The Bread Knife

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DAY 74

20th January 2009

I was up a 6.00am, out the swag, Instantly putting the kettle on. There were around 15 Kangaroos just milling around, as much as I wanted to watch them I needed to get on.
The Camelbak, which is a ruck sack with a built in bladder that you put fluid in, had to be packed with first aid kits, camera, knife, survival equipment, and all the other paraphernalia for any eventuality.

Caroline got out of the swag just after me, the tea was already done so she got down to making the sandwiches.

Today we were going to walk in the national park up to the rock formation they call the Bread Knife. All this area was formed millions of years ago and the bread knife was formed by magma, squeezing up between the rocks, forming the formation then the original rock falling away, and therefore leaving the Bread Knife as a monument.

We were all done and on our way by 7.20pm and parked at Pincham’s car park with boots on we started walking at 7.40am.

The walk started out beautifully with hundreds of Kangaroo’s grazing, as the morning was so cool. We have never seen so many Kangaroo’s.

We had walked about 4.0 kilometres when 2 guys passed us, we passed pleasantries, and they suggested the lookout at Spirey View that we were just about to reach, was well worth a visit to, though slightly deviating from our original track by 300 metres. We enthusiastically walked to the top and the scenery was fantastic, stunning, Caroline was in her element taking photographs.

We got to the top of the bread knife at around 11.00 am, we stopped to admire the views, take photographs, had our packed lunch and then started our decent at 11.15, the journey down was quite difficult as it was so steep which made you want to walk faster than you were comfortable at. My feet were so sore from the walk up, and Caroline’s knee was given her some gip.

The walk down was certainly quicker than the walk up. We both enjoyed the walk up taking plenty of breaks for a drink and rest, coming down we barely stopped until we bumped into a family that we had met the day before on the campsite.

We particularly noticed this family on the campsite as they had the most unusual caravan attached to a combi. Further investigation revealed that the caravan was in fact made in 1943, it was called a ‘honeymooner’. Anyway we stopped for a chat with them, they were from Port Stephens and thought they would just pack the car up with the kids and drive and see where they ended up.

They are a lovely family, the children being exceptionally polite, one of their little girls was showing me her Canon camera as she was proud of the photos that she had taken of the scenery, they were very good pictures. She is a bit like me in a way, seems that she is always attached to the camera, I had seen her wandering around the campsite taking pictures of the Kangaroo’s and other wildlife.

We moved on, we were keen to get back to the truck as we had by now run out of water. We did not have far to go and fortunately the remainder of the path was covered with trees so we had plenty of shade. The hottest part of the day had not arrived, we were pleased that we had got up early to do this walk.

What we had not realised was that a couple of minutes after talking to Andrew and Clare and the children, they walked the same way as us and had immediately come across a black snake, one of their children nearly trod on it. They explained to us about this and said they were worried that we had merely walked past it oblivious to it. Well, we had not seen it. I was in the habit of stopping every time I heard a rustle in the leaves or bushes just in case it was worthy of a photo. I have no idea how close we were to this snake but we did not see it.

Back at the truck we re filled the CamelBak and we both drank until it was empty. It is amazing how much fluid you actually need out here in this heat. We were well prepared and I wondered how many people come out without the kind of supplies that we leave the truck with.

Getting back to camp we jump, well ok - crawl, out of the truck and onto our chairs waiting for us in the shade. It was not long before the other campers come over and ask us how we got on. One thing that we were comfortable with is that they all knew where we were going that day and had we not returned in a reasonable time I believe that they would have called help. It does remind us of the importance of letting people know your whereabouts. This walk should take 4-5 hours; and our fellow campers had themselves done this walk before so they know what the terrain is like and how long it is supposed to take.

We sat for a few hours with cold drinks to get ourselves recovered and then went off and showered and changed ready for dinner. Andy was cooking up steak and salad tonight.

One of our fellow campers invited us over for a drink tonight, fortunately I had a bottle of white cooling in the fridge. We have promised ourselves to have our dinner slightly earlier, as we usually end up doing it in the dark. Tonight’s menu was steak and salad, and including washing up we had completed by 7.15, one of our camping Neighbours Jan had wandered over with their contact details and said we must look them up when in the vicinity. As we were talking one of the Emu’s wandered past just minding its own business.

Andy had ignored signage saying don’t feed the wildlife, a Kangaroo that had obviously been injured in a fight always looks so forlorn. She had a badly ripped ear, a scar on her eye, and a misshaped leg, Andy the big softy gave her some lettuce leaves.

We went around to Bill and Janet’s camp and sat with their family, their daughter Gill and husband Geoff were down from Foster in New south Wales with their Children Clare and
We had a couple of drinks and had a great evening talking about allsorts, and about 10.00 we both felt absolutely shattered after our days hike.

The night air was hot and muggy and in the distance lighting streaked across the sky, we thought we may be in for some rain hopefully, we took our final look at the night sky for this day and hit the sack.

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Photos

The Bread Knife
A fantasic view of the Bread knife taken by Caroline

Unbelievable scenery
This view took your breath away, well not entirely or else you would die

Warrumbungle Ranges
Another view, boring I know of the Bread Knife in the Warrumbungle ranges. Caroline is rubbish at taking photo's don't you know

Warrumbungle National Park
Yet another view of the Bread Knife in the Warrumbungle.
This walk has been voted on of the top ten walks in Australia

Kooky's Food
A Kookaburra looking for his tucker on the ground

Beetle, Dont pop up !!
Kooky's waiting for a cicada to pop his head up, then its all over !!

Here's Kooky
Kooky patiently waiting for his tucker

Smile Kooky
These fantastiv birds are from 90 species in the king fisher family.
Their call is as distinctive as Australia itself.