Bong Bong Pass

So I had a day off from work, and first thing in the morning my Dad called me up saying "Are we going to go on a hike today seeing as you're off, or not?"
So agreeing to go we started discussing where we would go, throwing out suggestions of ones we had done before such as Macquarie Pass or Brokers Nose. I told Dad to leave it with me, feeling like I'd like to do something I had never done before. So I sat eating my leftover jalapeño stuffed-crust pizza for breakfast and a hike I had been wanting to do for ages came to me.

Previous night's dinner

I told him that I had heard of a hike out the back of Dapto in which a World War 2 fighter plane had crashed and that you could walk to it, however I could find no articles or directions to this hike, or to the plane, but looking on Google Maps I managed to find the start of the walk and so I drove to pick Dad up. As soon as he hopped in the car I said "Jesus, what the hell happened to your eye!?"

He told me that he had just woken up last night and it had been bleeding. I told him that he shouldn't be hiking with me but should be going to the Doctors. He waved it off as not being a big deal and I said "Well, you're 65 and your 26 year old son is telling you what you should do, but you're old enough to make your own decisions" and so I left it at that and we headed along the highway, out through Dapto, and to the end of Bong Bong Road where we saw the hikes starting path to our left.

We parked up and began our hike straight uphill.

It is a steep rocky walk through through cleared lantana, and in the hot sun I instantly regretted having worn pants instead of shorts.

We noticed tracks in and our of the path wondering if this is where people had walked through trying to find the Lockheed Hudson. However we also noticed tracks that looked like the paths were probably made by deer in the area.

So the path began to bend around and we noticed a fence to a left leading up to a big gate in front of us.

We continued to our right, following the path noticing some old crumbled steel I assume was an old water tower, but seeing it at a distance, I got my hopes up that it would be the plane.

Pushing further on up hill, already soaking with sweet and continually having Dad tell me I should have worn shorts we passed a turn off to our left.

Shortly past here we reached a fork in the path. One continuing the steep incline, the other, off to the right, blocked by a fallen down tree.

We decided to continue upwards, saying that if we had time we would explore down the blocked path on our way back.

After a very steep slope the path began to even out for the first time during the walk.

You could feel the climate change walking through, as the bush slowly became rainforest.

Continuing along there was a small break in the trees to our left letting me lookout over the Illawara facing towards Albion Park.

The path continued on with a steep rocky cliff on our right and a sharp fall into a gully on our left.

Shortly after this around a bend the path opened up, and Dad noticed paths going up to our right we he wanted to quickly explore before continuing up the path. Dad placed his backpack down, assuming it'd be a quick look, and we climbed up.

Upon reaching the top there was a little enclosed grassland with a banksia tree, so we headed to our right, (facing back down the trail) and headed to the edge of the cliff face.

Many bees were flying around the ledge drinking from little puddles of water in the rocks. We continued climbing upwards around the ledge, wondering if up here was he site of the plane crash.

Just as we reached the top we had to walk through a thicket of grass trees, before finding a very small track leading us to a beautiful view overlooking the Illawarra.

Xanthorrhoea

Overlooking Lake Illawarra

We continued around the edge, having to walk in a bit to a clearing where we discovered someone had enjoyed a camp fire.

We followed the cliff edge all the way until we were looking towards Northern Illawarra, leaving Dad I walked into the bush hoping I might stumble upon the remains of the plane, keeping an eye open in case of snakes.

I continued walking though random scrub for about 10 minutes before deciding I'd just be wasting my time wandering aimlessly through the bush, and began heading back when I heard Dad calling out saying he'd found a path. I cut through the bush heading away from the cliff face when I came onto the track Dad was on.

We continued walking on this wondering out loud how long this path would go on for as Dad's backpack was still down the bottom. Dad said he believed it'd be a loop trail and probably link back down to where his bag was. Soon we opened up onto a big fire trail, we decided to head left on it to see if it did link back saying we could always run up the other way after we grabbed his pack.

Is it even a bushwalk without a termite mound?

Up ahead we saw signposts facing away from us. I got excited believing that they might be saying something about the plane crash or the walk. However as we reached them and turned around to look we felt our burst of excitement immediately deflate.

Feeling a bit awkward and uncomfortable we noticed a path to our left heading down with a big sign in front of it which was at the top of the walk had we taken the other path.

We were heading down this path for less than a minute before I spotted Dad's backpack. We quickly stopped for a drink and I ate my trail mix (goji berries, almonds, peanuts and cacao nibs) for a pick me up and we headed back down to explore the other path blocked by the tree lest we accidentally got ourselves a whopping fine.

Jumping over the tree, I turned on my phone for a quick google search of a location for this plane, really wishing to find one, for my sense of adventure and two as a lover of history. I soon found a video of people walking to it, a clear segment showing them walking down this path, however as the video was cut and from years ago I only new I was heading the right direction, the rest would really be up to luck. Heading down here there was an abundance of dendrocnide, the giant stinging tree that I reminded Dad about (as I have on other occasions).

To my right it looked like the land had slipped away or been cleared, whether this naturally occurred or was cleared by man I don't know. Soon we came upon again what looked like a path to our right heading down through some trees were you could follow the slope down to your left or right however while I was sussing it out Dad continued on forward and to the left which led into a little grassy area with a path leading around some trees to the right and heading forward in the direction of the original path, so I quickly followed him.

This path began heading downhill and for the first time I was glad I was wearing long pants as we walked through thick native raspberry bushes, orange thorn (Pittosporum multiflorum) and lantana.

Rubus rosifolius

Continuing down through the scrub we saw an abandoned Satin Bowerbird nest underneath all the Lantana.

We continued on searching the bush for over an our to no avail.

We followed a few different paths believing they might lead us there, however they were sprinkled with poo. Including some square poos that I can assumed were left from Wombats. Our thoughts were given further evidence when one track led us to a cabbage palm that looked like it had been an animals lunch.

We decided we needed a change of tactics and so we separated. Dad heading up the hill and myself down, figuring we would cover more ground.

So instead of heading further in I began heading downward, wandering around searching for any sight of this wreckage. After about half an hour I stumbled upon a bunch of wires wrapping around an area. My heart began to race as I got excited believing that it had been placed around it to stop it being damaged or stolen by people.

However I noticed there was nothing inside, then I saw something sitting in the base of the tree trunk, a tub of something.. An uncomfortable feeling hit me as I looked around I saw another tub sitting at my feet.

I looked around, uncomfortably aware that my Dad was lost somewhere else in the bush, I decided to hurriedly move along back towards the road.

Hot and thirsty I came to a my a dense part of the bush, and rather than return to the wires I tried my luck at walking up a very soft dirt hill with incredibly loose topsoil. For every two steps I slid down a step, exhausting myself as I also tried to keep from sliding all the way back down.

At one point the soil gave way I went fell belly first into a bunch on native raspberry, thorns digging into my skin. I pushed myself back up and started using my hands, digging them into the soil to help pull myself up. I finally made it to the top, exhausted with my legs cramping. Looking up I realised there was more slope with this loose soil. It wasn't as steep up it continued along an edge, almost losing balance I at one point had to grab a hold of some orange thorn, ripping up my skin. Finally I made it to the top, coming up the left side of that slope I had looked down before falling Dad through to the grassy area earlier. I called out to Dad and luckily he wasn't too far away. He made his way down through the lantana, covered in scratches and blood himself. I told him about what I found and we decided to have a quick look down the right side after noticing one of the trees on top of the slope I had climbed has a small pink ribbon around it.

We didn't search long after doing a time check we realised that we had spent almost 3 hours just wandering through the bush (not including our initial hike up Bong Bong Pass). Tired and exhausted and feeling a bit defeated that we had not found the ruins of the crashed World War 2 fighter plane we headed back to the car, vowing one day we'd find out where exactly it was so we could see it.


EDIT/ 31/10/2021
After our walk to Madden's Falls and Kelly's Falls, my friend Tristan informed me that a guy from his work named Scott had permission to enter the property where the Lockheed Hudson crash site was (turns out it's on private property). He asked if I wanted to come with as him and his brother were going on Halloween. It was the day after my Wedding Anniversary, and I was a bit worried about the Covid risk due to being immunocompromised from my cancer treatment, but seeing as I was going to a restaurant in Sydney to to see Hamilton at Lyric Theatre I decided that those were more of a risk and so told him I would go.

Tristan picked me up early in the morning and we met at Reed Park car park. A surprising amount of people actually showed up to go (we were expecting much less). We soon began the walk up with the big group and I was instantly out of breath having lost so much fitness during my treatment. I was adamant to continue and we soon turned off the path that Dad and I had gone off trail hunting for it in.

During the walk the leader, Scott, said when people shared about it on Facebook and such (or on a blog), to let people know it was private property and that if people wanted to go see it, to either get in touch with the owner of the property or wait for an organised thing with permission with someone like him. 

The track was no different than what Dad and I had travelled through, random bush, much of it with no clear path leading the way (if you didn't know what you were looking for, you would be very lucky to actually find it). While we walked Tristan asked if I would write a blog about it, with me saying I would just add an edit or amendment at the end of my previous Bong Bong Pass blog. "But you need to write more about me." He jested.

After navigating randomly through the bush, some of which I recalled from scrambling through randomly with Dad, we reached our first section of the remains of the plane.

As we continued down through the scrub we continued to see bits of the rubble.

Continuing down further we came to a section where two gunners and a navigator had died, and there they had a cross marking their names and positions. 

The leader Scott told the stories about them and we continued a further short way down to the final spot through a section of heavily fallen palm fronds.

Scott told a story about the night of the crash back on November 4, 1942. He mentioned a place in Dapto where one of the men's watch was available to view and that it had stopped at the exact time of the crash, however I was up the back (trying my best to avoid exposure and couldn't make out all of that was said). We then took off our hats and had a moment of silence for those who lost their lives.

As the group made their way back up the mountain, Tristan, myself and his brother made our way down to see the site, noticing the plaques put there on a tree and that the tree had fallen over.

We made our way back up, following the lead of the people in front, contend I had the privilege to go and see a part of history.

Arriving back at the car park Scott said he would send anyone more information who wanted it. Tristan asked him to send it to him, receiving a video about the history that you can view HERE and a document about the history that you can read HERE.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven








Extra tidbits! - The next day I decided to drive up to Camden with my Wife as I have wanted to visit for a few years now because my 4th Great Grandfather, James Sheather, moved there from England in 1839 to work on Camden Park Estate. And Sheathers Lane there had been named after him and his children.

We visited the lane before having a picnic at Macarthur Park, exploring the graveyard at St. John Church for his grave, and going to Camden Museum. We then drove out to Burragorang Lookout which was a beautiful sight.

Drawing Room Rocks

So Sunday the 2, September 2018 was Father's Day. So finding out how my Dad wanted to spend the day he told me he wanted me to take him to do the Drawing Room Rocks, in Berry, NSW, Australia.
Having done the walk before I warned him we would have to leave very early as this walk keeps exceptionally busy as it is a very easy short walk and highly popular with families and for "Instagram selfies".

So we left first thing in the morning turning as we got to Berry and following Woodhill Mountain Road, turning right at Brogers Creek Road and right again at a small road that looks like a driveway and parked right at the start of the walk, first people there. Which if you're not there is plenty of parking on the side along the road, or if you need to you can park down the bottom of this and just walk up, which might be easier as it is a tight squeeze and get's very packed, very quickly.

This Father's Day it was pretty wet weather so some of the photo's I'm using to show the walk are from when I went on 26, August 2017.

Our first sight was a beautiful Lyrebird on the farm to the left of the start of the walk, and the grass was glowing golden from the morning sun but the Lyrebird quickly ran before I could get a photo.
The walk begins uphill so first thing in the morning it gets your blood bumping. Along this incline the Lyrebird ran out in front of us again.

We noticed as we continued the walk up that there we holes among the ferns that we assumed were Lyrebird nests.

The route up isn't hard to find but there are some spots where you need steady footing getting up the rocks. This isn't a long walk, and it's even shorter if you're a fast walker but it is nice to stop and look back as you progress up the slope and admire your surroundings.

About three quarters of the way up there's a small path you your right you can walk up to and there is a small lookout with a little cave nearby.

After this you walk through a small path with uneven ground with lumped with tree roots. Within 5 minutes you're up at the famed Drawing Room Rocks.

It's a beautiful spot and I was lucky to be able to show it to my Dad before hordes of people appeared. After exploring around and appreciating the scenery, even pointing out Pigeon House Mountain in the distance, we walked off track exploring randomly into the bush climbing down some rocks to find a little overhang where people had either camped or at least had a fire before.

From down here we heard the first two groups of people arrive, as we climbed back up we headed back walking past at least 30 groups of people (which was unexpected in the semi-wet weather). By the time we got down to the car to head off the road was completely full all the way down to Brogers Creek Road. It's a short walk with some beautiful sights recommended to see them or get your photo at least once and if you're coming from far away and it doesn't seem worth it for such a short walk you can always make a day of it, when I first did it with my fiancée we went into Berry to the Berry Tea Shop whilst I took my Dad to Kiama to Kiama Pie Shop for a Crocodile and Asparagus Pie and a Pepper, Kangaroo and Mushroom Pie.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Monolith Valley

So the year has flown by and I haven't done anywhere near as much travel or adventures as I would have liked, but many things have been going on in my life. As I mentioned in my last blog post I took part in the Refugee Challenge by 'Act for Peace' which really took its toll on me. I lost four kilograms in a week and took part while still going to work, worse than the weight lose I really felt a drop in my mental state which I'm just starting to feel better from (although the warm weather could be helping too).

So feeling like getting back into it I called my Dad to organise our next adventure, Monolith Valley, a walk we wanted to do after our hike of 'The Castle' in which we wanted to take the alternate turn off to Monolith Valley. We organised a date and set off down the coast.

So we headed inwards from Milton along the dirt roads, out past Pigeon House Mountain, through Yadboro Flat where the cows were wandering around the campsite freely, and on to Long Gully where we set up camp.

Dad getting the tent ready

While setting up camp we were visited by a very friendly bird who didn't mind coming right up close to us watching what we were doing.

We soon began our camping ritual... which involved drinking. So we quenched our thirst with two pints of beer each, before cracking open our Berry bottle of Little Fat Lamb.

We began to hear a large buzzing sound while we were drinking. Wondering what it was Dad suggested a large group of bees, while I suggested someone up in The Castle/Monolith Valley car park flying a drone. We decided to walk over and investigate, which is when we met a physio from Gerringong. He was waiting on two mates from Canberra to rock up so we could hike up to the Castle that night. My Dad couldn't believe they were planning to do it when it was so close to dusk. I noticed he'd put up a slackline, to which we was super enthusiastic telling Dad and I to have a go. My Dad didn't know what it was and I had to explain it to him, having done it quite often in 2017 when I was really into my fitness and going to Dynamite Bouldering Gym in Wollongong. Dad instantly struggled, and I found it difficult too being out of practice. I tried again determined to walk it but ended up flying off and hitting the dirt with a loud thud, a cloud of dust and rolled along the ground in a fit of laughter why they both checked that I was ok.
"Probably not the best thing to be trying after drinking" I said, brushing the dirt off.
Soon his mates from Canberra arrived and we let them get ready and head on their own adventure while we returned to our campsite. My Dad still going on about he couldn't believe anyone would go at night as it's so easy to lose the path as it is.

Soon the sun set, and we lit our fire as we cracked open another pint and began cooking dinner.

That night we were again visited by my friend the Possum who visited us the last two times we were there.

We drank into the night until it was time for bed, where unlike last time  there was no howling gale of wind keeping me up, only Dad's snoring keeping me awake all night.

Morning came and we packed our camping gear away and set off.

The start of the walk wasn't as hard as I had anticipated as it'd been over 4 months since I had done any exercise (besides working a physical job), while last time we went I had been jogging, doing push ups, sit ups, chin ups, bike riding and swimming. However as we started going uphill I got hot very fast and as it was freezing I had worn my jumper which I soon took off.

We saw more wildlife this time, passing 3 Lyrebirds (all of which ran off too fast for a picture) and saw at least two Wallabies.

Working in Bush Regeneration currently I kept looking at plants I didn't know or found interesting along the way as I had done this walk before twice now so I found myself taking in new things I hadn't noticed my previous times here.

We soon reached the base of the Castle after about an hour of walking up hill where the trail becomes smaller, and involves much more scrambling.

Walking up to the base

Looking over the Bush from the Base

We continued the walk which is mostly detailed in my Castle post, which you can read here to stop me having to rehash it all.

However we not too long after the base ran into the 3 guys from the night before who'd camped on top coming down. They said they'd had a good time and got there fine and had a great view of the eclipse that had occurred early that morning (which we had missed). We said our farewells and continued hiking the trail until we reached the branch in our destination.

Excited to finally reach a new area of the walk, we took a left turn this time and headed off through the slightly overgrown path towards Monolith Valley, continuing the arduous uphill walk.

It wasn't too long a walk before we reached our first sign post.

Deciding to extend our walk we decided we'd better head downhill to Coyoyo Creek even though we knew it was going to be additional effort walking back uphill.

Boulder to the right of the sign post

We the walk down started to flatten out we noticed a toilet block, looking pretty newly constructed which we were shocked to see and we stopped for a little to have a quick snack before exploring around Coyoyo Creek which seemed like it was a point for people doing various hikes in the area to camp around.

Continuing past the spot featured above the area opens up on a cliff face over looking the whole valley on the other side of the Castle.

Coyoyo Creek Lookout, Pigeon House on the right in background

Jumper back on after stopping, instantly freezing

We continued to explore around, finding a trail leading down to what I suppose was meant to be 'Coyoyo Creek'

Guess some people would rather sleep under a rock

Standing in the dried up Creek

We soon headed back up where we both instantly started having horrendous leg cramps, realising that we truly were both a bit out of shape (I have no excuse, my Dad however was 64, 65 in exactly a weeks time).

On the way up I couldn't help snap this photo of a tree with markings that resembled a face!

I am Groot?

We reached the signpost, sore and tired but pressed onwards to Monolith Valley.

We continued our way around, soon walking past a group of 3 who'd gotten lost and taken the wrong path. They reached this area:

and instead of going across they followed that path right, leading around in a circle, whilst Dad and I investigated both paths to take before noticing a stack of rocks (known by some as Cairns) that denote the way.

We soon spotted a sign in the distance walking up close we saw that Monolith Valley was close by.

We continued up past the sign climbing up a bit (that really strained my muscles by this time of the hike). On top the path continued on again, for what probably wasn't a huge amount of time, but felt like it to my legs.

We soon bumped into 3 older males and began talking as they had camped at Long Gully with us (the only other people there) and had left very early in the morning so had done the Castle (The same day) before heading to Monolith Valley and also passed the 3 guys we'd met from the night before.

We then climbed up a little section.

Which again was nothing compared to the climbing to get up the Castle, and sure felt better than climbing frayed rope in a howling gale. After this point you are pretty much at the top, and you can see the fantastic rock formations all the way to a clearing.

We stopped and enjoyed our last bits of food, while Dad didn't want to go any further I said I wanted to investigate and see if any more came after this and there was really no clear indication that this was 'Monolith Valley' so after eating I ran off, quickly down a path just to suss out if it was worth continuing ahead as we said we wanted to head back no later than 2pm and it was already 1:10pm.

Soon it was clear that from that point on it was truly the road less traveled.

I ran down the path through the bush pushing onwards to see what was ahead, past some caves before coming to a clearing again with yet another knocked over sign, unsure of which way was which.

I just continued on past this sign running for another 5 minutes before I decided the whole area was probably Monolith Valley, and these extra walks were to other mountains to climb, such as Mt Owen, Mt Cole, Shrouded Gods, Seven Gods Pinnacle and 'Natural Arch'. Knowing we didn't have the time, or equipment I ran back to bump into the 3 people we had previously encountered lost and my Dad, coming down the trial.

"Good luck." I said before explaining that it just leads to other mountains. They decided to walk down a bit further themselves before shortly coming back and heading home while Dad and I rested at the clearing still admiring the rock formations.

We too soon headed home, overtaking them we relentlessly walked, legs and feet killing we didn't stop or slow until we had reached Dads van to head home.

The walk was great, beautiful. But left me frustrated as my spirit of adventure leaves me determined to one day make it to the top of all those other mountains. But I guess it's better to be determined rather than apathetic. I have also been inspired lately to get back into film. Which was an old passion of mine that I had abandoned more than 6 years ago, so I'm trying to convince friends to get into doing that again. In the mean time however I'll try and be a bit more active, get back out into nature and have some adventures.

If you have enjoyed this post, or my blog in general, please follow it, or like my page on facebook or follow me on Instagram.

Thanks for reading! - Steven