Baroon to Kondalilla

16 February 2006

Nine of us met at Baroon Pocket Dam on the outskirts of Montville. Here we needed to do a short car shuttle, leaving a car at Kondalilla Falls where the walk would end.

This walk is the first section of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk. There are three sections that this Great Walk covers, the Baroon section, the Mapleton Falls section and the Delicia section

Today there were two people doing their first ever walk with the Club and we had a general introduction and a look at the map so that all would know what to expect.

After only a few hundred metres, we turned off the main track and headed down a side track to Obi Obi Creek. Here we could see the dam wall upstream and the rugged gorge downstream. Joining the main track we turned off on a side track again to see the Narrows, a section of Obi Obi Creek which passes between two near vertical walls.

The walk goes through rainforest, open sclerophyll forest and some areas that had been overgrown with lantana. The lantana however had been poisoned and cleared along the main track but not completely eradicated further away from the track.

Our lunch spot was to have been at the junction of Obi Obi and Skene Creek but unfortunately it is now fenced off. So we continued on for about 20 minutes more up Skene Creek and had lunch on some rocks in the middle of the creek amid beautiful rainforest.

Here some of us took time to have a swim in a small rock pool and have a back massage by sitting under a small water cascade. The water was not cold and Skene Creek with its rock pool looked more inviting than Obi Obi which was slower flowing and had water weeds growing in it.

After lunch the track went uphill to Kondalilla Falls. Here parts of the track were closed for repairs. There was another rock pool here but no one seemed inclined to go in for another swim.

Finally back at the car, the drivers left to pick up the other two cars at Baroon Pocket Dam. The car shuttle took only a few minutes.

We had an enjoyable afternoon tea at one of Montville's bakeries.

Many thanks to all that came along. Richard