Sand River Gorge 2020

Today Sally is taking us on a short but beautiful walk in the Sand River Gorge outside of Buckland.

It's roughly 1.5hrs travel from Kingston and we join up near the road house in Buckland before heading to the walk. We have been in this area before when we walked the Bluff River Gorge.

Arriving at the unmarked turnoff we head along a sandy road. There is one hill where a 4WD would be preferable, but a normal car could make it but may require several tries. After the hill it's a short drive to the parking area which has room for several cars.

About to set off

The track in

The area is quite sandy and obviously been logged in the past.

Heading down

Chris gives Peter the finger. Sorry...

...SHOWS Peter his finger complete with tiny beetle

We turn off at a rock cairn and head under a cliff for our Morning Tea.

If you look carefully you can see the rings set by climbers as this is a popular climbing area

Heading for Morning Tea

Being mainly sandstone the erosion effects are quite apparent.

After our break, we make our way back to the main track to head down.

 

 

 

 

The track is gravelly and slippery so you have to pay attention to where you step.

I didn't. However, at least I can say that my trip from vertical to floundering on my back was graceful and did no harm. In fact, it kept others amused.

This whole area has been logged in the past and most of the trees are young growth. We reach the bottom of the gorge and make our way across a nearly dry Sand River.

Crossing the Sand River

Up the other side

Eventually we reach the cliffs above the gorge on that side of the river.

I'm not sure what this signal means

Across the valley

There was a car in the parking area when we arrived so we expected climbers and we found them here. A couple of girls refining their technique. There are many rings set on this side of the gorge also.

There's a track along the base

It's not all flat, however

Soon we settle down for lunch on the rocks.

Lunch

During lunch we were entertained with a saga from Wales

Lunch finished, we start on our way back. 

Before we left, Bob spotted this high-rise toilet

Going down

Back across the Sand River...

...and up the other side

This was only a short walk and you can do a loop to make it longer. We decided not to today.

We had about 11 walkers and covered 2.75km in 2:47hrs.

Having had some problems lately, this was an experiment for me and that's why I wasn't keen on walking the loop as described by our friendly climbers

Next time.