Although others have no doubt taken a similar route to our traverse of Odin Gully and Odin Head, I couldn’t find any notes or descriptions to judge what we were up for on this exploratory bushwalk… We head off from Victoria Falls Road, following a ridge that would take us to down to Odin Gully. (I’d originally planned to follow the gully all the way down, but John wisely suggested the ridge would avoid potentially thick scrub in the gully.)
The ridge had minimal undergrowth, and provided a fairly easy access route to a small cliff-line just above the creek. From a small pagoda on top of the cliff there’s a nice view down into Odin Creek, and of Odin Head on the other side of the gully.
Down Odin Gully
Getting down into the gully proved only a minor challenge; with the aid of some tape we negotiated a short but steep and slippery, moss-covered ramp into Odin Gully.
At the base of the cliffs on both sides of Odin Gully are large and weathered sandstone shelters, many partly hidden behind tall ferns and thick scrub.
Our next challenge is to find a way along Odin Gully: the narrow gully is choked with thick foliage and the occasional obstacle. On a warmer day, the easiest way would be to wade down the (mostly) shallow creek. Being a chilly winter day, we’re all keen to keep our feet dry…
As we progress slowly down the creek, the cliff walls get higher and the gully gets a bit more canyon-like.
John opts for a higher route along the base of the cliffs, while the rest of stay down at creek level. We pass a small but deep pool, which we manage to find way around.
Eventually (after a slightly tricky scramble down) we reach a long overhang, where Odin Gully has carved its way through the base of the cliffs. It’s a spectacular spot, with the shallow creek flowing though a long, tunnel-like cavern.
We continue along the base of the cliff-line, reaching another amphitheatre-like shelter that curves around the bottom of the cliffs.
Unfortunately, what looks like a very nice walk underneath the overhang proves otherwise. Fed by water dripping off the rocks is a boggy marsh, and after getting about halfway along it just gets too muddy, slippery and steep to continue. We drop a little further down, and negotiate a route to the opposite end of the curved shelter.
The creek is now dropping away beneath us, while we are hoping we can follow the base of the cliffs, before finding a way up to the top of Odin Head. Initially the plan goes to um, plan (so to speak) as we traverse the steep slope below the cliffs of Odin Head…
…until we reach a ledge that ends in a vertical drop – which is only of a few metres in height, but enough to stop our progress. Reluctant to abandon our route and re-trace our steps, we back-track a little, and find another viable route a little further down the slope.
No more major obstacles are encountered, although it’s fairly slow-going along the very steep talus slope, where one mis-step means a rather unpleasant tumble down the side of the valley.
Up Odin Head
I’d planned to go all the way around Odin Head to the opposite side, where Michael Keats & Brian Fox documented a viable pass up to the top. Consulting his map, John had – many years ago – noted a slot on the eastern side of Odin Head. Barely ten minutes after we’d been looking up at the sheer cliffs of Odin Head, we are standing on top of the headland.
Before heading back along Odin Head, we head to the end to have a look at the view. Like many of the adjoining headlands named by Myles Dunphy which draw on Norse mythology, Odin Head was named after the Scandinavian god of wisdom, poetry, war and agriculture.
There are some great views of Victoria Creek towards the Grose Valley, with the steep and jagged cliffs of Birrabang Walls directly opposite and the cliffs below the Bells Line of Road in the distance.
To the east is Burramoko Head, and just hidden from view the spectacular Baltzer Lookout and Hanging Rock.
Rather than taking the more direct route back along the top of Odin Head, we follow the western side of the headland to explore some of the cliffs. From Odin Gully we could see two levels of cliffs, but only one of them (the lower cliff line) was shown on the topographic map. (Even the higher-definition LIDAR map didn’s show the upper cliffs.)
As we get closer, we can clearly see the lower, amphitheatre-like cliff that we walked below a couple of hours ago – and the (relatively) smaller cliff above it where we are now.
From this upper cliff-line there are some more nice views towards Victoria Creek and down into Odin Gully.
From the end of these upper cliffs, we head in a south-westerly direction up to the top of the ridge, where we pick up a footpad (an old firetrail that’s not more of a bushwalking track) back to our cars at Victoria Falls Road.
Other than a few sections of thick scrub in Odin Gully and the slightly treacherous, steep slope beneath Odin Head which require careful footing, the route wasn’t as challenging as I feared it might be… but as with any off-track walk, route-finding is required and the actual distance walked is significantly higher than what is shown on the map!
Getting to Odin Gully and Odin Head
The walk out to Odin Head is pretty easy; an old firetrail – which quickly turns into a bushwalking pad – starts from Victoria Falls Road at GR 469 805 (look for a pile of logs that seem to have been placed here to deter bike or cars in the past). To do the Odin Gully and Oden Head loop as described here, walk along Victoria Falls Road for about 700m, and then descend in an easterly direction until you reach Odin Gully. Some tape is helpful for the scramble into the gully, but you can also find a way down that doesn’t require it.
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