Dobson's cave Buxton.

This walk was how I spent my Sunday off. 

I will begin with; I have been feeling the cold for the first time in my life. The Australian winter, as mild as it is has been seeping into my bones and I have struggled to get warm. Exercise will warm me up!! Right?? Hmm no. 

Since H has been in my life, I get more activity so we tend to spend our rare days off walking around our local area. Cold or not we are out there. 

There is so much damage you can still see from the floods a few weeks back. 

Buxton is the town with a lot to offer walkers, from steep, but short climbs to old, forgotten weirs to newly formed swimming holes (That we found a few weeks ago) 

Dobson's Cave walk is a short 4km. Almost 4km, The floods had happened the week before, and we thought we would look at the caves that were discovered by a local stonemason in 1917. You can use google earth and find it here 34°14'42"S 150°30'22" E 

The overhang for the cave had been occupied by a hermit in the 1990s. (Go figure) It gets icy in Buxton at night. 

The track starts at a closed gate. This threw me off when I came here the first time, not wanting to enter private property but it's a dual gate for a property and access to the crown land that the power pylons sit on. Cool. Walk around (Through or over) the gate and turn left to the next gate which is the crown land access.

Again clamber over or under or through this gate and walk to the pylons. 

The route you have to take is marked clearly, but to be honest, it's easy enough just to walk from Pylon one to Pylon two. Easy. Once at pylon two look for another mark and a tag in a tree. 

On the way back I also found an arrow on a rock. 

From here you have to follow the tree tags. 

An example of tree tags.

We were using the Book written by the wonderful long bushwalker, Robert Sloss (Who is 90years old and out walks all of us)  I have scanned the page. His maps take some getting used to, but if ANYone says that they are too old to learn technology, I can tell you, that Robert works on his maps with quite sophisticated programs. He manipulates the original topographical map, adds his own route that he records via his GPS that is carried with him, then, after all this, produces the books (He has 12 of them - All great)

When we found Dobson's cave, we could not even get near it as the valley was completely flooded. The resulting pool was amazingly beautiful. 

Clambering down to the pool, was a scramble as the weather had uprooted trees and rocks were loose, but Heath was in the path of a Black Rock Wallaby that was being chased by the hound. (NO hope of the dog catching a Wallaby)  At the last second, the Wallaby veered to the left in the knick of time. It was a blur of movement, a black streak then a cream streak. I found this hilarious, Heath less so as he recovered from a heart attack :)

SO,  we never got to the cave but found something even more wonderful.

another tag, this one was a furphy

Next up - The LONG walk.