit in an hour.
Had a read of the Log and left our own message.
Sandi wrote:
Last entries were 8/11/2010 and 6/11/2010, both very different walks. One from Yeranderie, the other I can't remember... Nice cool breeze but sun very hot when out. Very tall waterfall off to right, maybe into Thunder Creek?
Walked on over some amazing landscapes, the track is certainly not as distinct as I thought it would be, but generally things went well.
Sandi wrote:
Stopped for lunch just after 2:00pm in the shadow of Craft's Walls with thunder rumbling in the distance. Rain gave weary legs strength up Mt Berry, after which we lost the path again [briefly]. We were going to stop in Gabes Gap, but the rain was big drops, too wet to stop. Neither of us want to come at Vegemite, Date and Pumpernickel; I fancy date and bread, Perry: Vegemite and bread; so let's see...
Making our way around Craft's Walls and across the causeway was pretty easy, but we managed to mess things up getting up to Brennan Top through Smith's Pass. The track leads straight to a rock scramble up a gap that did not look passable from the bottom, but there was also a well worn path around to the South-East that we thought lead to an easier assent. It didn't take too long before the GPS started complaining and we realised we'd taken the wrong path again... so we back-tracked and second looks up and there seemed to be a way. But the way was difficult, especially with pack.
Once we got to the top there was another unmarked obstacle and we only guessed that we had to climb up onto a higher shelf using a tree, but once we did it all became much easier and we marched with a pace toward Kanangra Walls parking area and the kids. Sandi even started Cooee'ing as they said that they may walk out to meet us...
Fantastic views from the plateau: in the distance what could only be the Hydro Majestic at Meadlow Bath glowing in the afternoon sun.
The climb up the stairs to the main pathway to the car park was a bitter pill; the walk along the path seemed 5-times longer that we remembered... and when we got to the car park there were no kids! So we sat down and had afternoon tea and thought about what to do...
We had no mobile reception so we couldn't ring them and in fact had no communication that they'd actually arrived; we were a little worried that something was wrong. So there was no other choice than to put the packs back on and start up the road to the camping spot and hope that they were there. Eight extra painful kilometres later, and just after 7:00pm, 
we walked into the camping area to find the kids discussing if they should drive back down to the car park!
Apparently, we'd only missed them by 10 minutes: they'd walked down themselves to meet us and when we weren't there, walked back again!
Sandi wrote:
It was a real Burke and Wills! And we only missed them by 10 minutes. If we hadn't missed Smith's Pass the first time we would have met them: It felt like if only we hadn't stopped to bury Gray...
The kids had Nat's big 10-man tent up, which we all slept in; had a fire going for lots of cups of tea and yummy buttered chicken and garlic mushrooms for dinner.
Day's Stats:
Length: 20.2km
Ascend: 1,532m
Descend: 1,336m
Moving Time: 5:46
Stopped Time: 4:46
Moving Average: 3.3 km/h
Overall Average: 1.8 km/h
