Lake Wallace, Hill 981 and Marrangaroo

This was a three-nighter to remember and I'll explain what the heck Hill 981 means shortly.

The camp began slowly on Friday, 11th April, after work, I headed through the mighty WestConnex road network from Nth Sydney to the M4 Western Motorway and almost made it from one end to the other in record time (for a Friday arvo) and wound up getting stopped for an hour due to a tip truck catching fire. There were two vehicle fires in Sydney that afternoon, with the other in the Lane Cove Tunnel, though that one didn't affect me.

The truck was destroyed and the firies had traffic moving again as quickly as they could. The run through the Blue Mountains was uneventful and I met up with Dave from Shintara at the Blackheath takeaway, where we both ordered up big.

From there, I grabbed some firewood for the first night, staying at Lake Wallace, which was a lot more peaceful than last time, when a rowdy bunch decided to get into a brawl in the wee hours. Lake Wallace was a stepping stone for the next part of the camp and we stayed the night on top of an un-named mountain with a clearing on it. It was pretty bare-bones but there were plenty of stumps from trees around.

Given that this peak is 981 metres above sea level, my guess is that over time, all these trees has been struck by lightning and destroyed. As the peak appears to not have a name, I am just going to call it Hill 981 for the purpose of this article. You can see it for yourself here and it wound up being a decent camping spot. For the benefit of those thinking of staying there, there's a few things to mention:-

1. It appears to be crown land, but there's no signage either allowing or disallowing camping or having a fire.
2. There is no water or power.
3. There are no ablutions.
4. If there is inclement weather, don't expect to see it out. This area is well exposed to the wind and in a storm it will get rough.
5. A lot of sight seers drive through, so don't expect quiet before dark. One group of tourists saw around 20 four wheel drive vehicles of all brands and colours, shapes and sizes stop in.

As the weather was fine, we decided to stay the night. Tea was a quick affair - I just had soup and toast - and it was then time to sit under the full moon by the fire and sip a few ports.











On Sunday, we had brekky and then packed before continuing our way along the Pinnacle Fire Track. We had plans on staying at a small camping area right down on where Dark Corner Creek and Daylight Creek meet up, again in an un-named area but due north west of Portland. As there were too many gum trees there with "widowmaker" branches over most of the camping area, we decided to move on to Marrangaroo, which has been on the list for some time but ended up being a good place to stop, despite the fact that the previous campers were simply a bunch of pigs. Wet ones, paper towels and even half a packet of fags were left on the ground and all had to be kicked aside. They also left their campfire burning, which is simply not acceptable.

Camp was made and then the fire left for us was stocked up with wood and relit. It wasn't long before the correct atmosphere had been created. Tents were set up and then it was time to think about food. Dave settled for bangers, bacon and eggs whilst I cooked what I normally eat at home on a Sunday night - rissoles with mash and peas - all cooked up on the new Jetboil stove I recently purchased. This model doesn't seem to be available in Australia because the gas outlet on it isn't approved by our local 'experts'. Yet, as there have been no reported issues with this in the US and Britain, where it is sold, I can't see why it won't work here. I have also purchased the Luna burner, which plugs into the Jetboil, meaning that I have three burners, to allow a full meal to be cooked up without having to cook things one after the other.



After tea came ice cream, then the rest of the night was by the fire discussing the five hours of hard driving, including up and down steep rocky grades of up to 40 degrees. It is at times like this that we are grateful for low range gearing and the abiility to let air out of the tyres - making things a lot easier on ageing kidneys.

Then it was bed time and the night was quiet. I ended up having three good sleeps, two uninterrupted by the need to visit the tree in the middle of the night and when a good night's sleep is obtained, the days go a lot better.





After brekky on Monday morning, we broke camp and headed to the pie shop in Wallerawang for a late morning tea, then it was off to the Shell in Lithgow to use their car wash to hose away all the grime from the trip away. Two utes that were absolutely filthy now look like they've just come from the showroom.



Camp #5 is done for the year. Where to next is still in planning.

Written at 20:29 on 14 April 2025 by Brad.

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