I’ve done parts of the Neverfail Trail and Callamine Trail before, but never combined them into what I hope will be a nice bushwalking loop through Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. We’re starting the walk at the southern end of Larool Road (I’m joined by Katrina, an even more avid hiker than me!), and pass the locked gate as we continue down the service trail. Hoping to avoid the service trail as much as possible, we turn onto the track which goes to Dundundra Falls – but once we pass the junction with the track down to the falls, we’re soon back on the Larool Trail again.
At the northern end of the Larool Trail we reach Aumuna Road, and follow this very quiet suburban street for a short distance before reaching the start of another service trail. This is the Cooyong Neverfail Trail (also called the Cooyong Trail, or Neverfail Gully Trail) which follows Neverfail Gully.
The Cooyong Neverfail Trail almost immediately crosses Neverfail Creek, which flows down to Kierans Creek.
The trail descends gently through mostly tall forest, to reach a gate at the end of Cooyong Road.
The Cooyong Neverfail Trail continues to descend, now more steeply, as it passes a junction with the Sandy Trail.
At the bottom of the valley is Kierans Creek, which the trail crosses. It’s a nice and shaded spot by the creek; this is one of the many access points for off-track routes along Kierans Creek.
What goes down, must come up… after crossing the creek, the trail ascends quite steeply up the other side of the valley.
The trail here is a bit more exposed, but it’s late in the afternoon and fairly cool. There’s many native wildflowers along this part of the trail: grevilleas, coral heath, boronia and the purple Patersonia sericea, which is part of the iris family.
As it nears the top of the ridge, the Cooyong Neverfail Trail meets the Ryland Trail, which follows the top of a different ridge and is used to access a series of electrical pylons (this firetrail is part of the Pylons Loop bushwalk from the St Ives Wildflower Garden). We stay on the Cooyong Neverfail Trail, which from this junction becomes the Callamine Trail. At least, I think it does… many of these firetrails have a different name on each map! It’s easy walking along the Callamine Trail which has only a very gentle incline.
We’ve almost completed our loop walk, with just a short section of track parallel to Mona Vale Road before we are back at our car… but that would be too easy! Katrina suggests we take an informal mountain-biking track, which provides a longer but hopefully more interesting track back. The narrow track is a much nicer end to the bushwalk, as it meanders through the bush.
The late afternoon sun, combined with smoke from backburning not far away in Garigal National Park, provides a slightly surreal scene as we walk through a patch of burnt forest.
We soon end up behind the Terrey Hills golf course, where a rough track continues around the course. Rough being the key word – sometimes there is an obvious track, and sometimes it’s a bush-bash. But always pretty easy-going, with almost no undergrowth and just the occasional fallen tree to negotiate.
As we reach the end of the golf course, I spot what looks like a track which will get us back to to the main road. To be more precise, I see a random yellow post, and a gap in some thick vegetation. Fortunately this exit route works, threading between a small lake (on the other side of which is the Terrey Hill Weather Radar) and a driving range. We seem to be traversing an area which would be a swamp after rain – but with weeks of dry wether doesn’t present a problem. We soon pop out onto Myoora Road, just a couple of hundred metres from our cars on Larool Road.
It’s been a nice bushwalk with a bit of adventure at the end.. not one I would do again, as much of the walking is along firetrails. But it’s been good to explore some of the trails between Terrey Hills and Duffys Forest.
0.0km Larool Road (near junction with Myoora Road) 1.1km End of Larool Trail (Aumuna Road) 1.5km Start of Cooyong Neverfail Trail 3.3km Cooyong Road 5.8km Junction with Ryland Trail / start of Callamine Trail 6.8km End of Callamine Trail & start of MTB track 8.2km Terrey Hill Golf Course boundary 9.0km Myoora Road 9.2km Larool Road
More information on Cooyong Neverfail Trail
There are a few access points where you could start this loop; the southen end of Larool Road has the easiest parking. Although we opted for a few detours along bushwalking or informal mountain-biking tracks, you could do this entire loop on a firetrails where mountain-bikes are permitted.
For a much longer loop, you could combine this with the Pylons Loop.
For more bushwalks (as well as swimming spots and other activities) visit the Guide to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
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