Wondabyne -Pindar Cave

Our walk began after we left the train at Wondabyne (the one station between Hawkesbury River and Woy Woy) - some of the group had not been there before and were quite amazed to see the tiny station - less than one carriage length.

The track from the station took us onto the Great North Walk . The steep climb ( approx. 100m in length ) only takes a short while, fortunately, and then we followed the main track, which at that point, is a fire trail.

After approximately a kilometre, we took the unmarked turn onto the Pindar Cave path. There is a large rocky outcrop at that point. We stopped for morning tea , and then walked about 500m on another fire trail, before reaching the bush path. This was very pleasant walking - mostly on sandy tracks. Di’s photo shows a view of the Hawkesbury River taken from the high point of the ridge. (It was quite a dull day - ideal for walking.)

The highlight of the trip was seeing the wildflowers. Those of us who had previously been on the walk felt that we had not ever seen a better display in this area. The flowers were beautiful - prolific and colourful. It was hard to choose a couple of favourites to “post” on this site ( those shown are native iris - Patersonia servica and native rose - Boronia serrulata. )

The bird watchers heard many calls and without stopping to study them carefully, were able to identify some However, the flowers were the main attraction of the day.

We passed a very pleasant waterhole - in the summertime this would be very appealing to those who would enjoy a quick dip.

We reached the Pindar Cave for our lunch break.

This is a very impressive sandstone overhang - capable of sheltering perhaps 50 people.

We were the only visitors on this day, but fireplaces could be seen, confirming that the site is used for camping.

Legend has it that the cave is named after two German brothers who had worked an ochre mine nearby. However, research couldn’t verify that story.

Our return trip followed the same track - the flowers again “distracting” us from even thinking of any physical effort on our part. There were a few boulders which required a bit of a scramble but they were quite easily managed.

Descending to the station was SO much easier then our climb in the morning.

A pleasant train trip home rounded out a lovely day. The rain had held off - just a few spots in the morning. We were extremely lucky in this respect, because most of the Sydney area had some heavy showers later in the day - around our dinner time.