Yarramalong to Somersby on the Great North Walk

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Yarramalong to Somersby on the Great North Walk

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Difficulty: Moderate
Length: 20.5 miles / 33.0 km
Duration: Multiple days

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Overview: YARRAMALONG TO SOMERSBY STORE (2 days)
Download EZ Guide to Great North Walk and downloadable e-trails http://tiny.cc/EZguideGNW

Part 1: BEAVENS POINT ROAD TO BUMBLE HILL TOP: 10.0 km (moderate to easy)
From Beavens Point Road follow Cedar Brush Road past studs and riding stables. Arriving at the village of Yarramalong note the beautiful St Barnabas Church on the left and turn right at the Yarramalong Store. Trail runs alongside the road up Bumble Hill and then follows a powerlines service trail to Greta Road.

Part 2: BUMBLE HILL TOP TO SOMERSBY: 22.6 km (moderate)
From Greta Road onto Cherry Lane and then follow trail to Tooheys Road. After the archery site trail runs south along Milligan’s Ridge to the Stringy Bark Point campsite. Follow Ourimbah Creek to Ourimbah Creek Road turning off to right near Palm Grove. Join Kilkenny Road and follow this to Somersby Store.

Full details about the Great North Walk can be found at http://www.thegreatnorthwalk.com
We also recommend accessing e-trails and guides at Great North Walk books - http://tiny.cc/Buy2GNWbooks

Tips: Safety, Food & Water
Yarramalong Store and Somersby Store are adequate general stores but there is nothing in between. Carry adequate water in the summertime. Take care to check on bushfires and (early in season) on back-burning.

Visits
Ourimbah Rainforest Reserve and Yarramalong macadamia Nut Farm are both worth a visit.

Accommodation
There are several places to stay in the Yarramalong Valley including, in Yarramalong itself, Yarramalong Manor, offering B&B (6 rooms all with ensuites) and also other meals.
There is also accommodation on the GNW route itself at the Bumble Hill Retreat, a property with 7 bedrooms, four with ensuites plus a one bedroomed studio with ensuite. This 26 acre bushland property has a minimum stay of 2 nights and is for adults over 25 yrs only. A little offtrack (about 3 km) in the Yarramalong area is the Forest Park Country Retreat with two bedrooms, one with ensuite. Breakfast on the first morning plus hens providing daily fresh eggs to collect.

Points of Interest

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Horse Studs

The walk begins at Cedar Brush Trackhead which is at the intersection of Beavens Point Road (a track) and Cedar Brush Road (4WD). Walk southwards along Cedar Brush Road noticing the many stables and horse-riding schools. There are also some beautiful homes built of the wood for which this region became famous- red cedar.

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St Barnabas Church

St Barnabas’ Church, Yarramalong: the oldest remaining church in Wyong Shire is tended by volunteers. Located on Ravensdale Road, Yarramalong on the Great North Walk less than 1 km north out of the centre of Yarramalong. The building is virtually original and is still used for monthly ecumenical Sunday worship and by arrangement for weddings, baptisms and other services.

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Pioneer Graves

Visit the pioneer churchyard (round the back) to view the grave of William Bevan and other early settlers.

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Yarramalong Store

This general store does a busy trade at weekends. Look-out for the rather hidden Great North Walk Register - if you don't see it when you enter the store be sure to ask.
Yarraamalong hosts a community scarecrow competition each year. If you visit at this time you will see fantastic straw persons outside almost every home, farm and building.

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Bumble Hill

the opening up of the Yarramalong area for cedar and we had talked a bit about shifting those massive tree trunks. Bullock drays were heavy, two-wheeled carts, roughly 3 m long and with hitching poles of a similar length for a team of 8 to 12 bullocks. There was often no brake so that when descending a steep hill, a large log would be dragged along behind the dray. Bumble Hill Dray Track was constructed in the mid-19th century to cart cedar from local logging enterprises to Mangrove Creek and then floating the logs to the Hawkesbury River and on to Sydney.

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Highway Men (now and then)

This highwayman mailbox won't hold anyone up. Forest Road is a good place to leave/join a vehicle as you can take a short-cut down Tooheys Road. In the summer there is a danger of bush-fires -- check weather forecasts before you set out.

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Flat Rocks along Trail

There are many places where you need to exercise caution when crossing creeks and rivers. After heavy rain these can be flooded and at any time the stones are often very slippery

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Stringy Bark Point

After following the Ourimbah Creek for a while we find and cross over a bridge to the south of which lies the Stringy Bark Point campsite. This provides room for a small campfire and a few tents with water available from the creek running alongside the campsite, which naturally needs to be treated before drinking.

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Ourimbah Creek Track & Bellbirds

You will almost certainly hear the 'ping' of Bellbirds as you hike beside Ourimbah Creek. The crested, official, bellbird (Oreoica gutturalis) is a member of the shrike-thrush family. What most Aussies call a ‘bellbird’, however, is the bell miner (Manorina melanophrys), a member of the honeyeater family. This is a territorial and colony-living bird, up to 300 in a group. It lives in south-eastern Australia (only) usually in sclerophyll forests in gullies. The birds, hard to see, are fairly small (less than 20 cm), are olive green to grey with small darker patches around the bill. The nest is an insubstantial bowl of twigs, grass and bark and can have decorations such as lichen or the egg-sacs of local spiders.

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Palm Grove Nature Reserve

The bottom of many of the steep slopes reveals moist gullies with a profusion of palms. Look out for a spectacular fig tree with huge buttress roots. The track heads up and down short hills in zigzags passing another Great North Walk register.

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GNW Sign Post

The whole of this part of the Great North Walk lies in the Ourimbah Creek valley. A must-see visit is to Fireflies at Ourimbah Rainforest and Wildlife Sanctuary: a unique festival at dusk in November and December each year. About 4 km along Ourimbah Creek Road from the F3 Freeway and about 4 km before its intersection with the Great North Walk.