It had been decades since we’d perused dehydrated-meal + lightweight-tent options, and we were concerned that lugging a full over-night pack might simply be beyond us. But thanks to the encouragement of some experienced neighbours and friends, we made it… 23 km from Patonga to Wondabyne Station!
We’d completed the first 50 km of the Great North Walk from Boronia Park to Brooklyn in a series of sporadic day walks with the kids in tow (2000-10), but the leg out of Patonga was a slightly more serious proposition, involving the downloading of 1 to 25,000 maps, submission of a Trip Intention Form + COVID-safe disclaimer, water purifying tablets, sleeping mats, solid boots and a trowel.
Surveying the rampant tendrils of massing Central Coast development from upon high after traversing remote ancient rock platforms and seeping watercourses with spear-sharpening grooves, making our way at one point for several kilometres on a barely-trafficked route via small cairns and tiny ribbons tied at strategic points to hardy banksia and resplendent wildflowers, it was salutary to reflect upon all that has been inflicted upon this beauteous but beleaguered country, in so short a time.
How did one tiny race of largely-white ants become so virulent, so damaging, so dominant? And what might we careless (and even vaguely-sensitive-new-age) ants do to reverse this poor stewardship?
Image Our party encounters a native rose (boronia serrulata) at the base of Mt Wondabyne, August 2020. On the next leg of our hike north here in Darkinjung Country, I hope to learn the indigenous name of this elegant flowering shrub.