Walking the Watagans

I went back to the Watagans the other day. I've previously done the full traverse of the range as part of a full traverse of the Great North Walk, which runs all the way from Sydney to Newcastle. This time I just did a day trip, starting and finishing at Freemans Gap, about 30km west of Newcastle.


It's a mixture of fire trails and rainforest bush tracks, and there's lots of ups and downs. The rainforest is decidedly scenic, but usually it's also wet, muddy, and extremely leech-infested.

On this occasion though, it was all bone dry, after months of little or no rain. The main hazard was the slipperiness due to the dustiness of some of the steep tracks.














Another hazard, though I didn't realise it at the time, was the tick that hitched a ride on me. Later that evening I disturbed it on my shoulder, and before there was time to get the Wart-Off freezing spray onto the job, it had pumped its poison into me. I had a very itchy shoulder for a few days, but thankfully nothing worse. For instance I'd hate to get that weird meat allergy thing that sometimes happens.