Wongara Hill to Mt Banks via Oronga Canyon
The group: Peter (leader), Geoff, Kate, Graeme, Steve, Karin, Don, Sandra, John, Margaret and Roger.
The distance between Wongara Hill and Mt Banks car park is less than two kilometres and, if you looked at the Mt Wilson topo map, you could be forgiven for thinking it would be an easy walk. It isn't—you have to cross Oronga Canyon. We weren't just going to cross Oronga Canyon; we were heading to the exit portal, a unique rock platform jutting into the Grose Valley where Oronga Creek splits into two streams before dropping over the cliff.
Our route took us from Bells Line of Road across Wongara Hill to the Grose Valley for the first of many spectacular views on the walk. From there we headed east into Oronga Gully.
Close to the Grose Valley, Oronga Gully is lined with cliffs. The bush is extremely thick, with healthy colonies of sword grass to make things interesting.
Several members of our group had previously tried to negotiate the cliffs. The route we followed had taken me three exploratory walks to put together.
After negotiating the upper cliff line, we stopped for a short morning tea break on a large rock outcrop before entering a slot that took us through the middle cliff line. After a short traverse towards the Grose Valley, we scrambled down an unlikely-looking ramp that provided access to the creek bed about 20 metres upstream from the valley. A few minutes later we were all standing on the rock platform, seeing the Grose Valley from a very unusual location. The platform was large enough for the whole group. The wind was howling, so we didn't stay as long as we might have.
We climbed back up the ramp and traversed north along the western side of Oronga Canyon just below the cliffs for about 300 metres through quite thick bush to the junction where the eastern and western branches meet. We then followed the eastern branch for about 150 metres before climbing a slot on the eastern side onto Oronga Ridge.
Lunch was taken on the pagodas at the top of the slot, with views up and down the canyon.
Looking at the topo map, you can see that Oronga Ridge divides into five different spurs that run down towards the Grose Valley. After lunch we followed the cliff line, visiting each of those spurs in turn. From the first we could clearly see the rock platform in Oronga Canyon that we had visited earlier.
We took our afternoon tea break on an open section of the spur closest to Mt Banks. The views of Banks Wall, the Grose Valley and the southern side of the valley were superb.
Eventually it was time to head home. A short, sharp climb brought us back to the car park.
We walked just over six kilometres to complete what is less than a two-kilometre distance. Unusually, the walk was mostly downhill.