Gentleman's Halt.

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Gentleman's Halt.

Postby kanangra » Sat 17 Aug, 2013 12:23 pm

Another beautiful morning and so I thought a visit to this camping spot on the Hawkesbury River would be in order. I drove out along Canoelands Rd. and turned left at the Marra Marra NP sign. A short way on I parked at the gate. I set off just as the sun was coming up. the morning was cool but not cold, very pleasant. Before long the road crosses the Sydney to Newcastle gas pipeline which even though it is buried cuts a swathe through the bush. Next high voltage power lines crossed the road. The ridge had taken on the appearance of a service corridor which detracted somewhat from the wilderness qualities of the walk. But the views to the north out over the Hawkesbury River and Mangrove Ck were more than ample compensation.

I followed the fire trail out to near the end where it turns sharp right. there is a high pole here with a green electrical station beside it. On the left is a sign saying "Gentleman's Halt". On the right is an old burnt out sign and your guess is as good as mine as to what it said. I set off on the foot track and before long another sign announced that it was 2.2km to Gentleman's Halt. The track led to the top of the cliffs where there were good views and another sign; 1.7km to Gentleman's Halt. From here the track descends steeply through the small cliffs. On the left there is an excellent camp cave the roof of which was bright yellow in the morning light. The track was quite indistinct but pink tape generally showed the way. Despite this I still managed to lose the track on the descent. I ended up in a gully and reasoned, correctly as it turned out, that the track must be up on the ridge line up to the left.

Once back on the track it seemed to follow a very old road. I came to a saddle and a fire ring. Instead of stopping and taking a look around I charged ahead. The tapes had changed to blue and then twine. Still I pressed on up the other side to the top. By now the track had disappeared but there were just enough pieces of blue twine to keep me interested. However once off the other side I lost even those markers and decided to return. Once back at the saddle I noticed the pink markers dropping off the side and so I decided to follow them. They led down to the waters edge where there was a sign saying .4km to Gentleman's Halt and 9.6km back to the gate.

I continued along the grassy edge of the salt marsh and mangrove swamp to the point where an old camping area was found in a swathe of long green grass. The facilities were fairly decrepit, a toilet a couple of low tables, some fire places but no water tank. I followed a track down to a wharf on the river opposite the hamlet of Spencer. On the way I noticed a track heading off and suspect it may have led up to the point on top of Gentleman's Halt where I turned back.

It had taken me two hours to get there so I didn't have a lot of time but I did reflect that this was the terminus of Governor Philip's first foray up the Hawkesbury River. His party camped on the point before retracing their steps back to Sydney Town. Not all that much has changed in the intervening 200 odd years.

I returned the same way keeping to the track the whole way this time. Without all the mucking around I was back at the car in about an hour and a half.

This is an excellent little trip that I heartily recommend.

K.
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby awildland » Mon 19 Aug, 2013 7:51 pm

Nice post, thanks Kanangra. Sounds like a good little walk to put on the list. Always nice to also get a bit of historical context to places.
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby roopass » Sun 31 Jul, 2016 7:03 pm

Did this walk recently, a surprisingly beautiful walk, not too hard, there is a very steep section towards the end part of walk, if u go all the the way to the camp site, just follow the pink tagged trees, they'll get u there.
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby iandsmith » Thu 18 Aug, 2016 9:15 am

Informative, thanks for sharing
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby roopass » Fri 19 Aug, 2016 10:33 am

Tks, Ian, never been on a hike before, where u totally rely on the tags, got a bit lost at one point, backed tracked, looked for the tags and kept going, might ring N.P's as the tags are looking a bit worse for ware, might need re-tagging soon
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby rcaffin » Tue 23 Aug, 2016 10:15 pm

I don't think the tags are from NPWS. Just some locals.
Most of the route is straight forward, but there are some dubious bits around the scarp.
Cheers
Roger
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby roopass » Wed 24 Aug, 2016 2:54 pm

Dubious bits around the scarp?, please explain :)
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Re: Gentleman's Halt.

Postby rcaffin » Wed 24 Aug, 2016 8:57 pm

The track gets a bit vague for a while. Map reading needed. Not hard.
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