After having dinner with PM Rudd on Thursday night, The Spindoctors decided Saturday was a good day to head out past Braidwood and check in on our cache.We left Canberra a little later than planned, and our stop in Bungendore was lengthened by a yummy sausage roll. Through Braidwood and onto Mongarlowe. Must admit we passed the turnoff and after realising that we were heading to Nerriga, turned around. Almost missed another turn in the hamlet of Budawang, but thanks to Nay’s super vision we turned onto the correct road.
Once at the parking spot, we gave Zac a bottle of milk to keep him happy, and then headed off. The day was fantastic – a little warm, but the breeze cooled us down.
A stop mid-way was interrupted by the ranger who told us that the fire tower had been vandalised last night and the communications tower for the emergency services was disconnected. Who would do such a thing? Stupid!
We continued climbing up the mountain, which was a decent slog. Finally after a little over two hours, we made it to the top. What a view! Unfortunately it was too hazy to see the ocean, but the Budawang National Park stretched out to the horizon. The castle and pigeon hut were as clear as a bell.
We placed Zac on a mat and we then all had a drink and a sandwich. I wandered off to find my cache. Man! I was evil. I think I found too many caches at the time that were like this. After ten minutes I located it, pleased that it hadn’t become geolitter (it wasn’t likely to be muggled). Unfortunately the contents of the cache had suffered from the ‘not-quite-weatherproof’ container.
I returned to find Nay and Zac fighting off a viscous army of black ants that had descended upon us. Even while I changed his nappy, they advanced upon us.
We quickly packed up, transferred the log book to the new cache container, took some pictures and then headed off to rehide the cache in an easier location.
Spotted somewhere less demanding, but still out of sight, marked the waypoint and placed the cache. As I emerged, Nay was talking to another walker. “Call of nature”, I told him.
The trip down was much easier than up and we returned to the car very satisfied to have completed our trek as a family. I was especially pleased that Nay not only made it through her first 12 km hike – up a hill and back – but did it well.
