The Wollangambe One (Upper Wollangambe) and Wollangambe Two (Lower Wollangambe) trips are fairly popular sections of the rugged Wollangambe River, which has carved a long series of narrow canyons over its 57km length. Much lesser known but just as spectacular are an additional eight sections of the Wollangambe River that can be done as day-walks, which have been documented by Yuri Bolotin. (For more non-technical canyons, have a look at A Guide to the Easy Canyons around Sydney.)
Led by Andrew Dumphy, today’s walk explores Wollangambe Three, with our small group of six convening at the Cathedral Reserve Camping Ground at Mount Wilson. Not surprisingly, the start of this bushwalk continues down the river from the end of Wollangambe Two, accessing the river via the well-trodden Wollangambe Two exit track. Well, mostly well-trodden, as part of the original route traversed private land. A new bushwalking track, marked by tape, leaves the firetrail aftter about 0.5km to skirt around the private landholding.
After about 0.6km the bushwalking trail re-joins the firetrail, but we soon turn onto a narrow bushwalking track which descends a long ridge down to the river.
Despite being a fairly well-used and well-defined track, there are a few steep and slippery sections along the ridge. (The end of Wollangambe Two / start of Wollangambe Three is at about 690m elevation, meaning a 210m descent from our starting elevation of 900m.)
After about 2.2km there’s a nice vantage point over the Wollangambe catchment to the west.
A last, steep descent with one slightly tricky scramble (especially if you have short legs!) gets us down to the Wollangambe River. It’s taken us about an hour to get to the river.
Although Yuri has described this starting point as a “rather uninspiring” – the water can look a bit murky depending on the lioghting – in the morning sunlight the water is brilliant green as we don wetsuits and inflate our flotation devices.
I should mention at this juncture that I have a love/hate relationship with the majestic Wollangambe River: I’ve loved my previous trips along the river, but each one has brought some form of calamity. To be more specific, it is an unforgiving environment when you’re not 100% prepared.
On my first trip, I didn’t bring a wetsuit or lilo, and my cheap dry bags were pretty much useless: I finished cold, wet and exhausted – and with my electronic devices floating in a the bottom of my “dry bag”… my second trip was an improvement, but somehow as I floated along a deep section of the river I realised one of the latches on my waterproof camera had managed to open itself. So, I’m not overly surprised as I pump up my lilo that it has a leak, and is pretty much useless.
The first half of Wollangambe Three has three long pools, and a number of shorter swims under the tall canyon walls as the river flows in a south-easterly direction (photo below by Gary Roberts).
Between the pools are a few shallow rapids, and some soft, sandy banks that quickly fill your shoes the course sand (photo credit: Gary Roberts).
After about three hours and about half-way along the Wollangambe Three section, we stop for lunch on a wide ledge above the river, and enjoy half an hour of warming sun. (Today’s maximum is a warm 30-degrees, but down in the river it’s many degrees cooler.)
The second half of Wollangambe Three is a bit more varied, with some small & deep pools separated by picturesque, sandy sections of river.
There are a few rocky sections and some nice cascades; the first one is easily navigated…
…the next boulder field is a bit trickier and slower to traverse (photo bottom right by Gary Roberts, of me with my sad-looking air mattress picking my way through the large boulders).
At the end of this boulder-field is another picturesque cascade.
Another easy, shallow section follows the boulder field.
We then reach the last obstacle of Wollangambe Three: “At the next sharp bend (this one was to the south east), we came to one of the most spectacular parts of today’s adventure. Standing on top of a rock in the middle of the river bed, we saw that the Wollangambe suddenly plunging five metres running through a narrow gorge scattered with huge, mostly pyramid-shaped boulders.” (Yuri). Jumping down into the river would be possible, but submerged rocks make this a slightly risky proposition. However, on Yuri’s previous trips he’d found a convenient, albeit slightly awkward, hole between the boulders that enables you to safely drop down to the river level.
This is almost the end of Wollangambe Three, with a last swim through a narrow, sinuous section of gorge leading to the exit point (on the right-hand side of the river at GR 5835 9251).
The exit route up the gully is steep, but there’s a faint track up through the thick scrub, and we are mostly walking in the shade.
A saddle at the top of the gully offers a nice view of the gorges carved out by the river, both over Wollangambe Three to the south and Wollangambe Four (the next section) to the north.
From here it’s a relatively easy walk through fairly light scrub up to the spot height 834m (marked on the topo map) and then across a very shallow saddle to reach the Boronia Point Trail (firetrail). The walk out takes about 1:30min.
Although a similar distance to Wollangambe One and Wollangambe Two, Wollangambe Three felt a little more challenging and slower-going. It needs a full day, and as with every section of the Wollangambe River a wetsuit and flotation device is somewhere between recommended and essential!
Getting to Wollangambe Three
Access to Wollangambe Three is relatively easy, with a car shuffle eliminating about 1.8km of road-walking between the entry and exit routes. The entry track from the Cathedral Reserve Camping Ground at Mount Wilson is fairly well-marked (including the new section that avoids private property); the exit route is off-track (although there is a faint footpad up the gully from the river) until you reach the Boronia Point Trail. Mount Wilson is about an hour’s drive from Richmond and two hours from Sydney.
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