Budawangs

Last weekend i spent in exile at the budawangs. This is a huge forested area encompassing some 4-5 national parks and 10-15 state parks south east of canberra. These are coastal forested regions near the by-now widely popular Batemans Bay area. The temperature was crispy cool, the forest refreshingly fresh, the wildlife abundant and plentiful, the birds always cheerful and loud and the area having been luckily forgotten by the enveloping arms of development still in its pristine and interference free natural state. I made two treks-- The first of them to the pigeon house and the second to Mount Budawangs itself.

The trek to Pigeon house was steep but short. Maybe about 7-8 kilometers. There was a moderate amount of scrambling close to the top. Moreover, the steel ladders at the very top which help the novice climbers climb up the last 500 meters of the climb were dismounted because of some repair work!!! and the climb was closed. But luckily i could talk the supervisor of the work operation into believing that i am a pro rock climber from India. So having accomplished this task i climbed atop the pigeon house. The view was at once stunning and eerily encompassing. 360 degrees of nothing but huge vast areas of unoccupied and un touched forests (bushlands) interpersed with tall mountains and deep gorges were visible. The view was stunning because you could actually see as far as the coast which was atleast a 150-200 kms away from the pigeon house. Not a single man made structure was in sight. It was pity that i couldnt spend anymore time here since i had promised to return within 30 minutes. So i climbed down and returned to the bottom of the dismantled ladders where my accmplice during the trip Karthik Ram was waiting for me. We then descended and camped at the foothills of a mountain between the Pigeon House and the Castle.

The next day we ventured out to the Batemans bay area and spent abt an hour in the beach. We were lucky to spot some timid kangaroos that volunteered to post for our cameras. Then we drove to the foot of the Budawangs mountain. I should of course mention that since these are drives through forest roads (not really roads....just patches of leaves, dirt and stones...no road in the vicinity) we got lost midway. Lucky to get lost i must add. The drive in the wrong direction led us to some Llamas and interesting colorful birds and huge stallions and loads and loads of huge buffalows. Anyway, once we realized we were lost we backtracked and finally reached the Mt.Budawang. The drive was steep (really steep at some places), slippery (as i said it was just forest so no roads and all) and tricky. Finally we parked at the foot of the Budawangs and climbed up the Mount Budawang to have another stunning and truly amaziong view of the bushes around. We could see the pigeon house in the far distnce. and the coast too....

Finally we returned back to Canberra late Sunday night. I shall put up the pictures of the visit online soon. But for now savor this view from the Mount Budawang.