Weekend Warrior Series: Bungonia

The recipe for the perfect weekend: Take one group of mates, pack up a car with camping stuff, fill an esky with some cold ones and throw in an epic slot canyon for good measure.

Travel Time: 2 hour drive from Sydney

Highlights: Bungonia Slot Canyon,

Distance Covered: 360km round trip from Sydney to Bungonia Campground. Bungonia Slot Canyon track 3.8km.

If you have more time: Explore all the surrounding caves and climbing routes Bungonia has to offer.

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Turns out Sydney-siders love to plan ahead. Trying to get a campsite over a long weekend is a nightmare, so it was completely by chance (i.e. everything else was booked out) that we ended up spending 3 days in Bungonia National Park. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as this lesser known national park is an absolute gem and home to an epic hike through a slot canyon.

You know it’s going to be a good hike when National Parks estimate it will take you 5 hours to complete only 3.8km. Do not underestimate this hike, it’s seriously amazing but seriously tough. There are huge ascents and descents and once in the canyon there are no track markers. There is also a danger of rock fall associated with the quarry blasting above. This is usually at 3.10pm on weekdays and there are warning sirens which precede the blasting so stay aware.

We started at the William Mitchell car park and headed anti-clockwise around the track. This is the reverse of what is recommended by the National Parks map but if, like me, you have dodgy knees, you will thank me later as the “correct” way round has an incredibly steep descent. This is not to say the other way isn’t steep – there will still be jelly legs by the bottom. We followed the shale trail safely down to the canyon creek with only one minor tumble by yours truly before starting to rock hop along the creek bed. Bungonia is home to amazing giant Goannas and we were lucky enough to see two when we stopped for a water break. One of them actually came down to the creek for a drink before being chased by its fellow Goanna and forced to swim to the other side. Talk about David Attenborough moment. Following the creek we eventually reached huge limestone boulders and from this point on it was definitely make your own adventure. There was a lot of trial and error required to navigate through, up, over and under the boulders as well as a few bruised knees. About an hour later we managed to get through the boulders and on to the rest of the gorge floor. This is the prime rockfall area, both from the quarry above but also from climbers on the popular climbing route. The gorge continues winding up the valley, gradually getting wider. Watch out for the exit, it’s not very well marked – if you get to the big knocked over tree trunk and mini cave you’ve gone too far.

This is where the pain starts. The next 45mins were a vertical climb, hands over feet, grabbing onto whatever we could. It was very dry when we were there and the loose dirt did not help with grip. Although the track is infrequently marked here we managed to lose the trail and ended up scrambling vertically up the cliff face before finally rejoining the path nearly at the top before it meandered its way back to the car park. We headed to the nearby Lookdown Lookout which is amazing in helping to appreciate just how far you’ve climbed. This is probably my favourite hike I’ve done to date in NSW. It’s been a while since I’ve had to use both brains and brawn when out walking. And the landscape was seriously impressive, it reminded me of Yosemite in the US, definitely not your typical Australian scene.

Back in the campground however, it was definitely a typical Australia scene. Driving back to our site, we nearly got hit by a mob of Kangaroos, promptly followed by a wombat.

Bungonia campground is very well equipped – hot showers, flushing toilets and even a camp kitchen with gas hobs. There are also several electric barbeques for public use. No fuel burning fires are allowed within the park.

If the canyon hike sounds too much like hard work, there are numerous other hiking trails within the park, all starting from the campground which have easier gradings, although definitely less dramatic views. Bungonia is also home to a huge network of caves which can be explored for hours. Just remember to take a spare torch.